KKK, GO AWAY!

In high school growing up we frequently played Vidor High School in football and basketball. I remember the black kids on my teams were always scared to death to travel to Vidor for a game. Some refused. Black people always knew that you didnt want to be caught near Vidor with a flat tire once the sun had set.

The good thing that I remember well about basketball games against Vidor were always a complete butt kicking blowout thanks to my high school which was slightly integrated versus most of the districts in East Texas. Today I appreciate that one busload of black kids that the district sent over to my white boy schools during elementary and high school. Most of the kids were the children of teachers and the more wealthy of the blacks in my hometown, but regardless of how they got there they were good for both me and my schoolmates.

The sad thing about East Texas is that black people haven't had the opportunities or desire in many cases to move into the more "white" neighborhoods. I thank God for the diversity of where I live today. My next door neighbors are blacks and gays and asians and hispanics - - seems like a million miles away from the small towns of East Texas.

Vidor is one of those cities with close ties to the Texas KKK. From what I remember it was full of big fat ladies in the bleachers during our games. Lot's of tacky people driving trucks and living in trailer parks or deep in the woods. Even thirty years ago the place was just full of all types of fundamentalists churches talking in tongues and wearing weird clothing, etc. Pentacostal women with long hair and longer dresses is the visual I see in my head when I think of Vidor.

Of the 11,000 folks recorded in the 1990 US Census, only 253 claimed to be Hispanic, and exactly ZERO were black. In the past many of the Mayors and city employees were KKK people. The KKK is "so accepted in Vidor that Klan members periodically sell peanut brittle at the local Wal-Mart in hopes of recruiting children and their parents into the organization."

Check out the basic goals for America in this KKK newsletter and then compare it to what you might see on the religious right websites such as VisionAmerica.us. I am sure they probably share the same email lists at times based on their goals to better America.

Lately all the KKK leaders have been killing each other from what I am reading in the Press. Today, all the KKK people I see in the news seems to be a very small subsegment of our society - mostly uneducated redneck types disguised as Christians with values.