6 ms·

The teenager who saved a man with an SS tattoo

96 points by fredkelly 12y ago

product50 12y ago
I have noticed that Reddit's TIL subreddit (reddit.com/r/todayilearned) is becoming a source of lot of non tech articles on Hacker News including this one.
- fredkelly 12y ago
  I'm actually an ex-pat so the BBC is part of my routine, I've now bookmarked TIL though :)
acjohnson55 12y ago
That's a beautiful story. There's something really powerful about standing up for people who you'd be totally justified to let rot. I think we'd be in a much better place as a species if this kind of reaction was more commonplace, especially in this time of hyper-overreaction. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
Crito 12y ago
Commendable even without the neo-nazi angle. Jumping into an angry mob to save the victim of their aggression is incredibly dangerous. You risk the mob turning on you as well. I don't know if I'd have the guts to do it.
- nnq 12y ago
  I'm not trying to diminish the greatness of her gesture, but she really was shielded from the "You risk the mob turning on you as well" part by two very simple facts: her skin color and being a young woman... kind of hard to imagine a young afro-american woman as being pro-KKK and to mob linch her too :)
  - fredkelly 12y ago
    That may or may not be the case (I'm not sure mob mentality makes those distinctions), I can't imagine anyone making those judgements in the heat of the moment. It's a truly commendable act.
kochb 12y ago
Living in Ann Arbor, it is rather odd to hear about a protest getting violent in an otherwise open minded community that is as liberal and far left as San Francisco. Mob mentality. Not the same context as the article, but as an example the protests can get rather fervent and loud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw
- vinay427 12y ago
  Also in Ann Arbor, can confirm that this is definitely very odd. The blanket hate on GMOs stemming from Monsanto is disappointing, though, given their importance in reducing famine in many areas (among other uses). This does explain the "Stop Monsanto" scribbled on a stop sign near where I live, though.
  - mtinkerhess 12y ago
    I grew up in Ann Arbor and remember when this rally happened. I wasn't at the event but I remember a lot of people being really angry that the Klan was speaking. I also remember there was a group of people that took non-violence training and attended the rally with the intention of preventing violence. If I'm remembering right my parents took my and my brothers to a counter-protest about a mile from the main protest downtown. At the time the Klan was mostly a historical organization that you learned about along with the civil rights era in school -- they weren't an especially powerful organization in 1996. But that was 19 years ago, and so the history was 19 years more recent than it is today. And there were rumors of KKK activity happening in nearby Howell, so the protest wasn't purely symbolic -- it felt closer to home than that. Ann Arbor has a habit of taking to the streets. When we went to war with Iraq in 2003 almost my entire high school skipped class to protest downtown. When I visited over Thanksgiving I caught this one going down the street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MN6G0m8is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MN6G0m8is
  - pacifist 12y ago
    "given their importance in reducing famine" Turns out to be a myth: [1]"New Report Debunks 'Myth' That GMOs are Key to Feeding the World - Study upholds value of traditional methods 'shown to actually increase food supplies and reduce the environmental impact of production'" [1] http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/01/new-report-debunks-myth-gmos-are-key-feeding-world http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/01/new-report-debun...
kn0thing 12y ago
That woman is a redditor and actually chimed in on the reddit thread in the TIL community earlier today: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_that_at_a_1996_kkk_rally_in_ann_arbor/cixg55k https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_t...
rmason 12y ago
It may not be well known outside the state but the small town of Howell which is less than thirty miles from Ann Arbor was a Northern center for Klan activity. Robert E. Miles was a grand dragon in the Klan and I remember he regularly held events at a farm along with ritualistically burning crosses which frequently made the news. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles Most of the original followers of Miles have passed away but Howell still is unable to shake its Klan past. http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale_of_two_towns_newest_rac.html http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale...

96 points by fredkelly 12y ago

I have noticed that Reddit's TIL subreddit (reddit.com/r/todayilearned) is becoming a source of lot of non tech articles on Hacker News including this one.

fredkelly 12y ago
I'm actually an ex-pat so the BBC is part of my routine, I've now bookmarked TIL though :)

acjohnson55 12y ago

That's a beautiful story. There's something really powerful about standing up for people who you'd be totally justified to let rot. I think we'd be in a much better place as a species if this kind of reaction was more commonplace, especially in this time of hyper-overreaction. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

Crito 12y ago

Commendable even without the neo-nazi angle. Jumping into an angry mob to save the victim of their aggression is incredibly dangerous. You risk the mob turning on you as well. I don't know if I'd have the guts to do it.

nnq 12y ago
I'm not trying to diminish the greatness of her gesture, but she really was shielded from the "You risk the mob turning on you as well" part by two very simple facts: her skin color and being a young woman... kind of hard to imagine a young afro-american woman as being pro-KKK and to mob linch her too :)
- fredkelly 12y ago
  That may or may not be the case (I'm not sure mob mentality makes those distinctions), I can't imagine anyone making those judgements in the heat of the moment. It's a truly commendable act.

kochb 12y ago

Living in Ann Arbor, it is rather odd to hear about a protest getting violent in an otherwise open minded community that is as liberal and far left as San Francisco. Mob mentality. Not the same context as the article, but as an example the protests can get rather fervent and loud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3orPtIGyUw

vinay427 12y ago
Also in Ann Arbor, can confirm that this is definitely very odd. The blanket hate on GMOs stemming from Monsanto is disappointing, though, given their importance in reducing famine in many areas (among other uses). This does explain the "Stop Monsanto" scribbled on a stop sign near where I live, though.
- mtinkerhess 12y ago
  I grew up in Ann Arbor and remember when this rally happened. I wasn't at the event but I remember a lot of people being really angry that the Klan was speaking. I also remember there was a group of people that took non-violence training and attended the rally with the intention of preventing violence. If I'm remembering right my parents took my and my brothers to a counter-protest about a mile from the main protest downtown. At the time the Klan was mostly a historical organization that you learned about along with the civil rights era in school -- they weren't an especially powerful organization in 1996. But that was 19 years ago, and so the history was 19 years more recent than it is today. And there were rumors of KKK activity happening in nearby Howell, so the protest wasn't purely symbolic -- it felt closer to home than that. Ann Arbor has a habit of taking to the streets. When we went to war with Iraq in 2003 almost my entire high school skipped class to protest downtown. When I visited over Thanksgiving I caught this one going down the street: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MN6G0m8is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2MN6G0m8is
- pacifist 12y ago
  "given their importance in reducing famine" Turns out to be a myth: [1]"New Report Debunks 'Myth' That GMOs are Key to Feeding the World - Study upholds value of traditional methods 'shown to actually increase food supplies and reduce the environmental impact of production'" [1] http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/01/new-report-debunks-myth-gmos-are-key-feeding-world http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/01/new-report-debun...

kn0thing 12y ago

That woman is a redditor and actually chimed in on the reddit thread in the TIL community earlier today: https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_that_at_a_1996_kkk_rally_in_ann_arbor/cixg55k https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2al3cv/til_t...

rmason 12y ago

It may not be well known outside the state but the small town of Howell which is less than thirty miles from Ann Arbor was a Northern center for Klan activity. Robert E. Miles was a grand dragon in the Klan and I remember he regularly held events at a farm along with ritualistically burning crosses which frequently made the news. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Miles Most of the original followers of Miles have passed away but Howell still is unable to shake its Klan past. http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale_of_two_towns_newest_rac.html http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/03/a_tale...