Freakonomics: Chapter 2

How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?

Was founded after the Civil War by six former Confederate soldiers

Greek word for circle

To frighten and kill emancipated slaves and white people who supported them

Former Confederate generals and plantation owners

Pamphleering, lynching, shooting, burning, castrating and pistol-whipping

Withing a decade

Quick measures of legal, social and economic freedom for blacks

Allowed full-scale segregation

Helped spark the clans rebirth by presenting the Klan as crusaders for white civilization

8 million followers

Blacks, Catholics, Jews, Communists, Unionists, Immigrants, Agitators, etc.

Drew the line between the new clan and the threat and Europe by claiming that Hitler was copying the KKK

Atlanta KKK burned a 300-foot cross on the face of Stone Mountain, site of Robert E. Lee carving, to let everyone know that the clan was back

Became the Klan's headquarters

Lied in the public's fear that they were in alliance with law enforcement EX: Georgia

Was related by blood to Klan members and wrote books against bigotry

Folklorist, then a white correspondent for the Pittsburgh Courier(the country's largest black newspaper)

Hatred of small-mindedness, ignorance, obstructionism, and intimidation

a terrorist group

Had little knowledge of the KKK and mainly wrote editorials, not exposés

Kennedy's dramatic memoir of his exploits "inside" the Klan

A union worker and former KKK official that changed his ways and offered to infiltrate the Klan

Identities of local and regional leaders, upcoming plans, rituals, passwords and language

1) Attatching 'KL' to the beginning of words2) Handshake: Left-handed, limp-wristed fish wriggle3) Code Names: Mr. Ayak and Mr. Akai

The KKK secret police and "flog squad"

Was not as big of a threat as it was thought to be based on statistics. There were more lynchings when there were less members.

Out of fear Blacks accepted being treated like second class citizens and no harm came to them

Made up of a sorry fraternity of poorly educated men who need a place to vent and stay out all night

Member dues, protection money, jobs they were hired for, Klan rallies

Sold insurance policies to Klan members

Was used by Kennedy to exploit the KKK to millions

KKK Bible

Vice PresidentLecturerChaplainSecretaryTreasurerConductorInner GuardOuter Guard5-man investigation committeeFollowers of Chief Ass Tearer

1) An Exhaulted Cyclops + 12 Terrors2) A Great Titan + 12 Furies3) A Grand Dragon + 9 Hydras4) Imperial Wizard + 15 Genii

A program that had portrayed its hero fighting Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito during the war

AN avowed Klan hater and radio broadcaster

Klan attendance and new membership applications decreased

He understood the raw power of information

Hoard information to their advantage

The internet allowed consumers to compare prices

The dissemination of info. diluted its power

A beacon, a cudgel, an olive branch, a deterrent-- all depending on who wields it and how

Can have a sobering effect

Loses as much as a quarter of its value

It is common for one party to a transaction to have better info.

than another party

information

Has shrunk the gap between the experts and the public

All sins of info.

"Everybody else was doing it"

Very few of them are detected

Secretly recorded conversations of Eron employees that surfaced after the company emploded

Fear

Granite, state-of-the-art, corian, maple, gourmet

Fantastic, spacious, !, charming, great neighborhood

The gap between what an agent sells their house for and what a client sells their house for has shrunk by 1/3

Trent Lott implied he was in favor of segregation and was forced to leave the head of Senate

A tv show where contestants getting voted off can show discrimination rather than strategy; mainly the elderly and Latinos

Prevents people from voting off women and black people

Are the most successful subscription-based businesses on the internet

is usually more successful than someone who claims they are attractive and doesn't

People want to appear open-minded