Not long after posting some information about my new book, Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters, I got a strange email, possibly from the KKK.
My new book examines Mr. McCain's connections with white supremacy groups including the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) and the Southern Partisan quarterly journal.
The CCC attracts members of the KKK, which has lost some power because of law suits by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Vietnamese Texan shrimpers and others.
In the new book, I discuss McCain's hiring of white supremacist Richard Quinn as a campaign manager; his endorsement of George Wallace, Jr. just months after Wallace kicked off the national convention of the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC); McCain's hiring of race-baiting Terry Nelson as his national campaign manager; his support of the Confederate flag as an official state symbol; his support of the rescinding of MLK Day; and so forth.
I also write about John McCain's record of extreme hawkishness, and how this is related to his racial attitudes.
If you google the CCC for more info, be warned that the CCC website flashed a warning message the last time I tried to access them (saying that my computer would be damaged).
A couple weeks ago, I posted on my own website (www.irwinbooks.com) an announcement that I was publishing Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters.
There was little response to that announcement, and also little response to my attempt to find people who wanted to help me publicize the book. I posted an ad on the local craigslist.
One of the responses I did get was from an email address that was apparently temporary. I tried to respond to it, but it "does not exist." The emailer accused me of flagging one of the emailer's posts on a website that I'd never heard of.
I went to the website, which turned out to be like craigslist, except that it had almost no postings.
Since I live in Texas, I went to the Texas page of the website.
There was a strange picture on the right-hand sidebar of the page. I could not believe what I saw.
I clicked on the picture, and the site gave me a larger version of the picture:
Three Ku Klux Klansmen in full hood and robes.
The caption read: The Boys are Back in Town!
I've dealt with the Klan before, as a child and as a college student. They are rife where I come from. I've held a Klan robe in my own hands. It belonged to a legendery football coach of my alma mater (also in my hometown).
The Klan hung a noose on a tree in our front yard when I was a child. They knocked down our mailbox in retaliation for speaking out.
They held rallies around my hometown and left propaganda on cars.
I was often fearful that they were out there, making the silent phone calls that we often got, or just meeting, preparing things, doing things that we don't really know about.
And this is why Mr. McCain's assocations with these types of people is extremely disturbing. You can never know what white supremacists are up to.
Did the KKK or CCC send me an email recently because I had written a book linking them to John McCain and vice-versa?
It is too much of a coincidence that the first email I have ever gotten that is in some way is linked with the Klan I got soon after announcing publication of Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters.
I have no doubt that I am on some kind of a list now. After all, with the onset of the internet, the KKK/CCC and other organizations are quite organized.
I have a history of organizing against the KKK, writing about white supremacists and especially racial killings, and I just published a book that shines a light on racist politicians, McCain included.
By the way, there are dozens of state legislators who belong to the CCC, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
So, was this some sort of retaliation or not? Probably not.
Was it some sort of warning? Probably, yes.
Of course, the worst case scenario is that Mr. McCain, who still pays Southern Partixan editor Richard Quinn for his services (which may or may not be legal according to some), is truly and actively linked to the KKK and CCC and Southern Partisan.
The more likely truth is that he needs not be directly involved. By touring Alabama, making speeches for George Wallace Jr.'s lt. governor campaign, and by keeping a white supremacist on his payroll, McCain demonstrates that he is "one of them." These organizations know not to actively endorse candidates they want to see elected, so the only way that they can actually help their candidate is by donating money and by conducting various other activities.
Perhaps those other activities include emailing those who care to shine a light on the white supremacist connections of John McCain as well as the activities of those white supremacist organizations.
