Cross Burning, Trent Lott and the
Living Legacy of Racist Terror
by Mat Callahan
Dissident
Voice
December 13,
2002
It is worthy of note
that the same week in which cross burning is being defended as free speech
before the Supreme Court of the United States, protected by the First Amendment
of the Constitution, Trent Lott is celebrating White Supremacy (and then
apologizing, sort of). It should be
mentioned that Clarence Thomas, the only black member of the US Supreme Court,
decried cross burning as symbolic of a "reign of terror" and
"100 years of lynching".
Nevertheless, Lott's remarks are being criticized and cross burning will
likely be condemned only in the most polite and limited terms. This compounds the crimes which the Ku Klux
Klan and Lott are guilty of committing and defending.
First, this is not a matter of free speech at all. This is a matter of bringing to justice those who committed thousands of lynchings over many generations, those who profited from the theft of the property of Black people driven from their homes, businesses and farms, those whose entire political careers have been built on the effective suppression of the demands for civil rights on the part of all disenfranchised groups within the United States, but particularly African Americans. Trent Lott is a rich white man from Mississippi. His heritage is the slavocracy. Their descendants are the "WE" he said would have been better off had America elected Strom Thurmond President on the segregationist ticket in 1948. The irony that the political winds twisted in such a way as to make the Republican Party the representative of the very people defeated in the Civil War should not be lost on those interested in justice in the present and future. Party of Lincoln, indeed. It is now the party of John Wilkes Booth and Nathan Bedford Forrest (a founder of the Klan).
The South may be
different today. If it is, it is because there were decades of militant
struggle against redneck crackers like Lott and Thurmond and George Wallace and
John Stennis and the rest of that gang of closet Klansmen. Why are these people treated with anything but
the contempt they deserve? Why are they
not put in the same category as Hitler and Mussolini? What is the significant
difference. Hitler burned Jews. Lott's ilk lynched blacks. The Third Reich was defeated in a war. The Confederacy was defeated in a war. Lott may not have personally participated in
such activity but neither did most Germans directly participate in Auschwitz or
Belsen. Yet the Swastika is a banned
symbol in Germany and reparations are still being paid to the descendants of
the victims of the Holocaust. Where can
a black person go to assert a claim to a farm or house that was stolen from
them through racist terror? Ever heard
Billie Holiday sing "Strange Fruit"?
Fortunately, many
writers, musicians, film makers and other artists have steadily and
continuously devoted their work to illuminating this horrible episode in
American history. The nonsense Lott
spews in his defense will not wash with a great many Americans. This is important to keep in mind when
hearing only the "official story" as reported in the mainstream
media.
The question
arises, however, is this episode really over?
Did the Civil Rights Movement and all the legislation enacted as a
result of its efforts actually break the power of White Supremacists once and
for all? I think not. If it had, Lott
could never make the statements he has made, Thurmond could never have remained
in office, issues such as the Constitution of the State of Alabama prohibiting
interracial marriage or the South Carolina State Flag bearing the symbol of the
Confederacy would be dead by now. The
travesty of the Florida elections of 2000 and 2002 hearken back to one of the
original purposes of the KKK which was to prevent the
enfranchisement
of newly emancipated Black people.
(Thurmond, Lott's mentor, was
directly responsible for the promulgation of the Jim Crow laws that legalized
what the terror enforced. These remained in effect until 1964.) And the Christian Coalition, among other
right wing "religious" groups based mainly in the South, is
essentially white supremacist in composition and general outlook. They have honed their rhetoric to sound a
bit less "old fashioned". But
it is nonetheless bigoted for all of that. These are the forces that dominate
talk radio and much other public debate. These are the voices that claim to be
patriotic Americans. There can be no
polite, dispassionate discussion about or with such individuals or groups.
Theirs is a legacy of terror an cruelty and it lives on in the words and deeds
of people like Trent Lott.
This is not,
however, all there is to say about this matter. A politician of Lott's experience did not just "make a
little slip". His was a statement
made to his core constituents at a testimonial for Thurmond. It was a calculated test of the political
climate. Lott decided he had the clout to make the statement, weather any storm
it might arouse and, with a little backpedaling, situate himself in what is
called "mainstream" discourse-a discourse that has quietly accepted
cross burning and racism as "free speech" worthy of serious
consideration. If there is not a storm
of protest over these remarks that punishes Lott directly and threatens his
cronies with a loss of political power then he will get away with it and Black
people will pay a real price in real life in America. These people must be held accountable for their past but also for
their present. They hypocritically
apologize for "possibly offending" people with what they really
think. What they really think is that
the South was better off segregated, with white supremacy enshrined in law and
enforced by terror.
Why not bring
back slavery?
Mat Callahan is an award winning musician, composer, producer, and community activist living in Bern, Switzerland. Mat performed with Prairie Fire and the Looters. He is the author of Testimony (Freedom Voices Press, 2000) and Sex, Death and the Angry Young Man (Times Change Press, 1991). Visit Mat’s website: http://www.matcallahan.com/