You might want to skip this one if you’re looking for the typical lighthearted RFTM fare, or you could play whirl-a-post.  I get it, sometimes you just want a fun read, so if that’s the case just go down the right hand side of your screen and click a tag or visit the Greatest Hits page.  But don’t expect me to bring the snark today.

The KKK sucked it right out of me.

This is the only photo I have that begins to convey my state of mind.

We’ve handled our fair share of racial issues over the last few years, trying to help the kids navigate a world that has, at times, kicked them in the teeth.  I watch them stand strong, again and again, as I tell them they’re beautiful and smart and deserving of love.  I’ve felt anger and sorrow, weariness and pain.  Seeing them hurt makes me ache.

But Tuesday night was something new.  Tuesday brought white hot rage and electrifying fear, bundled up with a healthy dose of what the fuck is wrong with people?!

We were all sitting around the dinner table (yes, I actually made dinner) eating over-salted chicken (oops) and catching up on our day when T-man said there was a kid being racist at school.  He said it so matter of factly, like it was just another thing (which is how it probably feels), so I even had him hang on while I finished talking with BrightSide.  That’s when T-man dropped a real bombshell.

T-man told us the kid had made up a song and was singing it in the boys’ bathroom.  I asked if he could repeat it, and my mouth dropped open as T-man began: “I am the great ol’ wizard man, born to lead the Klu Klux Klan…”

I won’t repeat the rest of this filth.  By the time I’d listened to his matter of fact recitation of beating ni**ers with baseball bats I’d stopped breathing and my vision was a bit hazy.  It was the roar of that white rage descending as my brain tried to process what that punk was singing in school.  Around my kid.  About KKK violence.

Jesus up above, what on earth has this world come to.

Who are these people?  Who hangs white robes and stashes white hoods in their closets?  Who sings this crap around their kids or, worse, teaches it to them as part of their “heritage”?  Who still thinks it’s okay to beat people for their color?!

I like to think I ring in with more than your average tolerance, which means I fall under the “those freaking PC idiots” category for a lot of folks around here.  But I’ll tell you what I have precisely zero tolerance for: this KKK bullshit.  And I’ve lost all desire to be PC about it.

Don’t tell me this is white pride or family heritage or something I can’t understand because I’m “not from these parts.”  These songs are written for ignorant people who cannot stand a world in which they’re no longer called master.  They breed hate and intolerance and a fear of anything different from what’s in their own backyard.  Don’t tell me America is a white country built on white Christian principles.  America was built on land the Native Americans honored and through the back breaking labor of black men, women, and children.  It belongs to all of us, although some had to give more just to survive.

But I’m not a “let’s wipe out all the racists” sort of girl.  I’m a realist.  A problem solver.  Even a peacemaker, if you will.

So here’s what I’d like to suggest.  Do you feel white pride is misunderstood?  That white culture is threatened by the acceptance of other cultures and colors?  That your power stems from being a superior race?  Then by all means, find someplace where you can build a community that supports those values.  I’m sure there’s some land in the middle of the country where like-minded white folks can live in peace and harmony, safe from the offense of blacks in your schools and hispanics in your neighborhoods.  Hell, the polygamists lived there for years.  You can sing your “special” songs to your heart’s content, with no pesky administrators telling your children it’s unacceptable in a school setting.

I bet you can probably even find folks to help you pack.