Maine Is Not Exempt: Some facts about Maine's role in racial inequality over the years

ME has had a KKK presence since at least the 1920's. Perhaps the most notable event was the first daylight KKK parade IN THE NATION, which took place in Milo, ME in 1923.

Historically, KKK rallies have been held in towns across the state, including Portland, Kittery, Lewiston, MDI, and Bangor, among others.

KKK recruitment here has occured as recently (if not more) as 2017, where residents in towns including Waterville, Augusta, Freeport, and Skowhegan reported finding recruitment flyers in their yards and on their porches.

In 1911, a small mixed race community, that lived on the island of Malaga off of Phippsburg, was forcibly evicted and their community was destroyed. The state cited "inferior genetics", and sent many refugees to the Maine School for the Feeble Minded (yes that was a place).

This school was known to abuse students and perform forced sterilisations on "pupils" (more like inmates if you ask me). Officials at the school even dug up the graves on Malaga and reinterred the bodies in unmarked mass graves at the school.

Anyone who knows me knows I am deeply (sometimes annoyingly) proud of my state. Maine is my home, and I am so grateful to have been raised in such a beautiful and nature-filled place. However, in my 23 years, I have never once been taught these things.

The things I listed above I learned for myself, within the past two weeks. That is ridiculous. I always believed my schooling was fair, grounded, and exceptionally liberal. My teachers were self-declared Democrats, and they were very open about their views.

I can tell you that having not learned these things is not a failure on their part, but a failure on the school system as a whole. We are taught that we, as part of the North, were the 'good guys' (also not true, slave trade happened here as well).

These past few months have taught me more about racial inequality than the past 23 years of my life, and I am deeply embarrassed by that. The amount I have learned about myself and my own prejudices has caused a major shift in the way I see myself and where I come from.

I don't write this thread to bring attention to myself or to talk myself up; I write it to show that it's ok to look inside and discover your own shortcomings. I know I have a LOT more work to do, and it will never be over. But educating ourselves (as white people) about the

roles of our communities and our own implicit biases in the atrocities of the past and present is wholly necessary. Rethink what you've been told. Learn from others. Fact check fact check fact check.
#ruralprotest #BlackLivesMatter #educateyourself