I witnessed a hate group march today

[Dr. T is an alien]

I witnessed something that I did not instantly recognize today. My family and I were driving through Martinsville, IN today along IN37 (the future I69 corridor). We passed by a group of people walking along the highway carrying a couple of crosses. At first both my wife and I were like, "Silly people. Easter is the holiday you do the Stations of the Cross march."

By the time we had passed about 15 of the 30 or so participants I noticed the flag that was being carried at the head of the procession. It was a Christian flag, which still fit the theme of a religious group, but I had never seen one carried around outside of a church before. Before we passed the rest of the group I noticed one other thing about the group (we were driving past them at highway speeds, so this all occurred quickly).


In short, they had a rather uniform look.

They were all white guys.

They all had shaved heads.

They were all wearing army surplus fatigues.



Right after we passed them I concluded that they were a group of white supremacists. Martinsville has a terrible reputation as a hotbed for racism, was a well known sundown town even after the Civil Rights Movement, and even today is about as bleached white as any town could be. I looked into it and apparently the town has at least two hate groups in town. One is the Council of Conservative Citizens (the CCC). The other is the Christian Identity Church, which sure seems to be the more likely candidate for the group I passed.

I find it astounding that this group felt comfortable enough to march through town carrying their crosses (I have not seen any local news that indicated that those crosses were burned anywhere, but I wonder if it just did not get covered).


I imagine that this group was inspired to be more visible because of the protests that have come up across the country or the cops getting assassinated in NYC today. I cannot stand that this country, and my state in particular, seems determined to regress back into open racism. I fear that more violence is going to happen around these parts (a local Muslim center was burned recently as well).

[Hit Girl]

Society is progressing. Gay people, women, minorities etc...are all making advances, even if the pace is slower than it should be. The more advances they make, the more likely of a backlash to a certain degree from the segment of society that has traditionally had the dominant and favoured status, which has tended to be white males who publically at least claim to be straight and Christian. When you add economic problems to the mix, which has severely afflicted job security and in particular the traditional idea among men of being breadwinners, it makes hate groups very attractive, or to a lesser extent any group that cites scapegoats as a reason for their own woes or loss of power. Racist, homophobic, sectarian, and misogynistic groups thrive in such an environment.

[The Sam]

Makes me think of the Bigot Parade from "Portlandia".



Sometimes life imitates art.

[Urethra Franklin]

I don't think I can really articulate it any better than Hit-Girl did.

There is a sense of community amongst those who perceive themselves to be hard done by.

So when a person who feels disenfranchised comes across what is very obviously a hate group, he won't see that. What he'll see is a group of like-minded people who embolden him. Seeing somebody else who's racist/misogynistic/homophobic or whatever only makes that person feel better about their own prejudice and it normalizes it to them.

[MC Blowfish]

I've never seen a hate group march. I hope I never see one too.

[Digital Witness]

The only time that I can remember where I witnessed a public hate group was the Westboro Baptist Church protesting on the Oregon State campus.

[Deleted]

Being a Jew with a very bad temper, I honestly can't tell you what would happen if I saw this in real life. It would probably end with me in jail though.

[Stu]

Dec 21, 2014 10:40:48 GMT -5 Digital Witness said:

The only time that I can remember where I witnessed a public hate group was the Westboro Baptist Church protesting on the Oregon State campus.

The WBC is in a league of its own. Even the KKK hates the church, as do many political and religious groups, protest groups (Occupy, Anonymous, etc) and outspoken celebrities ranging from Michael Moore to Kanye West. To a small extent, somewhere there's a case of "the enemy of my enemy being my friend."

On a related note, a few years ago I had to interview one of Fred Phelps' granddaughters at a protest for Tammy Faye Messner. The granddaughter was kinda cute, but the words out of her mouth definitely turned me off.

[Lupin the Third]

Dec 21, 2014 11:31:23 GMT -5 Stu said:

Dec 21, 2014 10:40:48 GMT -5 Digital Witness said:

The only time that I can remember where I witnessed a public hate group was the Westboro Baptist Church protesting on the Oregon State campus.

The WBC is in a league of its own. Even the KKK hates the church, as do many political and religious groups, protest groups (Occupy, Anonymous, etc) and outspoken celebrities ranging from Michael Moore to Kanye West. To a small extent, somewhere there's a case of "the enemy of my enemy being my friend."

On a related note, a few years ago I had to interview one of Fred Phelps' granddaughters at a protest for Tammy Faye Messner. The granddaughter was kinda cute, but the words out of her mouth definitely turned me off.

I think the entire world hates the WBC.

[67 more]

Dec 21, 2014 12:58:53 GMT -5 Lupin the Third said:

Dec 21, 2014 11:31:23 GMT -5 Stu said:

The WBC is in a league of its own. Even the KKK hates the church, as do many political and religious groups, protest groups (Occupy, Anonymous, etc) and outspoken celebrities ranging from Michael Moore to Kanye West. To a small extent, somewhere there's a case of "the enemy of my enemy being my friend."

On a related note, a few years ago I had to interview one of Fred Phelps' granddaughters at a protest for Tammy Faye Messner. The granddaughter was kinda cute, but the words out of her mouth definitely turned me off.

I think the entire world hates the WBC.

Indeed, everyone knows that the WBA is the premiere boxing governing body.

[Eunös ✈]

Sadly my part of the UK is where those morons, Britain First are based.

They do regular marches in our area, not surprisingly they usually don't end well

Haven't seen one myself but these people aren't needed.

[tigermaskxxxvii]

I remember watching a History Channel documentary (remember those?) about Nazis in America from World War II-onward. When it got to the present day they showed some 4th of July weekend get together out in the boondocks of somewhere out west. During this, a Nazi took an American flag with a Star of David in the canton and draped it over a barbed wire fence to tear it apart and then broke the flag's pole over his knee. This kinda got me thinking, I don't think I've ever seen a Jewish person rocking the Star of David and Stripes. So are these flags actually manufactured to appeal to Jewish-Americans? Or are they made specifically for anti-semites to desecrate, since it let's them desecrate two things they're not exactly keen on?

[Sephiroth]

Would have ripped off the Illinois Nazis scene from Blues Brothers

[mcstoklasa]

Dec 21, 2014 14:49:04 GMT -5 Eunös ✈ said:

Sadly my part of the UK is where those morons, Britain First are based.

They do regular marches in our area, not surprisingly they usually don't end well

Haven't seen one myself but these people aren't needed.

I personally blame the last Labour government and Blair for the tensions mounting in the UK right now. I don't want the right to rise, but isn't happening just randomly. I hope everything will be okay though and the country doesn't lurch to any extremes, on the right (or left).

[bob]

The Westboro Baptist Church paid a visit to my small ass town.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

I was in London once and what appeared to be some sort of EDL/BNP/UKIP/twatty right wing nationalist group was doing a big march in front of our bus route. We were unfortunate enough to be on the bus that saw the entire parade from start to finish, but, regardless of your politics, what I found hilarious was that none of them had a damn sign. They just had national flags. I had no idea who they were, or what they were doing. Awareness? Funeral? Pride? Protesting? What was this about? No clue.

[mcstoklasa]

Dec 21, 2014 20:46:14 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I was in London once and what appeared to be some sort of EDL/BNP/UKIP/twatty right wing nationalist group was doing a big march in front of our bus route. We were unfortunate enough to be on the bus that saw the entire parade from start to finish, but, regardless of your politics, what I found hilarious was that none of them had a damn sign. They just had national flags. I had no idea who they were, or what they were doing. Awareness? Funeral? Pride? Protesting? What was this about? No clue.

We dont need those assholes spreading their bulshit.

["Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay]

Dec 21, 2014 20:52:22 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

Dec 21, 2014 20:46:14 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

I was in London once and what appeared to be some sort of EDL/BNP/UKIP/twatty right wing nationalist group was doing a big march in front of our bus route. We were unfortunate enough to be on the bus that saw the entire parade from start to finish, but, regardless of your politics, what I found hilarious was that none of them had a damn sign. They just had national flags. I had no idea who they were, or what they were doing. Awareness? Funeral? Pride? Protesting? What was this about? No clue.

We dont need those assholes spreading their bulshit.

Whether I agree with you or not, this thread is skirting into political territory and is likely to get locked.

I wasn't making a point about their politics. I was making a point about how stupid it was to have a parade in our capital city but then have absolutely no explanatory signs to tell us what the parade was about.

[Stu]

Dec 21, 2014 20:55:42 GMT -5 "Gizzark" Mike Wronglevenay said:

Dec 21, 2014 20:52:22 GMT -5 mcstoklasa said:

We dont need those assholes spreading their bulshit.

Whether I agree with you or not, this thread is skirting into political territory and is likely to get locked.

I wasn't making a point about their politics. I was making a point about how stupid it was to have a parade in our capital city but then have absolutely no explanatory signs to tell us what the parade was about.

Pretty much. The thread began well enough, but it went down the wrong path. Sorry, guys.

[Bob Schlapowitz]

The WBC came to Boston to protest the funerals of the Marathon Bombing victims.....they ran out of town like cowards.