Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth
I first came to hear about this book whilst trolling Netflix one night for something new to watch. Now not being from America means that the Klu Klux Klan is not really part of my collective history. I think it's safe to say that my entire exposure to them comes through Hollywood films like Mississippi Buring and Mudbound. They become less of an object of fear and more another abstract idea that doesn't fit into my zeitgeist. But I do no enough to understand that for a great many Americans they were the thing that went bump in the night and the murder and fear they spread were ones that will stain the American soul for all time. So I figured that having watched the film which I would assume has been tweaked to give it the cinematic feel. it might be time to educate myself as to just how bad they are.
Now I would say that in no way does Stallworth set out to educate his readers on the complete history of the Ku Klux Klan. Whilst he does give a brief overview as to how they came to be. This is much more his personal experience in the men he set out to investigate. And for his part, he did an excellent job in describing the ins and outs of a police investigation. And in part, this is maybe what some might find to be a little slow-paced. Unlike its big screen counterparts, the reality is a lot more waiting around and waiting for things to happen. It is a job that to me seems to require a great deal of patience. This is also why I can see why some liberties were taken when it came to turning it into a film. What I would say is that you get to witness here the complete banality of a group of men sat around spewing hate to each other. Maybe it's down to this Hollywood Image we have of the Klan, one that projects what they were. I cannot begin to imagine the complete and utter fear that black people in America lived under.
I suppose what this book and Stallworth bring to the table is the complete and utter incongruous nature of what took place then. You read it think just how stupid can one group of people be. How did it never dawn on them that the voice on the phone and the man who turned up did not in fact sound the same. Or for that matter sending a black police detective to guard the head of the klan when he came to town. But this is the point, in my opinion, Stallworth show just how idiotic these men were. They were all for the grand posturing giving it all they could to show what big men they were. Never once giving a thought to the fact they might just be wrong. And within their arrogance, they were dupped time and again. What Stallworth does is shows us a very different face to the Klan. And I think at times it makes it far too easy to forget the very violent and brutal path they cut across the south.
I think for me I did get to learn a lot about how the Klan worked and spread their message of hate. I would imagine for a great deal of Americans these parts were nothing new. but as a brit, it gave me more to work with than just the image pushed by Hollywood. And whilst I will admit this book will not work for everyone. For me, it was both a learning curve and to my surprise hysterically funny look at a brutal hate group. Whilst Stallworth never really gets his big cinematic ending the work he did was still important. And as he says himself some times “Success often lies not in what happens but in what you prevent from happening.”
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