Why A Reality Show About The Ku Klux Klan Isn't A Bad Idea

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Me and the misses can’t wait to check out this new KKK show.

Social media users dragged A&E Monday for “normalizing” hatred in the network’s new reality show Generation KKK after a teaser debuted online. But America’s cycle of willful ignorance won’t stop swinging between conservative and liberal oppression until every bubble is burst. Even the ones we’re afraid to watch pop.

Since Donald Trump‘s election, many liberal and marginalized minority groups have been searching for an escape. But the futile recount attempts and “not my president” protests need to be the last stage of denial. Every American has to face the coming wave of ignorance, conflict and evolving hegemony of White Supremacy Trump’s rise represents. We can all see that White Supremacy is on its last gasp.

But shows like Generation KKK are proof that it’s going out fighting like Kobe. And ignoring or complaining about it are no longer viable options. So if you must, consider Generation KKK game tape for beginners in the coming culture war. If you’re already informed on the topic, keep it moving. But don’t discourage younger eyes and ears from exploring the world around them because of your own fear.

We should all be hoping that this show leads to millions of deeper digs on YouTube and Google about America’s racist past and present. And more discussion in college, high school and elementary classrooms about all social injustice.

Trump’s win gave America’s worst bigots the permission to bust out of the “conservative” and “alt-right” bubbles they’ve been hiding from Barack Obama and Modern Family for the past eight years. But liberals, who’ve spent the same time curating the aesthetics of their care-free identity bubbles, will only keep this pendulum swinging by remaining isolated and misinformed about the real America. Both bubbles are composed of fear and willful ignorance. And they won’t pop themselves.

“For the first time in 40 years, membership in the Klan is rising.”

In the first scene of the Generation KKK excerpt, the 14-year-old daughter of Steven Howard, the KKK’s youngest imperial grand wizard, laughs to keep from crying in front of A&E’s cameras. She said her father’s membership in the Klan “made me feel good when I was little, but it makes me feel weird now.” We learn later in the trailer that her best friends are Black. Meanwhile, her delusional dad wants her to become the first female grand wizard.

“I’m not like my daddy at all. I got Black friends. And they are like my best friends… If my daddy found out he would kill ’em. I just keep my mouth shut and don’t say nothing.” – Generation KKK

While lecturing his Junior Klan members, Howard says the things the kids have heard about the Klan, terms like “bad” and “hate,” are inaccurate.

“There has been things done in the past, but nowadays it’s protecting your race and protecting your people.” – Steven Howard

He makes his mission sound quite righteous. In fact, last night, while breaking my writer’s block with old Muhammad Ali interviews (some of the best content on the Internet), I heard Ali repeat the same message Howard was.

“I only care for the freedom and the unity of my people” – Muhammad Ali

Sitting next to a clearly stoned Sly Stone, Ali showed what real identity politics are all about.

While “All Lives Matter” Sly tries to calm him, Ali eviscerates the logic of a White congressmen who challenges his pro-Black stance. When Sly and the politician try to silence him by pointing out his own privileges, a trick many have tried on Colin Kaepernick, Ali immediately denounces his luxuries and proclaims that he is fighting for the Black men watching on TV who will never know his glamorous life. That level of consciousness can’t exist in a bubble.

Generation KKK will cover members who want to leave the Klan and activists who are actively resisting and fighting them. And the chilling music and somber tone show that there is nothing glamorous or normal about its subjects.

One of the show’s stars is Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the “One People’s Project,” a group that monitors the KKK and protects their victims. “We were founded in 2000 to go after racist individuals,” says Jenkins in the clip.

“American culture is such that it is trying to draw itself away from the hatred and bigotry that personifies its past… You are talking about people who are trying to hold on to a past that everyone is rejecting now. We’ve got to respond in the most adverse way to make them realize that we are not going back to that anymore. We are a different people.” – Daryle Lamont Jenkins of the “One People’s Project”

Reporting is not the same as romanticizing. And most critiques of Generation KKK seem more like knee-jerk hot takes than true criticism. This is not what gave us Dylann Roof. He was “radicalized” by lack of open and trustworthy information about racism. He did his own digging online and trusted sources that will never be “normalized.”

If Roof doesn’t prove the danger of these identity bubbles, the Trump campaign should. The bubble-field formerly known as the mainstream media was his tool for legitimacy. He understands how crippling these bubbles are. He can rule a divided country easily by promising Whites he will give them their country back and Blacks he will save them from White Supremacy. But the only way for anyone to effectively resist his doomed tenure is to diligently burst their bubbles by arming themselves with whatever information, experiences and tools they can find to free their minds.

Generation KKK debuts on A&E on Tuesday, January 10.

Why A Reality Show About The Ku Klux Klan Isn’t A Bad Idea was originally published on globalgrind.com

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