Bruce Gilden, a Magnum Photographer, visited two groups on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s hate group list: The ‘Knights Party’ an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, and also the Detroit-based ‘National Socialist Movement’ (NSM) one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the USA.American experts are calling it the perfect storm for white supremacist recruitment: the sinking US economy, the election of Barack Obama, and increased attention to immigrants from Mexico and elsewhere. At the same time, extremist groups are trying to enter the mainstream and they’re having some success.
All this above is deeply disturbing to me. I wonder what experts and politicians make of it. And as usual, the images provide much more descriptive narrative to the story and visualize it perfectly. Seeing young boys dressed as Hitler and grotesque-looking white people thinking they are better than the rest, coupled with religious symbolism, makes my stomach shrink and shiver.
I thought we passed the Middle Ages. I guess we have not. I really want to read some more research in greater depth about the reasons behind this rise in hate groups. There are so many things that come to my mind, so I will leave it here for now. Take a look at the photo story here:
http://www.magnumphotos.com/Archive/c.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.StoryDetail_VPage&pid=2K7O3RTM1J8G
Where is this world heading to?
Polina Pen
June 11, 2009
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