Being that I linked him (and for the most part, most of White America) to those angry, white supremacy defending whites in all the old Civil Rights photographs, I began wondering, where in the hell did they all go? What ever happened to them?
I began collecting more of these photos. Being a modern day street photographer essentially crating digging older street photographs made me realize that I'm a part of an old, long lasting American tradition — free press. The task made me feel like I'm discovering my roots as a professional. All those photos. All those faces.
The faces were the same faces we see modern day. All those angry, yelling, vulgar faces. What ever happened to them? When the Civil Rights Act was placed into law, did all these people just vanished? Did they all out of nowhere, realize that they were wrong, and we were right, and stopped the racist thoughts and ideologies?
I highly doubt that the white faces in the first Civil Rights Era just automatically let go of their racist ideologies. Those people only accepted the Civil Rights social change with contempt and learned how to BEHAVE when laws changed. These old racist white supremacists, similar to insurgents after the collapse of the Iraqi Army in 2003, only laid low, kept their racist ideologies and waited. During this wait, there was a refinement of white supremacy. White supremacy — racism in America — had to adapt, and it did.
While the fellow did not get indignant and rant and rave (probably because he knew facts were on my side), many white men would do just that. While there's very few white folks today that would boldly state ”keep America white" or something, similar to this photo on the left, the facial expression is still the same. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen that same face in white men when I speak on white supremacy.
Instead of bluntly proclaiming the defense of white supremacy, white men nowaday seek to finesse the same ideological points. Similar to placing an assassin in a dress, these white men seek to soften up the image of white supremacist ideologies.
Being that white supremacists always preferred hoods and masks, nothing really has changed. Instead of preferring white hoods, they now prefer white lies. The white, Ku Klux Klan hood, while still existing in reality, has long been abandoned for a metaphorical one; double-speak, coded language, deflections and transference in discussion. The empty claims of colorblindness while still acknowledging and observing color differences. The tone policing. The clinging relationship to ancient symbolic relics of a racist past, all while denying racism modern day. This blatant dishonesty towards the state of nonwhites in America, serves as a new and improved white hood or mask to shield responsibility and accountability of the State of race relations. The common German is more accountable and observant of their collective crimes against Jews than the white American is towards their crimes against black and native peoples.
This is what happened: When the Civil Rights laws passed, all these racist whites from these photos (and those who were never photographed, which is numbered to be far more) just sat back and never talked about it. They decided then and there to take their sins silently to their graves, all while letting their grand children lie or play stupid, pretend it never took place. I did it myself; wondered where my dad was in 1963. 1965. 1970. It's a shock if white people never thought to think about where their parents were during all of this. Much like racism itself, I'm sure these whites NEVER talked about it. Never brought it up. I said it before... while we as black people are trying to discover our ancestors, white people are stuck trying to forget and bury their klancestors. Sure there are a few white folks from this old era, telling their racist stories on their death beds. Trying to make amends, looking for that forgiveness bug that makes the black community so (in)famous.
For the most part, the majority went to hell hating people because of their skin color, which will be the same destination for modern day whites who share the same congruent disdain for a mass of people fighting for their humanity. As far as these old photos go, nothing has changed. Tomi Lahren for example, practically gets paid to be the yelling angry white lady in the article's face photograph. White people will continue to attempt to silence abolitionists like myself. Unfortunately for them, I'm not going anywhere.
