Freedom Riders documentary

Another great PBS  documentary, The Freedom Riders, will premiere on Monday May 16. (Most places 9/8C.) 

Watch the full episode. See more American Experience.

FREEDOM RIDERS is the powerful harrowing and ultimately inspirational story of six months in 1961 that changed America forever. From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism.

From award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson (Wounded Knee, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, The Murder of Emmett Till)

FREEDOM RIDERS features testimony from a fascinating cast of central characters: the Riders themselves, state and federal government officials, and journalists who witnessed the Rides firsthand. The two-hour documentary is based on Raymond Arsenault's book Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice.

I've seen shortened versions of the documentary twice, as part of the Tallgrass Film Festival and at the Kansas African American Museum, and recommend it enthusiastically.

I also like the book that the Freedom Riders documentary is based on: Raymond Arsenault's Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice As part of the documentary promotion, Arsenault has prepared a significantly abridged version of the book (roughly 320 vs 700 pages). PBS is offering a special deal on a DVD and the abridged book.

I should also add that there is an excellent website for Freedom Riders.

Elsewhere on Democratic Left Blogs

Russell Fox longs for a certain kind of left

The left I want is a complicated one: it's a left which wants to put empowerment first, and that means helping people--as I must always remind myself as well--grasp the limits, the particularity, within which such empowerment is possible. That's a hard left to maintain, and who knows? Perhaps it's an imaginary one. But allowing oneself to think that the conservatism inherent to a seriously liberalism, that the communitarianism that ought to ground any left, is some sort of unfortunate nostalgia, isn't correct, or at least not necessarily. In fact, if the left is to be rightly understood--or at least so I believe--it is anything but.

Norm Geras examines four reactions to the killing of Osama Ben Ladin: l)justified and legal; 2) unlawful but justified; 3) lawful but not justified; and 4) neither lawful nor justified.

Marc Cooper takes on a leading advocate of the neither lawful nor justified position, and says it is time for Noam Chomsky to retire.

Adam Holland on why Ron Paul's racist newsletters still matter.

Mark Engler warns that  the internet can be  a tool for repression.

Eric Lee writes defends Bob Dylan against Margaret Dowd's criticism.

Nothing but a Man: a classic movie reviewed

Cover of Nothing But a Man

[I wrote this review as part of the labor movies series at Talking Union]

A 1964 movie about an African-American man who wants to be treated as “Nothing but a Man” was not a commercial hit, but it has been included in the National Film Registry. It is movie which labor and racial justice activists, as well as film buffs, will enjoy. At first glance, it might not seem a labor movie like “The Inheritance” or “Salt of the Earth.”, but consider how the movie title resonates with the “I am a Man” slogan of the 1968 Memphis Sanitation workers strike.

Tom Weiner on all.movies.com describes Nothing But a Man as “the first dramatic story featuring a largely black cast created for an integrated audience (the work of black filmmakers such as Oscar Micheaux was intended for audiences who patronized black-only theaters). White filmmakers Michael Roemer and Robert M. Young traveled through the South in 1962 in search of ideas for a fiction feature set during the growing turbulence of the civil rights era.”

Duff Anderson, played by Ivan Dixon, is a young care-free railroad section crew worker, who meets Josie Dawson, played by Abby Lincoln, a beautiful young school teacher and daughter of a preacher. A romance develops, followed by marriage. Duff quits the railroad and gets a job at a saw mill. Duff and Josie have his former crew mates to dinner, where Duff complains that the African Americans at the mill are intimidated by their white bosses and fellow workers.


At work, Duff is confronted in the locker room by his boss. (At 4:52 in this clip.)

“ I hear you are trying to organize this place,” the white boss says.

“I don't know what you are talking about.”

“That's no way to talk, boy. We had one of them union men around here a couple of years ago. Stirred up lots of trouble. They are always at you colored boys.”

“I stll don't know what you are talking about”

“Are you a union man?”

“I used to be, on the railroad.”

“Well this ain't the railroad....”

The boss demands that Duff renounce his call to “stick together” in front of his fellow workers. Duff refuses and is fired.

“Boy, you are acting like a nigger with no sense”

Later Duff applies for a job at the other saw mill in town (8:53). At first the boss says he can use Duff, but then asks for Duff's name, check a list, and says he doesn't need anyone. The blacklist in action. Duff encounters difficulties finding employment, problems with his father, and in his relationship with Josie.

After viewing Nothing But a Man, I found a couple of interesting reviews that confirm my positive reaction to the movie.

Christopher Sevring writes,

But focusing on the real economic effects of racism on people rather than dramatizing flashpoints of the Civil Rights struggle or depicting White brutality is not a mistake; in fact, this is where the film's strength lies as a statement on race. But focusing on the real economic effects of racism on people rather than dramatizing flashpoints of the Civil Rights struggle or depicting White brutality is not a mistake; in fact, this is where the film's strength lies as a statement on race.

Hal Hinson of the Washington Post judged when the movie was re-released “it may be that the best film to come out so far in 1993 was actually made in 1964.” Moreover, he writes “perhaps no other film has captured so completely the everyday details of living in a country that, in essence, belongs to others. Or has shown how grinding and constant the commonplace slights and insults, the denials and closed doors, can be.”

Nothing But a Man can be rented from Netflix, ordered from Amazon , The DVD has very informative interview with actors Dixon, Lincoln, and Julius Linclon, and a conversation between, filmakers Roemer and Young, as well as a feature on Abby Lincoln. The entire movie also can also be found on YouTube.

Chip Berlet on the false equivalence of right and left

Chip Berlet with Political Research Association joins Thom Hartmann to talk about Right Wing Populism in America.

James Loewen on confederate and neo-confederate myths

 James Loewen, co-editor of The Confederate and Neo-confederate Reader demolishes the myth that the cause of the Civil War was "states rights."  It was, in fact, slavery that was the cause of the Civil War and the motivation of the Southern states was the maintenance and defense of slavery.


A talk with James W. Loewen from University Press of Mississippi on Vimeo.

Pompeo plays bigot card

In August, Republican candidate Mike Pompeo was embroiled in a controversy when his official campaign tweet recommended "a good read" that attacked Democratic candidate Raj Goyle as a "turban topper." Pompeo apologized, sort of. Pompeo claimed that a staffer had inadvertently linked to the wrong story." Goyle, a second term state representative, is the son of Indian immigrants. While a some experts pointed out that the Pompeo denial lacked creditability, it was generally accepted.

Now, just days before the election, the Pompeo campaign has a new electronic billboard which proclaims "True Americans Vote for Pompeo."

Not only does the billboard uses bigotry, it is apparently illegal.



The Kansas Democratic Party is reportedly preparing to file a formal complaint with the Federal Elections Commission because the billboard does not have a disclaimer as required by election law.

The Goyle campaign has launched an on-line petition demanding that Pompeo take down the billboard.
Here is the letter the Goyle Campaign sent to Rodger Woods, Campaign Manager for Mike Pompeo for Congress.

Dear Rodger,

I am writing to request that the Mike Pompeo for Congress Campaign put an end to all bigoted and fear mongering attacks and tactics. The political process deserves better, as do Kansans.
I have been informed that the Kansas Democratic Party will be filing a FEC complaint for illegal and offensive billboards located at 540 S Broadway Wichita, KS.

The statement "Vote American Vote Pompeo" is unfortunately another example of offensive material linked to your campaign. We hoped that your apology over the posting of the infamous "turban topped" blog post in August was the last time we would deal with bigotry in this campaign.
We have known about this billboard for at least 24 hours. It is simply hard to believe you and your campaign are not aware of its existence.

I hope you agree that illegal, offensive and bigoted material has no place in this campaign.

Sincerely,


Kiel Brunner
Campaign Manager for Raj Goyle For Congress

James Elon White on Haley Barbour and racism

Glen Beck rally

 An interesting and entertaining clip from Sam Seder.

Ishmael Reed on "Precious"

The African-American novelist and essayist, Ishmael Reed, had some interesting things to say about the movie "Precious" in a recent New York Times op-ed.

Black films looking to attract white audiences flatter them with another kind of stereotype: the merciful slave master. In guilt-free bits of merchandise like “Precious,” white characters are always portrayed as caring. There to help. Never shown as contributing to the oppression of African-Americans. Problems that members of the black underclass encounter are a result of their culture, their lack of personal responsibility.

It’s no surprise either that white critics — eight out of the nine comments used on the publicity Web site for “Precious” were from white men and women — maintain that the movie is worthwhile because, through the efforts of a teacher, this girl begins her first awkward efforts at writing.

Kobach gives workshop at far right conference

From Right-wing Watch. Kobach refers to Al Franken's election as a "pseudo-election" and sets out a plan to restrict voting rights. (For more reports on the far-right conference, see here)

Right-wing groups have long made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud the supposed rationale for pushing legislation that would erect new barriers to the ballot box. A How to Take Back America workshop on “Voter Fraud, the Census, and ACORN” made it clear that right-wing politicians will try to use ACORN’s recent troubles to build momentum for restrictive voting laws.

Kris Kobach, a lawyer and failed congressional candidate who has made a name for himself on the Right as an anti-illegal immigration crusader, announced this summer that he is running to be Secretary of State in Kansas. His theme is combating voter fraud, a solution in search of a problem in Kansas. Kobach, like other speakers, implied that Al Franken’s Senate seat was somehow illegitimate, referring to Franken’s “pseudo-election.”

The workshop was largely a tirade against ACORN and the “hard left,” which is supposedly engaged in a massive effort to steal elections. No one, said Kobach, is disenfranchised based on the color of their skin these days. He slammed the Obama Justice Department for signaling to states that they’re “on their own” when it comes to fighting voter fraud.

Kobach’s five-step prescription for states, which he hopes he can implement in Kansas as a model, includes ramping up prosecutions for voter fraud, enacting photo-ID laws, taking more aggressive steps to “clean up” voter rolls (otherwise known as purging), requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration, and standardizing provisional ballot and recount procedures, which he said “the left” was abusing.

Jenkins Voted for, but didn't read, resolution which cited "great white hope'

Jan Biles of the Topeka Capital Journal reports

Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins had not read a resolution that contained the phrase *"great white hope" and urged President Obama to posthumously pardon black boxing champion Jack Johnson when she supported the measure last month, her press secretary said.
Jenkins, R-Kan., supported a resolution containing the phrase when the House approved unanimously on a voice vote. The resolution was sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and co-sponsored by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., in the Senate. The House version co-sponsored by Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill.

"No, she did not read the specific resolution," Mary Geiger, Jenkins' press secretary, said Monday morning.

*Whereas the victory of Jack Johnson over Burns prompted the search for a White boxer who could beat him, a recruitment effort dubbed the search for the 'Great White Hope';

Charlie Parker: America neglects one of its musical geniuises

August 29 1920 – March 12, 1955.

America differs from Europe not by having less great art, but by a failure to recognize and honor our artistic geniuses. At least if their skin is the wrong color.

Jenkins: GOP looking for "great White hope"

Kansas's Second District Representative Lynn Jenkins used racist code words at an August party event in Hiawatha.

Jenkins told people at the Hiawatha forum the nation could benefit from inspired leadership of a group of "really sharp" young Republicans in the House, particularly Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va. Cantor was mentioned as a possible GOP vice presidential candidate in 2008 and is thought to be interested in seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2012.

"Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope," Jenkins said to the crowd. "I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."

When African-American Jack Johnson won the heavyweight boxing crown about a century ago, it was considered an affront to whites. A search went out for a "great white hope" to win back the crown. Congress even passed a law to prohibit the interstate transport of boxing films.

When another African American Joe Louis was finally given a change to fight for the title and won it, the search again went out for a "great white hope."

There was a 1967 play and 1970 movie based on Johnson and the reaction to him.

Another Kansas GOP leader, Secretary of State candidate Kris Kobach got in trouble for making a "birther" joke at a party fundraiser. I don't think it's accidental.

UPDATE: Keith O. on LJ

Two books on the American Far Right --old and new

Two of my favorite books on the American far right were published 66 years apart. Leonard Zeskind's Blood and Politics was published just weeks ago, while John Roy Carlson's Undercover, was a best-seller in 1943.

Blood and Politics will likely be viewed as the authoritative history of the racialist American right over the last fifty years. It's going to be discussed next week in the TPM Cafe. Check out the discussion. Meanwhile, Daniel Levitas has an insightful review in the Forward.

To most Americans, including seasoned political observers, the machinations of white supremacists and professional antisemites are regarded, if at all, as crude carnival theater. After more than three decades of close observation, Leonard Zeskind, recipient of a 1998 MacArthur Fellowship for his independent scholarship on far-right, racist and neo-Nazi groups, is not so dismissive. More important, his first book, “Blood and Politics,” analyzes the past 35 years to provide a trenchant and troubling assessment of the future of what Zeskind terms “the white nationalist movement.”

Since the mid-1980s a number of books have detailed homegrown paramilitaries and the bigoted zealots behind them, but “Blood and Politics” provides an entirely deeper level of analysis. Zeskind is the first to fully integrate a sophisticated understanding of global events — specifically the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union — with an equally forceful insight into the uniquely American dynamics of racial identity, Southern sectionalism and national politics. After the Soviet Union “cracked apart like a three-minute egg,” and anticommunism became almost instantly irrelevant to American national identity, white nationalists rushed in to fill the vacuum.

The end of the Cold War dichotomy gave way to a new struggle, that of nationalism vs. internationalism, and the results of this “geopolitical earthquake” are still reverberating all around us, Zeskind explains. While most of the civilized world ostensibly looked on with horror as the multicultural communities of Yugoslavia disintegrated under the demands of ethnic nationalism, white supremacists and antisemites in the United States saw increased promise in the prospect of recasting their domestic struggle as both an ethnic and religious war.

Because Undercover as a tremendous best-seller, there's a good chance you might find it a used-book store, ebay, or abebooks. There is an on-line PDF

Here's what Time magazine said about Undercover back in 1943

For four years pseudonymous Author John Roy Carlson, a youthful Armenian-born journalist, has sat in on the conclaves of some 30 U.S. fascist and near-fascist groups. What he saw and heard, and what he thinks about it, makes a bulky (544 pages), jumbled, fact-crammed book. * It is good reading and worth reading; it is a believable account of real viciousness, relieved by fragments of pure absurdity. Smart readers will make allowances for Investigator Carlson's enthusiasms, distinguish for themselves between stooges and stars.

The Line. Before Pearl Harbor U.S. fascism was blatant and aggressive. Federal agents and public hostility have driven it to cover. So today's techniques are largely confined to whispering campaigns in industrial centers, promotion of racial violence, draft dodging, food hoarding, agitation for "democratic" opposition to the Administration. The objective, says Carlson, is to sabotage "with every means at their command, a quick Allied victory ... to ,prolong the conflict in order to intensify . . . work of dissension. . . ."

"The America First spirit," said Senator Gerald Nye to Carlson, "is much stronger now. But . . . you can ruin a good thing by coming out with it at the wrong time." When the time comes, explained the " 'dean' of American intellectual fascism," suave Lawrence Dennis, "such slogans as 'America for the Americans,' 'White Supremacy,' . . . 'Europe for the Europeans' . . . will become popular. Reactionary feeling will become rampant, followed closely by antiSemitism. . . . Declare yourself for the war now [and] after you say this begin to explain that we're fighting for Communism."

Understanding Von Brunn

The murderous assault on the Holocaust Museum by John Von Brunn should not be treated as just an isolated event. And, it probably won't since the murdered of Dr.Tiller comes from a similar environ.

Von Brunn is a reminder that there is a vibrant far right and that antisemtism was not been vanquished. (Unfortunately, there is also antisemitism on the left and, worse, a wider tolerance for it.)

There is going to be lots of reporting and commentary in the progressive media, but I want to recommend a blog that has some of the best coverage of Von Brumm. Check out the site of Adam Holland.

I suspect that over the next several years is going to be far more important to understand the far right than we are used to. It is not going to be enough to just thinks of them as "kooks" and "nutcases." In the next week or two, I'll be discussing some books, new and old, that I think will help in that task.

Ann Coulter Defends White Supremacist Group

SPLC on Coulter

In her latest foaming-mouth tome — Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, released on Jan. 6 — Coulter spends the better part of three pages defending a group called the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), which The New York Times had described as a “thinly veiled white supremacist organization.” Coulter begs to differ. The CCC, Coulter opines, is “a conservative group” that has unfairly been branded as racist “because some of the directors of the CCC had, decades earlier, been leaders of a segregationist group.” “There is no evidence on its Web page that the modern incarnation of the CCC supports segregation,” she says. “Apart from some aggressive reporting on black-on-white crimes — the very crimes that are aggressively hidden by the establishment media — there is little on the CCC website suggesting” that the group is racist. Indeed, its main failing is “containing members who had belonged to a segregationist group thirty years earlier.”

Coulter could hardly be more wrong. And even if she can’t find time to read beyond a page of the CCC’s website, she really ought to know — after all, the organization where she frequently speaks, the Conservative Political Action Committee, has publicly banned the CCC from its annual gathering because it is racist. Also in the late 1990s, Jim Nicholson, then-chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked GOP members to stay away from the CCC because of its “racist and nationalist views.”

How could conservative Republicans be inspired to say such ugly things? Let us count the ways.

The CCC’s columnists have written that black people are “a retrograde species of humanity,” and that non-white immigration is turning the U.S. population into a “slimy brown mass of glop.” Its website has run photographic comparisons of pop singer Michael Jackson and a chimpanzee. It opposes “forced integration” and decries racial intermarriage. It has lambasted black people as “genetically inferior,” complained about “Jewish power brokers,” called gay people “perverted sodomites,” and even named the late Lester Maddox, the baseball bat-wielding, arch-segregationist former governor of Georgia, “Patriot of the Century.”

One day, the CCC ran photos on its home page of accused Beltway snipers John Muhammad and John Malvo, 9/11 conspirator Zacharias Moussaoui and accused shoe-bomber Richard Reed. “Notice a Pattern Here?” asked a caption underneath the four photos. “Is the face of death black after all?” On another occasion, its website featured a photo of Daniel Pearl, the “Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter” who had just been decapitated by Islamic terrorists. In the photo, Pearl was shown with his “mixed-race wife, Marianne.” The headline above the couple’s picture was stunning even for the CCC: “Death by Multiculturalism?” The CCC Arkansas chapter ran an essay waxing nostalgic for the days “when racial separation was the norm.”

But to Ann Coulter, there is “no evidence” on its website that the CCC “supports segregation.” Mostly, she says, the group — which was formed from the debris of the White Citizens Councils that Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall once called “the uptown Klan” — is about “a strong national defense, the right to keep and bear arms, the traditional family, and an ‘America First’ trade policy.” Indeed, she says, The New York Times and other critics of the CCC are simply liberals “who have no principles.”

Joseph Lowery and Big Bill Broonzy

The right-wing cretin Glen Beck is attacking Joseph Lowrey for calling America racist in his benediction.

Here's what Lowery said that got Beck and other cons all upset

LOWERY: Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.

Beck attacked then Obama, saying he “was shocked” that Obama “actually smiled when he said this and shook your head.”

It's likely that Obama was appreciating the twist that Lowery put on a classic blues by Big Bill Broonzy.

This little song that I'm singin' about,
people, you know that it's true
If you're black and gotta work for livin',
now, this is what they will say to you,

they says, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but if you're black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back"

I was in a place one night,
they was all havin' fun,
They was all buyin' beer and wine,
But they would not sell me none,

they said, "If you was white, You'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I went to an employment office,
I got a number and I got in line,
They called everybody's number,
but they never did call mine.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

Me and a man workin' side by side,
this is what it meant
They was payin' him a dollar an hour,
and they was payin' me fifty cent.

They said, "If you was white, you'd be alright,
If you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped build the country,
and I fought for it too,
now, I guess that you can see,
what a black man have to do.

They says, "If you was white, you's alright,
if you was brown, stick around,
but as you's black, oh, brother, get back, get back, get back."

I helped win sweet victory,
with my little plow and hoe
Now, I want you to tell me, brother,
what you gonna do 'bout old Jim Crow?

Now, if you is white, you's alright,
if you's brown, stick around,
But if you's black, hmmm, hmmm, brother,
get back, get back, get back.

Is Libby Dole the Most Out-of-Touch US Senator?

I'm beginning to think that North Carolina Senator Libby Dole, married to one-time Kansan Bob Dole, might be the dimmest bulb in the United States Senate.

Now I don't follow North Carolina politics closely, but here are two real bone-headed moves.

1. Dole is trying to name a bill for giving funds to AIDS victims in the developing world after Helms--a homophobe and racist

"The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." At a different time, he contextualized his comments by saying, "Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle." He once said that AIDS prevention literature was "so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up.".

2. According to a report in the Hill newspaper, an ad aired by North Carolina Republican Elizabeth Dole taking credit for saving North Carolina military installations actually included images of a French-made Dassault Super Etendard fighter jet, which was last seen in combat action being flown by Saddam Hussein's Air Force during the Iran-Iraq War.

Remembering the Warsaw Uprising

Leonard Zeskind reminds us that we must re-tell the story

On April 19, 1943—the day of the first night of Passover sixty five years ago—the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto launched an armed revolt. Faced with little material help from the non-Jewish populations surrounding them, as well as open opposition from Polish anti-Semites, these Jews fought with pistols, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails the heavy artillery, noxious gas, fire and air power of the German army and its minions. Despite the fact that this was the first open urban revolt against Nazi rule in Europe, the bravery of these Jewish fighters was met with less than an enthusiastic response by the Allied command. These acts of armed opposition, and others like it, should put an end forever to the myth that the Jews of Europe walked quietly and without protest to their deaths. And their story must be told and retold in every generation.

Leonard Zeskind on Minuteman in KC

I left Wichita about 6 AM Saturday to drive up to Kansas City to attend an all-day conference on immigration and racism and got back to Wichita around 9:00 PM. A very long day, but well worth it. I'll try to find time to write up some observations, but for now I want to bring to your attention an analysis of the recent national Minuteman conference held in Kansas City and the impetus for yesterday's conference.

For those who don't know Zeskind, he is a legendary observer and analyst of the racist, far right.

He recently started a website, which has his writings over the years.

Zeskind promises new articles as part of the Zeskind fortnight, with the Minuteman report being the first.

Zeskind reports that at the Minuteman public rally, attended by over 500.

[Minuteman founder Chris] Simcox urged, first, an executive order to secure the borders (and build a bigger thicker fence line). Second, he wanted to put several thousand National Guard troops on the border. Both ideas were met with mild applause. When he proposed making English the official language, the crowd was a bit more enthusiastic. But the idea to abolish “birthright citizenship” for the children of “illegal aliens” made the crowd go wild.

And, this Zeskind points out is where the claim that the Minutemen and the anti-immigrant is not racist falls apart.

Any person or organization that advocates turning citizens into non-citizens, or that seeks to abridge the Fourteenth Amendment is, by any fair standard, a racist person or organization. They need not parade around in white sheets or swastika armbands; or spout racist obscenities like a barroom bigot; or make clever statements about the biological or cultural inferiority of certain peoples. They need only touch one hair on the Constitutional Amendment that guaranteed the citizenship rights of freed slaves after the Civil War, and they are ipso facto a racist.

And, there's reason to be worried.

... the Minutemen were well pleased with their performance at the Uptown Theater. Since that meeting they have been pushing hard for legislation in Kansas sponsored by Sen. Peggy Palmer (R. Augusta) entitled the “Kansas Illegal Immigration Relief Act.” A set of publicity ads they produced have been airing over the radio waves in southern Kansas, and they are gearing up for a recruitment drive at gun shows in the bi-state area.