Racism in New Berlin
Racism in New Berlin was the title of a blog post I did in 2008 following a local news report:
By Linda Richter
Oct. 17, 2008
According to an article posted on New BerlinNOW Community Watch Thursday:
A New Berlin man was arrested and faces state disorderly conduct charges with a hate crime enhancer for confronting a black man in a bar (Calhoun Station in New Berlin) on October 8 and telling him that he did not belong there because of his race.
I guess the community resident does not believe in equality, civil rights, or we are all God's children.
It’s distressing that racism still exists in the United States of America, including here in our own city.
Kudos to the bar employees who contacted police.
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A Nov. 18, 2001 article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel titled “Terrorism gives hate groups an opportunity to recruit” mentioned New Berlin. It informed us that the Southern Poverty Law Center and The Center for New Community tracks hate groups. The latter, which is a faith-based, non-profit agency that tracks Midwestern hate groups, listed 25 groups in Wisconsin. According to the article, The World Church of the Creator branches in Milwaukee, New Berlin and Cudahy were listed. Evidently, The World Church of the Creator branch in New Berlin was well-known to police. "We've been aware of them for years," said police Lt. David Dunn.
A google search of World Church of the Creator turned up interesting information, including:
The Creativity Movement (formerly known as the World Church Of The Creator), is a white supremacist organization that advocates the religion, Creativity. The supremacism of the group has been described by founder Ben Klassen with reference to the logo:
The ‘W’ stands for the white race which we think is nature’s finest. The crown designates that we are the elite, the aristocrats, of nature’s realm. The halo above the crown means that we hold our racial values sacred and we believe that our white genes are our greatest treasure and we should safeguard our gene pool zealously.
The term Creativity was also a descriptive phrase used by Klassen to indicate all adherents of the religion. The use of the term creator does not refer to a deity, but rather to White Europeans or (white people) whom they believe are the sole creators of civilization and technology.[2]
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Creativity movement's members and followers have been charged and convicted in over 17 acts of racial violence.
The following can also be found on Wikepedia or elsewhere on the Internet:
George Lincoln Rockwell (March 9, 1918 – August 25, 1967) was the founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was a major figure in the neo-Nazi movement in the United States. Rockwell led the American Nazi Party in assisting the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups during the Civil Rights Movement, in attempts to counter the Freedom Riders and the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But he soon came to believe the Klan was stuck in the past and ineffective for helping him wage a modern race struggle. Rockwell started a call for "White Power." White Power later became the name of the party's newspaper and the title of a book authored by Rockwell. Rockwell's principal message was racial separation.
On January 1, 1967, Rockwell officially changed the name of the American Nazi Party to the National Socialist White People's Party . On August 25, 1967, Rockwell was killed by gunshots in Virginia. Today Rockwell's ashes reside in the memorial room of New Order headquarters in New Berlin, Wisconsin.
Led by Matt Koehl, the New Order began as a political movement founded by George Lincoln Rockwell in Arlington, Virginia in 1958. Koehl ceased printing the organization's White Power newspaper, sold its Arlington, Virginia real estate holdings, and dispersed the group's various operations to scattered locations in Wisconsin and Michigan. A secluded 88 acre rural property called "Nordland" was purchased in New Berlin, Wisconsin to serve as living quarters and to host annual meetings and ceremonial events.
Today the New Order operates quietly far from the public spotlight. The New Order web site emphasizes that they are not a neo-Nazi political party, but rather "a spiritual body representing a revolutionary, new faith — an alternative religion for those who are no longer able to accept Judeo-Christian dogma." The group claims to hold the memory of Hitler in trust until such time when whites are ready to accept National Socialism as the only possible way to ensure Aryan racial and spiritual survival.
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Besides racism issues, our city has gotten much media attention when some churches wanting to locate here ran into considerable resistance. Remember the St. Augustine Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church debacle? That church ultimately sued New Berlin and won.
And do you remember the flap over a Buddhist Temple? The June 12, 1997 Journal Sentinel reported: “An attempt to locate a Buddhist temple in New Berlin failed when neighbors objected to having a Buddhist temple in their midst, citing traffic, property values, and religious concerns.”
In a letter published in the Sept. 15, 1994 Journal newspaper, a man wrote: “ I am a Christian who lives in New Berlin and spoke at the August 29 hearing in favor of the proposed Buddhist temple. I said I hoped religious intolerance was not rearing its ugly head in New Berlin. I then listened intently to residents who spoke against the temple, saying their opposition was based solely on zoning and traffic concerns. They stated they were a Christian community with no room for bigots. It appears from some news accounts that some of the speakers were disingenuous that evening. To equate Buddhism with Satan worship, as one resident did, is irresponsible and ignorant in the extreme. Other residents say Buddhists do not belong in New Berlin. The First Amendment clearly guarantees freedom of religion, stating, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. You will note that the words ‘except in my neighborhood’ are nowhere to be found.”
New Berlin is a Christian community? Isn’t Christ’s message to LOVE THY NEIGHBOR—not love only those who look like us, have similar religious beliefs, or the same income level we do? Is it Christian to consider others inferior if they have less materially then we do, assume they are bad people or fear them? If Jesus, Mary and Joseph, were living in our time and had come to New Berlin to settle, would they be welcomed here? Aren’t we Christians taught that Jesus was born in very humble surroundings (a stable), cared more for people, including the poor-- than for things, property or wealth?
