I do admit that Heller’s book is getting to me but not in a good way. He has this utterly preposterous idea whereby you should ‘network’ with other bloggers:, What until you hear this piece of ridiculous advice!
“When you start your blog. you’re not doing it in a vacuum. Rather, you’re becoming part of the blogosphere. The blogosphere is the grand, unwieldy, confounding, thing that includes things on everything from funny cat photos to political ranting.” (pg.75)
We shall approach this outrageous statement in a logical manner. First we shall define a couple of words. Blogosphere is a noun that refers to personal websites and blogs collectively, Next we will look at the word preposterous: absurd ridiculous, foolish, stupid, ludicrous, farcical, laughable, comical, risible, nonsensical, senseless, insane; outrageous, monstrous; informal crazy. ANTONYMS sensible.
It is ludicrous, comical and risible to rush about looking for other bloggers to talk to. Where do you find them in the first place and why do it in the second place.? I am reminded of something Groucho Marx said, “I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT PEOPLE LIKE ME AS A MEMBER”. That is certainly applicable to this situation, I met two other bloggers and did not like either of them and actually got into a fight with some guy on Richards Street. Besides that, one does not hang out talking about blogging – you do it. Then Heller goes on to say and this is priceless: “ Developing symbiotic relationships with fellow blogosphere a crucial step in the process.” (pg.75) This man cannot know the meaning of symbiotic relationship because that is the last thing a person would want – you cannot exist without the other person, or thing. There would be no time to write the blog as you would be clinging onto them and one needs their arms and fingers to blog.
But enough of Zach Heller. He did do something useful however, it made me start thinking about the expectations of those reading this blog. I would like my gentle readers to be saying:
They: What is she going to be blogging about today, that Alexis McBride? There is no telling, she is funny and trivial but then she does serious on you
Me: Well today I have an utter surprise for you. It is going to be about the KKK in Alberta.
They: You are right, It is an utter surprise.
The Faculty of Arts,, University of Alberta newsletter is a source of repressed fascinating historical facts about the country of my birth, which is Canada. The most recent edition contained q fascinating article woa@ualberta.ca reported a discovery made by a history student Mohammed. attempting to understand the continuing prejudice and insults he suffered in Canada. It is a gripping and interesting story and I shall quote from it.
“Most surprising to Mohamed was discovering that the Ku Klux Klan—a fraternal white supremacist organization with roots in the American Deep South—was once alive and well in Alberta, operating out in the open with the full support of local politicians. According to U of A historian Susan Smith, the Klan existed in a number of Alberta towns, including Edmonton, and membership peaked at 5,000 to 7,000 people during the ’20s and ’30s. It directed its energy against central and eastern European Catholics, including Ukrainians, as well as African-Americans who had migrated to Alberta from American states like Oklahoma.In 1931, the Klan’s Alberta Grand Wizard, J.J. Maloney, campaigned for Edmonton mayoral candidate Daniel Knott. When Knott won the election, the Klan burned a cross on Connor’s Hill in celebration. Once mayor, Knott granted the Klan permission to hold a rally at Edmonton Exhibition Grounds, now Northlands—complete with cross burnings—despite the fire chief’s concerns about the risk. A junior high school on Edmonton’s south side is now named in Knott’s honour.
In its early days, the Klan had an office on Jasper Avenue and a newspaper—the Liberator, for which they claimed a circulation of 250,000 (highly unlikely, since according to Stats Canada, the population of Edmonton was just under 80,000 at the time). In 1933, they held a lavish banquet at the Hotel MacDonald.”
One particularly chilling Klan document Mohamed came across in his search was a simple, handwritten note, every ‘t’ enlarged in the shape of a cross: “The KKK just wants to give you fair warning that you are a marked man. So watch your step. Take our advice and keep out of sight or things might happen.” Mohamed said he also read about a tar and feathering in Lacombe.
“The fact they were able to operate with such openness says a lot,” he said. “There wasn’t much active opposition.”
In the city archives, Mohamed found the local Klan’s financial documents, and through the Alberta Registry he was able to locate a copy of the certificate of incorporation, which lapsed in the 1950s when events in the U.S made the group universally reviled. But the certificate was renewed in 1980, remaining in effect until 2003.
“I was surprised, but it just made me want to learn more,” he said. “Right now our history is very whitewashed. We have the myth that we didn’t use to have those problems, and it makes it easier to ignore racism and social issues such as disparities in our education and criminal justice systems.”
I do so agree with Mohamed, alarmed at the white-washed history I was fed in school. I was absolutely shocked to attend a lecture at the British Library in 2016 to learn that Canada practiced slavery. I was shocked and dismayed to have bee hoodwinked. There appears to be continuing denial – apparently there still is a Knott Junior High in Edmonton. Race relations in the USA are not pretty however statutes praising racists are being removed with praises to glory been purged. It is necessary to accept the past to move onward but first there must be a knowledge of the past, which has been suppressed. Another scholar at the University of Alberta Zackodnik agrees that exposing the roots of racism in Alberta is essential in coming to terms with it today, People want to understand racism as isolated individualized incidents, which is how we want to understand racism now—as part of a post-racial ideology,” she said. “But it’s structural and systemic, with a history. It’s on the loose walking around. We need to be a lot more aware of that.”
So sorry you readers who follow my blog to be entertained. I shall include a couple of hilarious cartoons of my favourite Icelandic man, Dagsson. I am so happy to have stopped in Iceland – met an Adam, met Flower Girl and Flower Girl’s wife and bought two books of Daggson. I lead a charmed life – it helps that I am white not black nor Indigenous. There life can be hell, just because of the colour of their skin.
