RACE -- The KKK's inroads in the Northeast
RACE -- The KKK's inroads in the Northeast
Joe Bednarsky is one of the most mild-mannered Klansmen you could ever meet.
He despises Ku Klux Klan members who use the n-word at public rallies, describing such talk as "ignorant" and "uneducated." He denounces those who claim whites should control blacks, saying he dreams of white separatism, not white supremacy. In his work life, he has "absolutely no problem" dealing with blacks, Jews or Latinos.
Most of his hate speech, at least to asap, is reserved for neo-Nazis - he describes them as "criminal" and "anti-American."
Bednarsky is the self-styled leader of the Confederate Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in his never-been-Confederate home state of New Jersey - one of a growing number of Klan groups in the northeastern United States.
As America and the world mark the 39th anniversary Wednesday of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., asap looks into whether the racially divisive KKK is expanding north and east - and trying to reinvent itself in the process.
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A 'NEW KLAN'?
According to a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism, northern Klansmen like Bednarsky are enjoying increasing support as whites react to the growing immigration-rights movement.
The report found that the Klan "has experienced a surprising and troubling resurgence due to the successful exploitation of hot-button issues." Klan groups are focusing on immigration, but also on gay marriage and urban crime, as they sprout up in parts of northern states like New Jersey where they were previously unknown.
Bednarsky doesn't often agree with the Anti-Defamation League, but on that point he is in total agreement:
"I'm hearing reports from around the country of a rise in support. It's not necessarily membership but it's people coming to us talking about immigration and other issues."
He sees himself as part of the new Klan movement, in step with others who want to reach out to middle-of-the-road whites who might not don hoods and burn crosses, but who resent immigrants moving into their neighborhoods.
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SAME AS THE OLD KLAN?
"Don't be fooled."
That's the simple advice of Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research for the Anti-Defamation League. He has seen this "new Klan" idea carried out before, by Arkansas-based grand wizard and pastor Thomas Robb, who has banned his members from chewing tobacco or using the n-word (at least in public) in an attempt to reach mainstream white society.
"This is a matter of style, not substance," Pitcavage says, "The message that some of the northern Klansmen are giving out may not be as crude as some of the other Klans, but it's just bigotry dressed up."
For Pitcavage, the new racism built on the immigration debate cannot simply be measured in the number of new Klan chapters or members.
"The Klan is notoriously internecine," he said. "They break apart and reform all the time. Some racist groups are increasing in membership but many are happy to stir up white discontent about immigration and black-on-white crime. They try to get people active who are not necessarily members of racist groups."
There are many ways to read the new mild-mannered Klan-lite leaders like Joe Bednarsky. In his own eyes, he is the leader of the new Klan, bravely directing his members around the country and bringing the white separatist message to thousands of angry white voters. He also sees himself as an internationalist, with strong ties to the Jewish-hating Iranian government.
To New Jersey-based anti-racism activist Daryle Jenkins, however, Bednarsky is "one sad case."
"He lives with his mother. He doesn't have this great network across America, he barely has any friends within the Klan," he says.
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WHAT COMES NEXT?
Bednarsky, who lives in southern New Jersey - less than 50 miles from Philadelphia - is determined to prove Jenkins wrong. He spends a lot of time in the town of Millville taking care of his elderly mother, but the image of him as a lonely man planning Klan meetings from his mother's basement is a falsehood, he says.
To prove his point, he is organizing a Klan rally on May 12 in nearby Hammonton, N.J., where a town councilor refused to apologize for suggesting the New Jersey Klan had tried to spread asbestos in the town hall. Bednarsky is rallying his moderate Klan friends to highlight the local town's injustice to his group.
He has applied for a protest permit, but has contacted the ACLU to help fight the $10 permit fee.
Not exactly the cross-burning, terrifying Klan of decades past.
"Joe Bednarsky is beyond flaky," laughed Daryle Jenkins, whose mind turned to the sympathies for the KKK that a former president (and New Jersey governor) was thought to have. "He's no Woodrow Wilson, and the southern Klans don't have a whole lot to do with him."
The real danger, he says, is from the racial tension that people like Bednarsky try to stir up.
"They can feed into existing problems," says Jenkins. "They can stir up trouble, but ultimately their moment was a long, long time ago and it's not coming back."
