Profiles In OC Pioneers Who Were Klan Members: James W. Newell, Fullerton-Area Miner/Mason

• Gustavo, why don't you ever mention racist comments made on OC Weekly's site about white people? Why don't you ever try to write a story about white people and Mexicans living harmoniously together? I swear everything I read from you is attempt after attempt to convince people that Orange County is still this "Orange Curtain" filled with white conservatives. Look at Anaheim, dude... look at all of north county. Koreans, Middle Easterners, Mexicans, Vietnamese...Orange County is hardly what it was thirty years ago. As a white female who dates Mexican men, your articles infuriate me; it is chocked full of consistent anti-white undertones and at times just blatant accusations. I was a Journalism major at CSUF a few years ago. I was present for a lecture of yours and I could barely stand to be in the same room with you. Journalists like yourself are exactly what I don't want to be, which is why I had to change paths soon after. I hope one day you find success without capitalizing on racial stereotypes of your OWN people.

• How is this guy a Pioneer?

• Actually the Free and Accepted Masons are not (technically) a "secret society". Their membership is not particularly hidden, you'll notice that masons and members of related organizations tend to proudly display their membership. If asked, they will tell you they are a mason. If you ask, you can join, the only requirement being a belief in a supreme being. Their secrets are limited to some passwords and some ritual work, in the days before IDs this was the only reliable method of identifying a member you had no personal knowledge of. The KKK is in direct contrast with a membership that is and was a strictly guarded secret, a true secret society. That said, membership in the masons, and I'm sure, the KKK was part of maintenance of the good-old-boy network and strict segregation of the haves and the have-nots.

• And....?

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