An artifact speaks a thousand words.
At least that's what the protesters at Saturday's Ku Klux Klan auction in Howell, Mich., would say against the memorabilia being sold. The Associated Press reported that among the auctioned items was a KKK robe for $700, which the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University bought to use in teaching racial tolerance.
However, the idea that some buyers were using their purchases to promote racial acceptance didn't stop the protesters from gathering outside the auction.
"This goes against everything we've tried to accomplish," Victor Lopez, president of the Livingston 2001 Diversity Council told AP.
And it might seem that way. In the same month we celebrated the national holiday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps liberation -- a KKK auction is held.
Yet the owner of Ole' Gray Nash Auction Gallery, Gary Gray (who is white) insists his auction has more to do with history than racism. "Maybe I have taught more people about history -- at least this week -- than some schools," Gray said. "It's not a question of racism. That's intertwined. But it's not the main focus."
Gray certainly recognizes the controversy surrounding his items. I see nothing wrong with selling KKK paraphernalia for historical purposes, especially if it helps illustrate the affect white supremacy has had in shaping today's society.
"People say it's historical, but it shouldn't be something we have to remember every day," Michelle Soli, a protester at the auction said.
But the historical impact of white supremacy shouldn't be so easily dismissed, either.
On Saturday, the day the auction took place, Ephraim Kishon -- a well-known satirist in Israel and Holocaust survivor -- passed away at 80 years old. Less than two weeks prior, Jacob Trobe -- one of the first-aid relief workers who tended to Holocaust survivors after World War II -- died at 93.
As the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, the history of the genocide and its ideological roots should not be forgotten.
And if a KKK auction does anything to keep alive the memory of those who have died at the hands of the white supremacy groups and the concept of a master race, then all the more power to those involved in these auctions.
If a person needs a pocketknife that reads "KKK -- God, Duty and Honor" or a card reading: "Join White Power Today or Live Under Jewish Communism Tomorrow" to remind them of the 6 million Jews killed and the scores of others persecuted, then by all means, bid away.
This wasn't the first KKK auction held, and it won't be the last. And those who truly want KKK memorabilia could easily acquire it from online bidding sites anyway.
Some could call these auctions insensitive or inconsiderate to the already extremely small black population in the city of Howell, Mich. And while hosting this event in an already racially tense town doesn't help, allowing a short auction to peacefully take place doesn't hurt, either.
After all, we are all free to buy whatever we want. This just means that if, say, some extreme fundamentalist Muslim wants to host an Osama bin Laden anti-Christian memorabilia auction here, then that should be allowed as well. And the same people who bought into the KKK auctions for historical purposes should find these items just as valid.
Lily Yan is a journalism and political science junior. Reach her at lily7174@msn.com.
