That is one of the most adorable questions that any of you have ever asked me. It’s right up there with, “Why do I have to learn long division? I have a calculator!”
It turns out that you can probably ask THEM how they still exist, but I don’t recommend it. The website kkk.com says it’s about love not hate before it spins and spins and says it’s redirecting, so I don’t recommend going there, either. The KKK is about love exactly the way gum surgery is about fun.
Groups like that are fueled by fear. People seek a sense of control when they can’t have actual control of scary situations. Standing around in a circle and telling each other that you’re the best may seem harmlessly reassuring, but when these gatherings fuel hostility toward anyone outside the circle horrible things tend to happen.
The KKK has a long history by the American scale of history, which is to say they haven’t been around that long, and today they are certainly a tiny whiff of the hate cloud they used to be, but that doesn’t mean they will ever go away. If nothing else it gives some teenagers something to do to rebel against their uber tolerant parents when the doorknob on their tongue doesn’t do the trick.
I’ve been working on a much longer answer to a longer question that touches on this, so I’ve been thinking about it a lot. (Also cookies. I have been thinking about cookies a lot.)
My personal prescription for racism could not be simpler: Be even nicer to the “others.” That’s it.
If everyone did that, the fear cycle would be broken.
We can fix this, just not today.
Love,
yermom
askyermom 
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