Superman vs KKK | Trailer

Discover the surprising origins of the world's first Superhero, and how, in many ways, he was always on an inevitable collision course with America's most insidious vision of itself.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Superman, in his role of podcast mild manage reporter comes
face to face with the most dangerous manas in the
world a Menacealke.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Fandom presents Superman Versus the KKK explores the iconic nineteen
forties radio show in which Superman takes on the Ku
Klux Klan, whereas the show called it the Klan of
the Fiery Cross. What I can't.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Understand, mister kend is why the Fiery Cross clan should
burn across in front of Tommy Lee's house. But they're
nice people.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
I think it was actually pretty bold they have a
Superman fight the KKK in nineteen forty six, because I
think a lot of white Americans are pretty sympathetic with
the KKK was arguing for honestly.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
In our podcast Superman Versus the KKK, we dive deep
into how the media and the figure of Superman was
used to expose and disavow the KKK.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
The Klan of the Fiery Cross is made up of
intolerant bigots, Jim. They don't judge a man in the
decent American way by his own qualities. They judge him
by what church he goes doing, by the color.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Of his skin.

Speaker 5 (01:01):
The superhero takes that tradition of a kind of cultural
exemplarar and it magnifies it to deal with what are
really complicated, big problems.

Speaker 3 (01:11):
Meanwhile, the Clan had hired a pr agency to rebrand
itself when it lay fallow in the nineteen twenties. This
move led America's most notorious white supremacist terrorist organization to
franchise hate and make what would be hundreds of millions
of dollars.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
Today, American cultural memory is very short, especially when it
comes to things that people would rather forget.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Ultimately, this is the story of the invention of what
we call the American Way and the battle to own
it that rages on today, with each side using the
world's greatest superpower, the media and its power to control
your mind.

Speaker 7 (01:52):
The great conflict today is the dominant society, which is
whitefolk dealing with new struggles that they often put the
blame on people who don't look like them.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Intolerance is a filthy weed, Jim I told you before.
The only way you can get rid of it is
by hunting out the roots and pulling them out of
the ground.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Subscribe to Superman Versus the KKK wherever you listen to podcasts,