I’m No Lady

On Sunday, I received a forwarded email from the head of a racist/white supremacist political party who shall go unnamed. (I don’t want any link to their name on this site.) The President of this awful group was advising members about how to deal with radio talk show hosts. He basically said that talk show hosts are puppets for corporate masters who want to ruin the white race by promoting race-mixing. It was incredibly insulting to broadcasters. It advised the faithful (racists) to see through us and keep calling, using fake names, to get on the air and spew. 

I wrote a brief note back that included an expletive so there was no mistaking that I wanted no further contact, and was not happy about the email’s contents. When the man wrote again – despite the fact that I asked him not to – the worst he could come up with is that I wasn’t ladylike because of my language. Oh, he also said I would get mine one day, see the light or be shown it, blah blah blah racist garbage. 

Racists contact me every day. They rarely use their names and they hardly ever claim that my colleagues and I are getting in the way of their mission, like these men did. And each time I hear from a racist, I wonder how they became that way. What has made them so afraid of others and so convinced that they’re part of the “chosen” race? Frankly, I’ve never met a white supremacist who seemed very supreme. They’re ineffectual, bottom-feeding creeps.

A newsletter I subscribe to happened to forward this link from New Yorker Magazine. It’s the story of Megan Phelps-Roper who became the public face of the Westboro Baptist Church. I first heard of them when they protested at the funeral for Matthew Shepherd, the young, gay teen who was beaten to death by fellow students in 1998. Church members waved signs that read, God Hates Fags. And they were only getting started.

Phelps-Roper left the church and she not only explains how that unlikely event came to be, but what it was like to grow up in an environment of hate and intolerance. It’s a long read, so settle in with a beverage and turn off the phone. But wow, what an amazing journey and incredible insight into the workings of a hate machine. It’s also a guide to getting people out of it. Story HERE.