I was lucky to be a volunteer literacy tutor at my local library when the book, White Flour, was released in 2012. I only read it a couple of times with my student, but the memory of the book resurfaced as I have been thinking about Trump’s intention to visit Springfield, OH in the next two weeks.
Author, David LaMotte, has made the book available as a 6-min YouTube video. Enjoy!
“When you’re fighting hatred, hatred is not the thing to use.”
LaMotte’s book was inspired by true events of May 26, 2007 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Southern Poverty Law Center wrote about it in their 2007 Fall Issue of The Intelligence Report. White supremacist protesters who organized the “Rally Against Genocide” did not show up in white robes like the characters in LaMotte’s book, but one wore a T-shirt with a swastika and they held signs reading "Diversity = White Death.” The Coup Clutz Clowns supplied the humorous counter protest.
Others have used humor before and since to fight against hate, as described in this 2017 article by Sarah Freeman-Woolpert.
I don’t know if Trump will follow through on his plan to visit Springfield, Ohio before the election. But if he does, I hope there will be some clowns there to combat his hate with humor, and to bring the Springfield community together in creative support of its Haitian residents.
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