Newspaper Article Preposterously Equates KKK Members With Christianity, Patriotism

 

No matter how much you disdain and despise the mainstream media…it is not enough. Not nearly enough.

Case in point: the newly rebranded “Minnesota Star Tribune” recently ran an article—on the front page of the ‘A’ section—about the history of the KKK in Minnesota. The headline read “Her mission: Documenting history of KKK in Minnesota.” Clever. The piece never mentioned the Democrat Party, never once noted that the party was the home of the KKK, the pro-slavery party, the Jim Crow party, the anti-integration party, the anti-reconstruction party. Misinformation. Disinformation. Mal-information. Lying by omission. Shameful.

Instead, the article hinted throughout that it was those with the mindset of today’s Trump Republicans that were responsible for the horrors of extreme discrimination. The story, by Trey Mewes, cited the work of recently retired Steele County librarian Nancy Vaillancourt, and noted, “The KKK spread to many corners of the state, from Minneapolis to Virginia, where school board members all claimed they were KKK members and urged that the Bible be taught in public schools.” Gag me. I doubt that every school board member in Virginia—or Minneapolis—in a state that promptly volunteered to fight for the union in the Civil War, upon entering the union, was a proud, card-carrying member of the KKK. But the real point was to smear Christianity, by saying that these wildly racist animals “urged that the Bible be taught in public schools.” The Bible—in part-- was taught in many public schools at the time. And the attempt to associate Christians with the KKK is more than absurd. It is the opposite of reality…and singularly repulsive. Many Christians were abolitionists.

The paper that some in Minnesota call “Fish Wrap West” (as opposed to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press, which is “Fish Wrap East”)-- and others use as a liner for their bird cages-- went on to state that “KKK members at the time denounced what they called outside influence from foreigners, Catholics, Jews, and anyone who didn’t agree with Christian nationalist teachings.” Yeah, sure, those who wanted to keep African-Americans enslaved were devout Christian nationalists who wished to indoctrinate or intimidate anyone who wasn’t. Those responsible for this article might’ve been thinking of a different religion, truth be told.

This attempt at “journalism” was beyond pathetic. It was akin to chronicling and bemoaning the Holocaust without mentioning the Nazi party. It was as if a historian wrote of America’s war with Japan without mentioning the attack on Pearl Harbor.