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White Folks Sing the Blues?

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Beverly Hills is perhaps better known as a shopping Mecca for those seeking the ultimate in glitz and glamour, but this week it was slated for a discussion on race, that problem that still irks America in this, the second decade of a new millennium. The actual venue selected, H.O.M.E. (House of Music & Entertainment), a site normally utilized for dinner/Jazz concerts, is just a few blocks from the epicenter of Rodeo Drive, with much of the same opulence associated with that more famous address.

The headlight for this event was one Jeff Schoep, Commander of the National Socialist Movement (NSM), the largest White separatist organization in the country (featuring a membership of several hundred according to the Anti-Defamation League website). The NSM is probably most notable locally for a 2011 homicide in which one of its members was shot to death by his ten year old son in Riverside, allegedly following an extended period of physical abuse.

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Accompanied by two aides, Captains Matt Bradley and Brian Culpepper, Commander Schoep presented an aura of nonchalance in a black pinstriped business suit. The only clues to his political leanings were a gold “hammer of Thor pendent (Norse mythology is popular with White supremacists) and a pair of steel-toed boots, considered de rigueur for Nazis, skin heads, and those of that ink.

This summit was not to be, however. A contingent of less then a dozen demonstrators swarmed in front of the establishment, brandishing placards with anti-Nazi and anti-racist slogans. Several of the protesters wore all black, their T-shirts embossed with the likeness of Palestinian freedom fighter/terrorist and media pin-up girl, Leila Khaled.

This contingent, although small, made enough noise to effectively disrupt the goings on inside the building.

After several minutes, the marchers got their wish, as the proprietor, a nattily attired Black man, pulled the plug on the event, citing the bad publicity being generated for this, one of the very few African American businesses in the area. Taking care not to alert the protesters of the change in venues, the group reconvened an hour later, this time at the Sheraton Hotel in Fox Hills.

Representing the Black community were Najee Ali of Project Islamic H.O.P.E., immediately recognized by several of the Beverly Hills demonstrators and heckled for his participation in the event; Jasmyne Cannick, a veteran media and government specialist from the progressive arena, and Cleo Manago, a health behavior specialist, political analysist, and founder of the Black Men’s Xchange (BMX).

As noted by the panelists, this gathering had a precedent historically, going back to 1961 and 1962, when American Nazi George Lincoln Rockwell shared the stage with Malcolm X and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, respectively. These summits came about because these leaders reasoned that at a primal level they had common goals, i.e. the separation of the races.

This was the ploy Schoep was apparently following, as he insisted that his group is not anti anything, and suffers from distorted images propagated by the mainstream press.

“I don’t even like the words ‘White Supremacist,’” he said, citing the numerous organizations devoted to advancing the cause of African Americans.

“We are here to uplift our own people!” he declared.

Alluding to the growing numbers of marginalized Caucasians who feel abandoned, he stated that this is the first generation that is financially less well off than their parents.

To this, he faulted a two-party political system with an agenda ignoring the needs of the masses, regardless of color.

“We really don’t see a difference between the republicans and democrats,” he noted, and in this, he utilized another historical touchstone. Arch segregationist George Wallace who utilized colorful speech as well as any politico in American history opted that there’s a  “dime’s worth of difference” between 1968 Presidential candidates Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon, derisively labeling them “Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”

In this way, Schoep diplomatically side stepped direct criticism of President Barack Obama, suggesting that the current president is little different from the Bush dynasty or the Clintons. Steeling himself to focus on what apparently were his real targets for the day: Hispanics and Jews. According to his belief, our homogenized political process and ineffectual government are largely the result of a Zionist directed cabal, intent on securing country and government for some secret Communist agenda.

In keeping with this view he advocates an end to foreign wars (in previous speeches he’s said they are conflicts organized by “International Jewry”), and the troops be brought home to secure our southern borders.

The interaction between Schoep and the panel was surprisingly cordial. Prior to the start of the program, both sides casually gossiped about the ethnic/demographic makeup of the Beverly Hills protesters. Some provocative speculation emerged about “Semitic” representation before they settled on a more diplomatic, politically correct characterization of the agitators as “White, collage-aged liberals.”

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The prominent radical right nationalist and former Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke made racism more palatable for a mass audience by trading in his white sheets for a tailored business suit and carefully edited rhetoric. The NSM used to parade in full Nazi regalia with Swastikas intertwined with the American flag, but since 2007 have opted for black fatigues. This seems to be the methodology currently used as these groups become more sophisticated.

The stigma of scandal plagues them still. Jeff Schoep himself has been labeled a “race traitor” by other, more militant factions, who point to his second wife (since divorced) having Arab heritage (Syrian to be exact), and a mulatto daughter from a previous relationship with a Black man. Well before he cohabitated with her, Schoep was arrested for a 1998 burglary, a felony involving thousands of dollars of computer equipment. He committed this crime with the mother of his illegitimate daughter. In this instance he violated two of the major tenets shared by all Neo-Nazis: stealing and fathering out-of-wedlock children are behaviors associated with the lesser, non-White races, and are not in keeping for true, Aryan stock.

Mississippi Healing

James Stern’s tale of Compassion  and Confession

The national race conversation James Stern recently orchestrated here in the Southland is not the first encounter he’s had with a high profile figure of note, or smoothing the progress of delicate situations. A local product and holder of a theology degree from Biola University, he made a name for himself by facilitating a dialogue between the Black community and Korean shop owners in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. Shortly afterwards, he brokered a truce between the Crips and the Bloods, and implemented childcare, job training, and recreational programs in the area.

A true renaissance man, Stern also made his mark with several business ventures. But the Watts native likely never envisioned himself as a prison inmate during the course of his triple career as a minister/businessman/activist. At the turn of the millennium he collaborated with the NAACP to form a banking system for people in the community who otherwise could not open financial accounts due to their being labeled as credit risks, and subsequently “blackballed” by the financial industry.

Alas, the guidelines of good intentions do not guarantee smooth and trouble-free commerce. Authorities and especially the federal government were not enamored of Stern’s business dealings, regardless of his status as a pillar of the community. Allegations of identity theft and wire fraud tainted his reputation, and the ensuing conviction of these charges led to his extradition in 2007 from sunny California, to the decidedly more backward regions of the American south. More precisely, James Stern was now an inmate sweating in the humid climate of the Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as “Parchman Farm.”

One bright spot in his new incarceration status was his placement in the facility’s medical unit, a place considerably more secure then the rest of the prison. Prisoners housed there were medically on their deathbed or otherwise physically handicapped, and thus isolated from the general population. Stern earned his spot in this comparative sanctuary because he suffered from glaucoma, and was allergic to cigarette smoke. His new living accommodations contained an additional amenity, however. As he unpacked his personal belongings in his four man living quarters, he heard a voice behind him bellow “What you got for me, n—-r?”

Not expecting this sort of greeting even in the confines of a prison, he turned around to confront a be-speckled old Caucasian man in a wheel chair. Any doubts about who had uttered the statement, or whom it was directed at were erased as the old man crowed “don’t ignore me, n—–r!”

A native Californian not especially well versed on the specifics of Civil Rights history, he was quickly brought up to speed by one of his other two White cell mates. The man who had welcomed him so abrasively was Edgar Ray “Preacher” Killen, a recruiting officer of the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi’s Lauderdale and Neshoda counties, and the convicted mastermind of the 1964 murders of voter registration activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

As Stern settled in his new digs over the next few weeks, Killen continued his racial slur laced abuse. Like any prison, Parchman Farm was a unique environment, apart from the interpersonal dynamics between individual inmates. Street gangs continued their outside allegiances and illicit money making activities behind bars. Instead of the Bloods and Crips he’d encountered in his youth, his new contemporaries were members in good standing of the Gangster Disciples and Vice Lords.

As might be expected, Edgar Ray Killen was an object of intense interest to the other African American inmates. Prohibited from actually harming the 80 plus years old man physically, they conspired to exact vengeance in a time honored prison tradition: tainting his food with fecal material and other unsanitary bodily fluids.

According to Stern, his Christian precepts prevented him from retaliating under the barrage of Killen’s verbal abuse, and the tenets of compassion compelled him to ensure that he had decent food. These humanitarian gestures included pushing his wheel chair outside so that the redneck could sun himself.

These gestures came at a price, as the resident thugs assaulted Stern for preventing Killen from ingesting the dietary supplements they’d added to his vittles.

According to Stern, these small favors nurtured a strange relationship between the incarcerated Klansman and his South Los Angeles benefactor. In short, the grizzled old racist utilized his Black cellmate as a confessor to unburden his sordid past. During the course of this, Killen revealed a convoluted story in which President Lyndon Baines Johnson, worn down by the damage the Vietnam War was inflicting on his approval ratings, reached out to fellow Democratic Senator James O. Eastland of Mississippi.

In response to LBJ’s open-ended desire for a media event to divert media attention from this unpopular war, Eastland in turn directed Killen and his minions to initiate “distraction techniques” that led to the beating and murder of the three Civil Rights workers.

During his conversations with Stern, Killen owned up to as many as 32 cold case killings, and the names of others, some of them still living, involved in the slayings. Even more amazingly, Stern says he was rewarded for his Christian compassion, as Killen gave him power of attorney over his estate, including the acreage on which the Klansman committed his ghastly deeds.

In the wake of all these revelations, a number of skeptics have surfaced. Stern has, in turn, responded to these naysayers by producing a deed to the property, along with documents and other correspondence, verified by handwriting experts.

As might be expected, attorneys for Edgar Ray Killen and his wife are contesting Stern’s claims, but the benevolent freedman, out on parole since 2011, is sticking to his story and shopping around book and movie deals as he adjusts to life on the outside in the city of angels.

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