Keeping quiet is coward’s way out

A few months ago one of my neighbors mentioned that the Ku Klux Klan had done a lot of good “back in the day.” I wasn’t sure how to respond. So I took the coward’s way out and just stood there, dumb as a post, glad when he quickly moved on to another subject. But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. The KKK had done a lot of good? Back in the day no less? I’m not sure I’d ever heard anything that ignorant in my entire life. Or not until I was reminded that the former mayor of Philadelphia, Miss., had voiced a similar opinion a few years ago.

Was it good to burn people out of their homes, as some members of the KKK did, just because those people happened to be black? And what about lynching black men for looking at white women “in the wrong way”? Or the cross-burnings high atop DeKalb County’s Stone Mountain? And then there were the KKK-orchestrated murders of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. The year was 1964; the place, Philadelphia, Miss.

And yet I had stood there and said nothing when my neighbor praised the Ku Klux Klan.

Weeks went by and I couldn’t forget that comment. But worse than that, I couldn’t understand why I had failed to respond. It was like looking in the mirror and seeing an unfamiliar face. But not quite. Because if I’m going to be completely honest here, that wasn’t the first time I’d taken the coward’s way out. It had happened before, more times than I cared to remember or was willing to admit. That’s what was really bothering me. Maybe you’ve done the same thing more times than you care to remember.

There’s no question that we’ve come a long way since 1964. The voters in Philadelphia, Miss., elected a black man as mayor back in 2005. And of course, Barack Obama is now president. But it would be foolish to think that racial prejudice and its ugly cousins, hatred and bigotry, were forever laid to rest last November. They’re still out there. And if people like me remain silent when an organization like the Klan is lauded for all the supposed good it once did, racial hatred and bigotry will always be out there.

My silence and yours, if you’re guilty and will admit it, can only help prolong this country’s continued inability to address the issue of race. If you helped elect Obama as I did, you can feel some pride in being at least colorblind enough to do that. But if you still stand by and say nothing when a friend or neighbor uses a racial slur — and no, it isn’t only white folks who use them — or praises an organization like the Ku Klux Klan, then you’ve still got some work to do.

Silence is golden, but only when we need to get some sleep. Now’s the time to wake up.