Maine's Long, Sad History Of Racism: Charlottesville, And Skowhegan

Source: KKK newspaper Maine Klansman Weekly, Dec. 6, 1923 shared by The Activist History Review

What do the fight to keep Skowhegan's team name "Indians" and the fight to keep the statue of a Confederate general in Charlottesville have in common? A lot, actually.

On the surface: claims about honor, heritage and "Pride" abound among those clinging to emblems of racism past.

On the underbelly: demeaning language, threats of violence (veiled and unveiled), and especially sexual violence aimed at non-white women.

Every white person in the USA probably has a racist Uncle Joe. A distinguishing feature of the civil war that produced Confederate generals was that it tore families and neighbors apart. The facebook comments I've shared here pitted someone I'm distantly related to by marriage plus the family member of a neighbor and close friend of mine against another neighbor's family member: Maulian Dana, Penboscot Tribal Ambassador.

Dana has drawn Skowhegan "Indian Pride" members Joe Dionne and Robert Graf's wrath by asking, politely, for the local high school to stop using an offensive Native nickname and imagery for sports.

Results of a poll that accompanied a "retire the name" op-ed in the Bangor Daily News last week

Here is how blogger Shay Stewart-Bouley described our state in a post about the outgoing of an openly racist governor and the incoming of Janet Mills, who says she wants to mend fences:

As a Black person living in Maine, the LePage years have been difficult; throw in the first two years under the Trump Administration and there are pockets of Maine that are downright hostile to Black bodies. Truthfully, there are parts of Maine that I would be hard-pressed to take my Black ass.

Would it surprise you to know that the Ku Klux Klan was once a major force in Maine politics?


While black men and boys were being lynched across the nation, the KKK in Maine was marching openly through the streets stirring up hatred at Catholics and labor union members. In such a predominately white state, the KKK had to pick a much bigger group to hate than blacks. Conveniently, French Canadian labor organizers fit the bill.

Source: Maine Memory Network

Investigative journalists have shown the KKK tend to be respected businessmen by day. Why do you think they need to wear hoods when they terrorize families by night?

Do oligarchs like mill owners actually care which religion or skin color their workers are? As long as they work for minimum wage without demanding more or organizing themselves, any color or religion will do.

"The Face of the Ruling Class" by George Grosz, Germany, 1923

When the discontented, chronically unemployed masses of Germany between world wars threatened the established order, the wealthy capitalists saw an opportunity: turn existing prejudice against Jewish people into a rallying cry to distract the poor. Get the downtrodden to think that Jews were the problem rather than the wealthy Protestant industrialists. Promise workers they could feed their own children if they looked the other way while the Jewish children were starved in ghettos before being marched off to death camps.

The current demagogue with bad hair in the White House didn't invent racism, but he did ride it to power. 

Economic desperation and humiliation fuel the emotions of struggling white people clinging to symbols of a time when they believed their skin color or religion alone made them better than others. The taxes theme will emerge again and again as people who work for a living face up to the inability to make ends meet at the end of each month. (What do you think the Yellow Vest uprisings in France are about?)

All working people are being strangled by the hold of the massively wealthy military-industrial complex. All are being sold the lie that more bombs and warships make us in any way safer.

Did you know the U.S. military has more operations going in Africa at this point than in the Middle East? 

The powers that be don't want you to know. The media conspire to keep you from knowing. They hope you'll get distracted by a local issue like retiring an offensive team name, or taking down a statue glorifying someone who used violence to defend slavery.

Anything to distract you from the fact that your teeth need work, but you can't afford to go to the dentist.

That's why there's so much emotion that often seems hard to fathom wrapped up in a high school team name. That's why you'll hear those resisting the inevitable change say things like "It's all we have and you're trying to take it away" in a desperate tone of voice and with tears in their eyes.

That's what they still say about the Confederate flag, too. Even in Maine.