This essay was written for American Culture and Civilization, Section 3, taught by Erika Guzmán. This essay is meant to serve as a response to the ambitions and beliefs held by the Ku Klux Klan, an extremist radical collective from the United States which aims to see its country free from non-whites, non-Christians, non-heterosexuals, immigrants and drug addicts and traffickers, for they believe they are the root of America’s (supposed) downfall. Furthermore, they consider their own actions to be in the loving defense of the American heritage, and themselves to be guided by Christian principles – even if they have been fiercely violent and vocal against those who do not comply with or match their ideals. They have been active intermittently since at least the 1860s, but persistently (albeit minimally present) since 1946. The main thesis behind this response will be that hatred begets hatred, and that in of itself is a fruitless endeavor because it implies the biased blocking of certain communicative opportunities that could help a society improve its society, its finances and its relationship with other societies. This is why in analyzing the KKK’s ideals one must go beyond and analyze the American society as a whole, because the act of hating pointlessly is not exclusive to the KKK. Anyone can do it without the membership, and a large portion of the American people do so, even if they regard the Klan as sociopolitical pariahs. To prove this point, this essay will entertain the thought and imagine a society in which the bigoted KKK policies are in effect, so its shortcomings, hypocrisies, dangers and overall worthlessness can be highlighted. However, this scenario is not too farfetched, for the contextual situation will be one where Donald J. Trump becomes the next President of the United States. Former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke has shown his support to him (which Trump coyly and ambiguously rejected) and has pointed out the similarities between the political career he and his Klan brethren held in the past and Trump’s current campaign. Trump himself is not a KKK member, but his tactics and statements align with the KKK mentality, so maybe this will be as close as the US will get to electing an actually racist president....
The first point to touch upon will be immigration. Throughout its history, America has certainly benefited from the constant, massive influx of newcomers from all parts of the world, welcoming them in all sorts of professions available to develop the country while giving its demographic landscape a vibrant texture. Citizens like Walt Disney and Steve Jobs have certainly aided the American economy and society, inspiring hundreds of millions throughout the States and around the world – a fact which would not have happened should America had its gates closed when their foreign-born ancestors tried to access the country back in the day. However, the Klan views racial and ethnic minorities as some kind of cancer to America, and they harbor a special hatred towards Hispanics: “In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Klan groups increasingly aimed their racist invective at immigrants, particularly Hispanics, who were settling in a number of American cities for the first time in the history of those cities.” If heritage and American pride fuel the KKK’s actions, then Donald Trump is not so far apart from them with his intentions to “make America great again,” which are headlined with the construction of a wall across the southern border to prevent Mexicans from illegally entering the country, as he believes all Mexican illegals are overwhelmingly “criminals, drug [dealers] and rapists,” which Mexico intentionally sends there. The comedian John Oliver spotlighted the problems his proposed wall would come across in his show “Last Week Tonight”, listing details such as its budget (an initial US$ 4 billion estimated by Trump is off by nearly US$ 20 billion when considering construction, material transportation and maintenance) and the fact that most illegal immigrants come to the US not by walking across the border, but by commercial airlines – they simply overstay their visas, nothing else. Another ethnicity Trump has had strong words for are Middle Easterners – or Muslims, rather. He has proposed the ban of all Muslim immigrants and has called for the surveillance of local Muslim communities for intelligence-gathering purposes. His basis for this is that as long as one radical Islam terrorist could enter the US, no Muslim gets in. Mr. Trump has not only conveniently forgotten he is of German descent himself and his wife is a Slovenian immigrant, thus harming his own ex-pat community with this move; but also, in his logical blindness, he has naively disregarded how he will objectively distinguish a Muslim from a non-Muslim: Muslim people wishing to enter the country could easily lie about their faith to gain entry, after all. On the financial side of things, there is something to recall about the KKK: they will zealously protect the white man’s place in America, because the country can only excel with him in the lead. Considering this and Trump’s ideas, David Duke has once stated that “the reason we have this incredible destruction of both Europe and America is because we have an alien race, an alien people who have taken over our countries, taken over our media, taken over our banking, and only Donald Trump of any Republican has spoken up against Wall Street and the Jewish banks like Goldman Sachs.” A common, rather cliche belief held among racist people is that minorities (specially illegal immigrants) are “stealing jobs from the Americans.” In this regard, Donald Trump has put a particular blame on American companies which outsource their production processes to foreign countries such as China or Mexico, since they are “taking jobs away from America;” and he has vowed to penalize these companies with harsh, overblown taxes. Coming from Mr. Trump this notion is, once again, hypocritical, as his own brand of clothing features garments made in China and Bangladesh. Nevertheless, even if this was not the case, Trump has failed to take into account the fact that in America there might not be enough employees to cover the transition from China, Mexico or wherever it is these companies produce their goods; all the while these other countries already have fully fledged economies devoted to the outsourcing industry, which the American economy and job security depend on. Trump threatens companies to discard this practice and start anew at home or face consequences, even if doing so could very well be far more expensive and harmful than whatever tax Trump may impose on them. Furthermore, going back to the immigration point, it should be noted that an influx of newcomers signify a chance for the country to escape productive stagnation. Case in point, Europe is currently dealing with a massive exodus of Syrian refugees who wish to resettle in the Old Continent, having fled from the war at home. Nevertheless, many countries have blocked their passage across their land, citing a numbers of reasons such as terrorism potential and race-mixing. However, as the IMF stated, they should let them in, for they could signify a “modest increase in GDP growth in the short term, due to higher state spending on housing and benefits for asylum seekers, as well as a boost to the job market from the newcomers. (…) In the long run, the economic impact could be larger, but will depend on the integration of refugees into the labor market. Assuming this is successful, by 2020 the level of GDP could be 0.25% higher for the EU as a whole, and between 0.5% and 1% higher in Germany, Austria and Sweden.” Trump, the KKK and other sorts of demagogues may not like the idea, but the fact remains: more people working for the country will lead to more productivity in that country – regardless of their race or nationality. Lastly, there is the international affair angle to consider: inward racism is one thing, but foreign perception of it is another. World leaders are currently not taking Trump’s behavior kindly, which may harm his possibilities of achieving business and security treaties in the future. The KKK are all about the American pride, so the idea of getting involved with foreign nations should clash with their ambitions (despite the fact the religion they revere, Christianity, is foreign in of itself). As for Donald Trump, he seems to simply not mind international diplomacy at all, which might suit the KKK fine enough. His proposed wall to block Mexicans will be, according to him, completely financed by Mexico itself – an idea fiercely rejected by former presidents Felipe Calderón and Vicente Fox. Even the Pope has criticized Trump and his intolerance, saying he should build bridges between people, not walls. However, the greatest international danger a Trump presidency might face is war: the previously mentioned bureaucratic assault on Muslims and his own vitriolic tirades against the Middle Eastern community could very well give jihadists around the world enough material to inspire the people to join their ranks, further worsening matters. Trump has gone as far as to suggest that the war against ISIL could be won if not only America targeted its members, but its members’ own family members as well. Trump is unaware that his idea constitutes a war crime. “We are fighting a politically correct war,” he says, so his means will be anything but. The KKK can certainly attest to liking extreme measures like this, given the vigilantism they orchestrated back in the day. All things considered, for as hilarious as it might have sounded during its early days, a Trump presidency supported by the KKK is nothing to joke about. The Economic Intelligence Unit has rated it as more dangerous than a slowdown of the Chinese economy, a worsening in the Russian interventions in Syria and Ukraine, or a collapse of the Euro Zone. One listed event ahead of the Trump presidency is the global economic collapse produced by a jihadist war, which, as mentioned before, could very well be sparked by Trump, alongside the local pointless social discrimination, the American financial stagnation and the probable threat of war. Yet this is what a large portion (which houses David Duke and the KKK) of the American population truly want, further exposing how structural racism really is in America. Hatred begets hatred, but also ignorance because one shies oneself away from new experiences to learn from; so not only these ideas are all fruitless, they are irrationally fruitless. The KKK has had three revivals, two of them brought down by their own inner strife and their own guilty conscience, and the latter strongly fought against by the public; while Trump has had a number of financial ventures which have mostly failed and/or had him facing court. This why it is their pride, their bigotry and their arrogance what keep them from moving forwards and improving their current conditions. Even if Trump wins the election, his strategies will fail him and the American prosperity will suffer as a result, which would be the bane of the KKK. And if Trump does not win the election, then he will mostly fade away like the Klan already did (or rather, like the runner-ups to the White House usually do), as his beliefs would have been statistically proved as unwanted, forcing him to change his ways if he wants to try again. Therefore, they are doomed to fail because of their own stubbornness and the pointlessness of their actions and their motives. If they do not adapt to the changing times, then they will not evolve. If a species does not evolve, it will become extinct. For them, it is only a matter of time.
