Face-to-Face with the KKK.

I was the token black kid in my class. You know, the one that everyone tried to look at without being obvious during history class when racism and slavery were being discussed (and failed at their subtlety I must add). Well, 10 years ago, the American history books of my grade school years came alive right before my eyes in a park in South Central Kentucky. Till this day, I occasionally ask my father, “What exactly were we there for?” And then my father would remind me that our family was invited to an equality rally. And who better to invite to an equality rally than the Ku Klux Klan!

Actually, they weren’t invited.

What happened was that they had a rally of their own. And in order to combat the racism, the city of Bowling Green decided to have a Unity Day rally on the same day. So lucky me and my family got to watch the madness ensue.

I immediately recall the weather that day; there were very few clouds in the sky on that warm, summer afternoon. My father parallel parked right next to the sidewalk and he, my brother, and I got out of our car. Across the street was a park enclosed with decoratively looped black gating that had obvious entrances into this park. The unusual part of this summer day was seeing these entrances manned by police officers dressed in their black professional garb. I also wasn’t used to seeing them carrying a handheld body scanner.

Off in the distance, I heard the voice of a man. His exact words were inaudible to my hearing but his tone implied passion and anger. At this point, my family and I had crossed the street, and I watched as others entered the park before my family and me as the police scanned their persons for any potential weapons. Once my family was let through, my 10 year old Nigerian eyes were introduced to hate in human form, except they weren’t pleased to meet their acquaintance. In fact, they were far from being my acquaintance not because I chose to be their enemy, but because they chose to be mine. In their eyes, they were supreme due to their white skin color. In their eyes, I was inferior because my genes coded for a lot more melanin and other afrocentric characteristics without their permission. About 6 of them stood there about 10 feet away from me in their white hoods. They did not hesitate in telling me, my family, and other black folks how stupid we are; calling us niggers and mimicking the sound of a monkey to demonstrate our intelligence. They were outnumbered by a host of technicolored people who told them to shut up. A battle of words were being watched by my ears. Having the police at the entrances of the park and inside the park made sense now. I’m sure that there were people who would not have hesitated to do some serious harm to those white supremacists.

The amount of time I spent hearing the KKK inside of that park is a complete blur, but eventually, my first encounter with racism came to an end. Eventually, my family and I went off to the Unity Day rally which was the complete opposite of this one. However, the reminder of being inferior because of my skin color still continues today. Don’t think for one minute that the abolition of slavery and the end of the KKK lynching and inflicting physical harm on black people implies that racism is pretty much over. As we speak, the Trayvon Martin case is smothered in racial implications and Paula Deen is trying to save her name from her racial slurs. Because of his race, some black man somewhere is a suspect. Because of her race, some black lady is being judged for being angry when she rightly should be. Racism is alive and well folks. However, I refuse to see my skin color as a burden. It should never be this way.

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