At first glance the Ku Klux Klan and real-estate agents vary greatly in their motives, profession, and even morals which influence different actions. However, when glancing at the human characteristics of each group’s actions and the incentives behind each approach, microeconomics links the two correlations on one common ground: information. Information can be both beneficial and costly depending on the viewpoint as either the household or firm. When considering, for instance, information regarding housing prices available to the public on the internet, real-estate agents lose a portion of asymmetry where information which is known by the agent is not necessarily known by the household. This use of information as a scarce resource can then be allocated to fulfill the incentives of the real-estate agent which similar to most human beings, is to obtain the most profit from a limited amount of resources within reason of costs and benefits. In similar ways the Ku Klux Klan’s incentive changed during the time it evolved from a once dormant group into a popular assembly during the early 20th century. Used as an incentive for fear by real-estate agents, and as the source of secretes for the Ku Klux Klan, information can be viewed as a basis of economic influences.
Over time the Ku Klux Klan evolved from a group which often lynched African Americans, to more of a social organization which rarely lynched. This disappearance can be described using the theory of economic incentives and the costs/benefits of each decision. When lynching first began, it was not yet well known the direct correlation between African Americans which disobeyed the law and the amount of lynchings. Once a significant amount of lynching began punishment transfor...
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...self interest. The tendency nonetheless, is that most rational people act in their own best interest given incentives. Although professionals such as doctors may use asymmetrical information to their own benefit diagnosing patients for a profit, ultimately it would be in the best interest for the doctor to consider the cost/benefits of a misdiagnosis. If discovered, the credibility and amount of cliental will dramatically decrease, possibly costing the doctor his practice Acknowledging the importance of asymmetrical information along with the custom fear associated with certain situations, such as with doctors or real-estate agents, allows one to better evaluate their actions, and achieve wiser outcomes.
Works Cited
Dubner, Stephen J., and Steven D. Levitt. “The Ku Klux Klan and Real-Estate Agents.” In
Freakonomics. New York: HarperCollins, 2009.
On November 9, 1920, Byron de la Beckwith, an only child, was born to Byron De La Beckwith, Sr. and Susie Yerger in Sacramento, California. One of Beckwith’s early childhood memories was of the Ku Klux Klan marching through town, fully clad in their long white robes. During the twenties, there were over two million known members of the Klan and at least two were U.S. Senators. Needless to say, this left quite an impression on the young boy. Beckwith’s father died in 1926, his debts exceeding the value of his estate, leaving Susie and Byron Jr., whom they had nicknamed “Delay”, destitute. Susie left California, along with her son, for her native Greenwood, Mississippi. Beckwith’s mother passed away a few short years later, leaving Beckwith rearing to one of her cousins.
The Moore’s Ford lynching shows that the Ku Klux Klan was still very powerful in Georgia just after the Second World War. Blacks who lived in these areas which were overwhelmingly rural and contained large plantations owned by white men were regularly browbeaten into submission by the white minority and sporadic outbreaks of violence were not uncommon. There was a wealth of evidence against several white men who were prominent citizens of the county, but no prosecution was ever conducted and the murderers went to their graves without having paid for their crime....
By the end of the 19th century, lynching was clearly the most notorious and feared means of depriving Bl...
Franklin Zimring (2003) examines the relationship between the history of lynching and current capital punishment in the United States argueing that the link between them is a vigilante tradition. He adequately shows an association between historical lynchings and modern executions, though this paper will show additional evidence that would help strengthen this argument, but other areas of Zimring’s argument are not as well supported. His attitudinal and behavioral measures of modern vigilantism are insufficient and could easily be interpreted as measuring other concepts. Also missing from Zimring’s analysis is an explanation for the transition of executions from representing government control in the past to executions as representing community control in the present. Finally, I argue that Zimring leaves out any meaningful discussion of the role of race in both past lynchings and modern executions. To support my argument, using recent research, I will show how race has played an important role in both past lynchings and modern executions and how the changing form of racial relations may explain the transition from lynchings to legal executions.
The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...
From White Supremacy to White Power: The FBI, COINTELPRO-WHITE HATE, and the Nazification of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. " American Studies 48.3 (2007): 49-74. Jstor.com. Web. The Web.
The Ku Klux Klan is a United states based white supremacy group. It was originally conceived in the Reconstruction Era (1867) by former confederates. After being disbanded for their numerous murders, the group was revived decades later in the 20’s. The KKK would go on to be disbanded and revived one last major time in the 50’s-60’s. These major periods of historic Klan activity will be addressed in waves based on time period; first, second and third, respectively.
In his article, “Race and Housing in the Postwar City: An Explosive History,” Raymond Mohl focuses on suburbanization and racial segregation in post-World War II America. Due to discriminatory practices in the housing market,
The human mind interprets thought in a manner unique to their species. Each thought is expressed as an emotion, whether it be jubilation, sadness, anger or hate. The latter of these emotions is what I believe to be the strongest feeling that the human being can experience. In the face of hatred each individual reacts in their own peerless fashion. Some run in fear, while many speak out against such injustice; yet others react in a much different way—they embrace the hate. A prime example of a group of individuals that thrived in such an environment would be the second movement of the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan, reestablished in 1915, was not originally the potent force that they came to be in the middle part of the 1920’s. During the first five years of existence, the Klan only increased by four thousand; but during the next eight years nearly ten million men and women joined the ranks of the Ku Klux Klan. What events transpired that caused such a dramatic increase in Klan membership in such a limited time span? Leading Klan theorists of the 1920’s often pondered this question and it is my intention to examine their findings. Three prominent causes seemed to be found in these findings: the post-war feelings of many Americans, the natural aversion to anything foreign, and the various propaganda spread about and by the Klan.
Between 1882 and 1952 Mississippi was the home to 534 reported lynchings’ more than any other state in the nation (Mills, 1992, p. 18). Jim Crow Laws or ‘Black Codes’ allowed for the legalization of racism and enforced a ‘black way’ of life. Throughout the deep-south, especially in rural communities segr...
Although abolition of slavery in the South coincided with the conclusion of the Civil War, a century of institutionalized racism was widespread in the former Confederacy. This institutionalized racism came in the form of the Jim Crow laws. It was a social norm to look at African Americans as inferior or even harmful to the White population. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan roamed around "defending" the white population from the African Americans. This defense came in the form of public executions (lynching) or intimidation.
One of the most appalling practices in history, lynching — the extrajudicial hanging of a person accused of a crime — was commonplace in American society less than 100 years ago. The word often conjures up horrifying images of African Americans hanging from lampposts or trees. However, what many do not know is that while African Americans certainly suffered enormously at the hands of a white majority, they were not the only victims of this practice. In fact, the victims of the largest mass lynching in American history were Chinese (Johnson). On October 24th, 1871, a white mob stormed into the Chinatown of Los Angeles.
In the South, during the period 1880 to 1940, there was deep-seated and all-pervading hatred and fear of the Negro. There was an annual average of sixty-two lynchings for the years 1910 to 1919. However, beginning in 1923 lynchings bega...
The scholarship written for the subject about women in the Klan is limited. From different attempts of searching through the databases yielded a similar collection of articles and other articles that
Others are using the KKK as popularity. They are beginning to be a widespread bad name with current events effecting the purpose of their organization, by showing extreme violence in the public. They are finding ways to hack into databases (Kaufman). With the violent acts that are currently spiraling, there is also