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INTOLERANCE EXPLAINED

Circle of Fire

By William H. Hooks (New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1982)

Introduction

Intolerance is based on misinformation, generalizations, and an unwillingness to go beyond the generalizations to get to know the real person. Intolerance is based on fear.

Summary

The story is set in 1936 in North Carolina, near the boarder of South Carolina, in the United States of America. Harrison, the protagonist, is an eleven-year-old white boy whose two best friends are an eleven-year-old black boy, Kitty Fisher, and his sister, Scrap. The youth come across a band of gypsies (Catholic Irish tinkers) camping on Harrison’s family property. The children overhear a local landowner named Bud, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, making plans to attack the group. The Klan despises these people they had never before seen because they are Catholic and not Baptist (both are Christian denominations). Additionally, these gypsies preferred to preserve their traditions rather than assimilate into the larger population.

The Ku Klux Klan is a secret fraternal organization comprised of racist Caucasians who believe in the inferiority of blacks, Jews, Catholics, and most other minority groups. Members of the Klan used violence to intimidate minorities and chase them from their towns. This violence was normally accomplished under cover of night and members would hide their identity under white sheets used as cloaks and white hats that also covered their faces. The group was originally organized in the South in 1866, then disbanded and reorganized several times.

Harrison’s father welcomed the group of Irish gypsies that camped on his land. He was the type of man who was curious of others and tolerant of difference. But he also understood the violent tendencies of the Ku Klux Klan and warned his son to stay away from the gypsy camp. Harrison, like his father, judges a person for his actions, rather than for his color or religion. However, Harrison does not understand that his white skin and Baptist religion, making him part of the majority in his community, afford him both a degree of prestige and protection. He comes to understand his naivety in asking his black friend Kitty Fisher to help him warn the gypsies about the Klan’s plans to attack them. He sets out on his own to warn them, but eventually receives help from friends, his father, and law officers.

Excerpt from page 71

[Harrison, Kitty Fisher and Scrap overhear Klansmen talk about attacking the gypsy camp and about the side benefit of terrorizing the black community to ensure they continue to live in fear and refrain from demanding equality and justice. The speech of the Klansmen is filled with hatred and racial epithets.]

“We were quiet carrying the trees and the Christmas greens back to the house. I don’t know why, but the ugly things those men said had put a distance between me and my friends. I felt guilty the same way as I did in school when the teacher said, ‘All right, we’re going to sit without any talking until the guilty one raises his hand.’ Even when I didn’t know a thing about it, I felt guilty. On the silent trip home, I felt that way—only worse.”

Excerpt from pages 139-140

“Pa, will the Klan come back again?”
“Probably.”
“Do you think they’d hurt Kitty Fisher and Scrap?”
“Their skin is the right color.”
“Why, Pa, why?” …
“… A part of it is fear — those high and might nightriders are for the most part scared little men hiding under bedsheets who need to have somebody they can bully and look down on. I reckon people have been frightened of things that are different since the beginning of time. It can be different color of skin, a different religion, or even different languages and customs. . . .
“There’s something in all of us that wants to be top dog, that wants to keep our kind in control. Human decency doesn’t seem to be a God-given gift. It’s a precious thing you have to learn early and keep working at.”

Questions and Discussion Topics:

Harrison and his family are not racists. They have always treated the African-American community with fairness and respect. And Harrison’s best friends are black. Why, then does he feel guilty when the bigoted Klansmen spew their hatred and racial epithets?

Do we sometimes experience this same type of guilt that Harrison feels? And does this guilt inhibit us from improving relationships because it silences us and allows both sides to only assume what the other is thinking and feeling?

What does Pa mean that human decency isn’t a God-given gift?

How can we learn human decency, tolerance?

Pa says we need to learn it early and keep working at it. How do we keep working at being tolerant and decent?

Is it logical to be afraid of something simply because it is different? How can we overcome this initial feeling, if we feel it?