Easy to attack now, but there was a time when they seemed almost mainstream. One of our very own sitting presidents watched and complimented a feature length film that still receives accolates for its "brilliance" even as it dehumanized blacks to the nth degree. To compare them with the Black Panthers or Nation of Islam is irresponsible. Neither of these latter groups has lynched whites for being white - whatever their rhetoric. And in fact, the BPP, for all its horrible rhetoric, did have some redeeming characteristics in providing after school reading clinics, health clinics, social work assistance, and community building. And while they may have felt hate, some of them anyway, they didn't preach it. The Klan's purpose was to maintain oppression through a climate of fear. There is no equivalency.
