The focus of this blog post will be on the comparison of my final research topic. The topic that I chose was “Hitler’s Rise to Power from 1920 to 1933.” How I will be connecting this with the book The Modern Temper by the rise of the KKK and how it relates to the Nazi party. Specifically, both used hate speech and discriminated against minority groups. Explaining how the author describes the KKK and relating it to the Nazi party and Hitler’s ideology.
In The Modern Temper, the author does not have a whole chapter relating to the KKK but does have a section explaining their beliefs, wrongdoings, and influence in American culture. I believe that this is connected to conformity and community when looking at it within the book. In the book, it explains how the KKK only believed in protestant Christians and being of the white race, and that every other person who was not in the lines of their ideology was beneath them or outright a disgrace to society. These groups of people and beliefs should be stopped and not continue in their country or in their state. We can see this happening with the Nazi party and Hitler’s discrimination against the Jewish people, and how they are the reason that Germany has all of these problems. These communities or organizations believe different types of people are poisoning their bloodline or are the reason for their problems.
This way, these organizations and groups are sort of a callback to ideas that have been happening for centuries. As the author explains, the KKK discriminated against African Americans and Catholic Americans due to their beliefs and place in society.! We can see this in America with slavery and religious rhetoric when Irish and Italian immigrants started immigrating to America. Most of them immigrating to America had a different religion than what “standard Americans” had at the time. This also connects with the Nazi Party’s very conservative/far-right ideology. Everyone who looked like a German (blue eyes, blonde hair) and had ancestors who were German was the pure blood of the country, and everyone else was the problem in Germany’s downfall. This is a prime example of a call back to two older ideas because conservatism, or very far-right ideology, has been around for decades. As well as discrimination towards people who are slightly different than you in terms of skin, color, religion, class, etc.
When looking at the framing of the KKK and the Nazis in their decades, it gives me a better understanding that history commonly repeats itself. When comparing the Nazi Party and the KKK, many of their ideas and ideologies are not that different. If you think about it, imagine if the KKK had the kind of support the Nazi Party had. We could have seen a movement where the KKK could have gotten into power and started spreading their propaganda and discrimination throughout the United States. These two crops are more similar than different. The only thing different was that one of them got to power and the other one faded away over the years. However, we have seen throughout history that discrimination and hate still come around but do not ultimately stay.
Bibliography
- Chao, Jade. 2019. “The Everyday and the Extreme: The Far Right in the USA through the Magnum Archive.” Magnum Photos. November 27, 2019. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/society/everyday-extreme-far-right-usa-magnum-photos-archive-right-wing-extremism/.
- Lynn Dumenil, The Modern Temper (1995).
