To the editor–
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Virtually all coverage of the World Church of the Creator has taken great pains to portray its members as extremist kooks far removed from mainstream white American thinking. But the thing that has struck me most about their beliefs is how un-“radical” they really are, when stripped of their more apocalyptic excesses, in terms of the everyday conversation and opinions of much of white America.
Hang around any “mainstream” white watering hole for any length of time and the chances are pretty good that you’ll start hearing quite a bit about “those people” and how they’re ruining, sullying, ripping off, sucking the blood out of, or otherwise defiling “our” economy, “our” values, “our” culture, etc. Depending on the gentility of your surroundings, the conversation may or may not be couched in the n-word; it may or may not include blatantly hostile or aggressive rhetoric. But it will be pervasive, it will be obvious, and it will reflect only a mild version of the kind of thing that gets said in even more private gatherings. (And if you’re white, it will be assumed without asking that you concur with virtually everything being expressed.)
Indiana
