My Son Asked Me About the KKK

Recently my ten year old son started asking me questions about the KKK. How do you define such a heinous cult when you still refer to his penis as a pee pee? I struggled with this and cursed the day my children learn that such horrible things happen in our world. Now please don't get all up in my grill, my motor just started and I think the timing might be off. No where in parenting books that I have read is there one clear cut way to sugar coat the horrible things we eventually have to teach our children. If we don't teach them, someone else will and it is better coming from us. My eldest son is reading "David" a horrific but true account of the holocaust seen from a child's point of view. It is both a moving and soul trembling recreation of the torture the Jews suffered. Again myself being German, I am faced with questions I don't have the answers too. So here is my two cents...

I sit my children down and tell them we need to talk. As with all relationships in life these four words stir stomachs into swells. For the record once and awhile I tell my kids good news this way just to get them off guard. I begin as with all family talks, I ramble, they politely pretend they hear me, they respond robotically, and we all move on. This time was different. With a heavy heart I asked my oldest son to talk about his book. He describes a gut wrenching detailed synopsis of the concentration camps and tortures that were inflicted as though Death was then the lesser of the evils. With anger and tears we talked of how we could make the world a better place. Frustration over the treatment of the blacks in the south and during slavery brought up many emotions in my 12 year old. Seeing as how he wishes he had been born with ebony skin and dreadlocks, he couldn't fathom why anyone would want to hurt people of color because of their skin. Didn't they realize the best music ever came from black people? I laughed at his innocent honesty. Continuing on with the KKK I learn that my son Ben, my little drum playing, easy going, motorcycle loving baby of only a decade has a friend that aspires to be in the KKK. I truly and naively thought racism no longer existed. I am apparently innocently ignorant.