When I was a kid, growing up in St. Louis in the pre-civil rights era, there was an annual event called the Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball. I believe it continues to this day. The proceedings of this event were all very hush-hush but it was generally believed that a clique of local business leaders elected one of their members as Veiled Prophet for that year and the selected individual’s daughter rode in the parade and presided over the ball as the Queen of Love and Beauty.
Even as a kid all those years ago the whole thing made me queasy for reasons that should be obvious if you look at the two pictures I’ve posted above. The main picture is a fairly recent photo of a Veiled Prophet. You can see “Veiled Prophet” on the poster behind him. The insert is a picture of someone wearing the regalia of a Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan, an officer of the organization in control of a “domain”. No, they’re not identical but there is a strong resemblance. If you don’t hear a resonance between them, IMO you are tone deaf.
At the very least it is an elitist institution and at worst racist or certainly evoking a deeply racist past. I think there are some traditions that really need to go and the VP is one of them.
This came up at the Cardinals blog recently, and it seems like a lot of locals did not know about it until this week. They knew about the fair, which sounds like another drinking excuse on the riverfront. Some were aware of a parade, and some knew that the fair changed its name back in the early 90s to distance itself from some history.
Some of the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewes wear outfits that are reminiscent of the KKK, but probably because it is carnival, and nothing is sacred, I did not see it as offensive, or any more offensive than costumes people wore. In the early 90s, the city council required the various krewes to commit to non-discrimination, and a few krewes balked, most importantly Mistick Krewe of Comus, which was founded before the Civil War. The ordinance was ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts, but I believe Comus just has a private ball these days. Comus was/is elitist, but started many of the city’s Mardi Gras traditions and the other krewes both mimicked and mocked them.
Sorry, I don’t see any Veiled Prophet on the posters. I do see the letters VP. If you’re thinking of the woman in the veil, I don’t see any resemblance to the KKK Grand Dragon at all. Perhaps you posted the wrong photographs.
There can’t be more than a few thousand KKK’s in the whole US. However, we do have violent marxist street gangs like BLM and Antifa in numerous cities. They actually have seized physical control of sections of Portland, Minneapolis, Seattle, and other cities, and they maintain that control with street barricades, AR-15’s, body armor and gas masks. They have run off the police, who do not dare enter the no go zones. They also control civilians who live in the no go zones, and they dictate what the press can cover, record, and photograph.
Most importantly, the street gangs have the active support of the elected officials in those cities.
The left is conducting an actual armed insurrection in several places. That should be your concern. Weimerica is here.
That’s a man in a veil. Just for the record I think that Ellie Kemper is completely blameless. What I’ve learned from reading the various articles is that she’s one of those Kempers, of which I was unaware. That makes her somewhat similar to another heiress, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.
Since I wrote the above, I learned that the Veiled Prophet actually originated from New Orleans Mardi Gras. It looks to me like a Missourian in finance and grain, Charles Slayback, moved to New Orleans following the Civil War where he became prominent in local business. He appears to have been a Unionist and a Republican, maybe a carpetbagger depending on your point of view. And when he returned to St. Louis he wanted recreate the Mardi Gras tradition both for the entertainment of an exclusive ball, but also a tourist draw from Illinois.
His brother joined the confederacy, with whom he is confused in many accounts, but there were 15 founders: nine unionists and seven confederates. I don’t think race is a significant issue at least in the beginning, its distinguishing feature is class.