They were always here.
I escaped from the south to the coasts, but I always tried to warn people how vile the worst of us were.
Nobody coukd believe it, but remember, Hitler wrote about the south as the model for Germany in mein kampf, and the nazis copied the Nuremberg Laws from Jim crow almost verbatim.
They also took inspiration from the Catholic Church and the inquisition. The Church did ethnic cleansing long before the Nazis.
Wherever there is a state, there is fascism.
Nazi legal theorists saw the U.S. as a “pioneer” in racist legislation.
James Q. Whitman, in his book “Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law”,
The also took inspiration from the Catholic Church
Not just inspiration but also direct material support.
I’ve lived in much of the country, and I’m not white.
There is racism everywhere.
But the South is like going from Lebanon to the deepest reaches of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
They’re monsters, and proud of it.