Rise

[indar9]

A  student of human behavior
( I don't remember who)
once said its women's duty
to laugh at men in their
ridiculous Shriner suits.

Secret societies, ancient rules,
them and us.

Well, yes, that's amusing.
The ones under
the bedsheets in pointed hats
were never funny.
We thought their day was done.

Arturo Ui is in the streets again,
claiming rights to an alternate history.

A few months has passed--
who remembers Heather Heyer
run down and killed in Charlottesville?
Who cares?

Heather wasn't laughing.

[Mark Hoffmann]

I agree with the various sentiments, but can't join the dots.

In a free society we must suffer (at least for now) a degree of racism. Provided it is a small degree we can live with it - there's no alternative anyway. But to draw a parallel with Nazi Germany feels like a stretch. Though I say that as an outside observer and things may be worse than they seem.

Similarly the masonic link seems tenuous.

The writing seems fine, but I was not convinced by the premise.  Having said that if you ditched the Brecht reference it might work as an anti racism piece.

M

[indar9]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/charlottesville-heather-heyer-apos-cause-085052344.html

Where is the cut-off point?

[Mark Hoffmann]

For me, before I'd draw a parallel with Hitler, there would need to be state involvement.

Are you implying there is state (nation state not regional state) element to the rise of racism?

[indar9]

There is no official state position to that effect. But there seems to be a movement in that direction.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-charlottesville-statement_us_59935477e4b009141640ab00

[biolaephesus]

Apart from Heather Heyer, because it was in global news, just felt angry after that but most of the rest went right over my head. Learnt more from the comments. Thanks
biola

[indar9]

Hi Biola,
I am sensitive to the recent rise of the in-your-face white supremecist groups who lift their fists and chant Heil Trump; who leave rope hanging nooses as threats on campuses; who demonstrate under the swastika; who advocate rounding up and incarcerating undocumented workers, because my sweetheart is a 79 year old black man who grew up in Texas during the era of Jim Crow and often lived in fear. The pointed hats and sheets in my poem refer to outfits once worn by the Ku Klux Klan who promoted lynching and, basically an ethnic cleansing program. The Shriners is, for the most part, a do-good organization but a secret brotherhood that has had its share of scandal. The Shriners are on a continuum is my point.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-kkk-today/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriners

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

[indar9]

Oh and here is a link to explain the Arturo Ui reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resistible_Rise_of_Arturo_Ui

[indar9]

Here is the anthropologist I quoted

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Fox