Joe Kennedy’s Silence is Violence
I found a form of racism and committed myself to fighting it. I wrote an email and sent it to Massachusetts Democratic Party leaders asking for their help demanding local media cover Rep. Joe Kennedy III’s 19-year membership in the notoriously racist Kappa Alpha Order (KA). It was an act of anti-racism. I was sincerely recruiting them to help me get to the truth of his longtime membership. Malcolm X said, “I’ve had enough of someone else’s propaganda. I’m for truth, no matter who tells it.” To this day, the truth remains hidden because of Kennedy’s silence and the lack of any meaningful local journalism on the issue. Even before he first ran for Congress in 2012, as an active KA member, nothing. Why? With all that is happening in 2020, in the struggle to dismantle white supremacy, the story is more newsworthy than ever before.
If Sen. Ed Markey’s resume had a 19-year membership in a misogynistic Confederate costume cult with a history of sexual assault on it would local media look the other way? Many would find it disqualifying…and rightfully so. So why the double standard? Why does Joe Kennedy III get less scrutiny? When I ask more seasoned activists why they think Kennedy has gotten a pass on the issue, they invariably respond with some version of, “Because he’s a Kennedy,” as if unaccountability and secrecy are his white privilege and birthright. But I am still asking questions because white silence is violence and Joe Kennedy III has been too quiet about his longtime KA membership for too long.
But who will he answer to? Kennedy refused to talk to Kali Holloway when she reached out to him regarding her story, “The history of America’s most racist frat was no secret…except to Joe Kennedy III.” The article meticulously lays out KA’s vile racism and perpetuation of white supremacy. Holloway argues Kennedy is still a member of KA and either not telling the whole truth about what he knew, when he knew it or was negligently clueless, which is not believable given KA’s reputation and Kennedy’s education, privilege and political family ties.
Despite Kennedy’s surrogates’ efforts to make it so, this isn’t about me. This is about the U.S. Senate candidate with a 19-year membership in a racist frat and the questions that remain unanswered. I’m just a local activist and MA voter who stumbled across the issue. I am not a Markey surrogate and I do not work for his campaign. Yes, I early-voted for Markey and started an online petition calling for Kennedy to drop out that has over 500 signatures, but before that I was an undecided voter who dug too deep into KA and Kennedy’s longtime, and arguably ongoing, membership. The public has a right to know the answers to these questions because they speak to Kennedy’s character and qualification to serve.
Furthermore, my effort isn’t about just this race. Kennedy is only 39 years old and, regardless of the outcome of the September 1st primary, likely to run for office again. If we don’t get the whole truth of his KA connection now, then when?
When he first announced his campaign for Senate, I only really knew his name and family. I, generally, like the idea of a younger candidate and supported late Sen. Ted Kennedy. I admire Bobby and John for their civil rights activism. Joe Kennedy III is in my age group, we could’ve gone to high school together. I thought maybe, like me, he grew up disillusioned by Bush v. Gore and was increasingly radicalized by the Iraq War, the Great Recession, the Occupy Movement and rampant institutional racism and police violence vs. Black people, people of color and poor people. But my basic research turned up a trust fund-fueled multi-millionaire oligarch, former prosecutor, self-described “pragmatic progressive” and member of Kappa Alpha Order (KA), a notoriously racist college fraternity that shares roots with the Ku Klux Klan, calls its members “knights” and, to this day, promotes “gentlemanly conduct as inspired by Robert E. Lee, our spiritual founder.”
KA made news recently when they suspended a chapter for publicly denouncing Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy. ProPublica also recently exposed KA members for desecrating the Emmett Till memorial in Mississippi and posing for pictures in front of it.
How could Joe Kennedy be a member of this group? How long was he a member? Did he not know their racist reputation? How could that be possible? If he did know, when did he first learn of it? Was he still a member? Did he fund them? Did he help promote them? Did they use him to recruit new members? It made no sense. How does one of the richest people in the country end up in the most racist fraternity? I had so many questions. But there were no meaningful stories on it, just passing references that glossed his college years with a story about him drinking milk.
Since even before George Floyd’s murder, I had attended Black Lives Matter demonstrations and made activism a central part of my life. I remain inspired by this new generation of Black Lives Matter leaders and activists who call on white people to seek out and find ways to be “anti-racist.” They consistently ask us to carry more weight in the struggle vs. white supremacy and to confront racism wherever we find it. So knowing what I knew about Joe Kennedy III’s KA membership, I had to speak out. I began emailing, DM’ing and tweeting everyone I could, trying to raise awareness and inspire some real media coverage. I began researching KA and was horrified by what I learned.
Founded the year the Civil War ended by former Confederates, KA has been described as a “white supremacist organization” and has a well-documented history of terrorizing Black people. TRIGGER WARNING: For example, KA chapters were called “Klans” until the 1950s. In the 1960s they lowered their flags to half-mast when schools were desegregated. They had Blackface and Confederate-themed parties and didn’t prohibit Confederate celebrations until 2016. END TRIGGER WARNING
Then, out of nowhere, on June 18th, the eve of the 155th Juneteenth celebration, Kennedy revealed his nearly 20-year membership in KA (2000–2019) via a Facebook live post. He claimed that in 2019, he and some other members wrote a letter to KA asking to be disassociated. But is that all he, a U.S. Congressman, did to disassociate…sign a group letter just before running for U.S. Senate? He admitted “it was important to reflect on how past actions contributed to structures that ‘solidify white privilege and supremacy and the way these institutions continue to segregate and dominate society.’”
Inadequacy of his attempt aside, there are two big issues related to his alleged disaffiliation. First, you can’t quit KA. According to the aforementioned Varlet of Kappa Alpha Order, “Once you have decided to become a Kappa Alpha, and have pledged to uphold the ideals of the Order, there is no release from your obligations except by expulsion.” Membership lasts “a lifetime.” So, has Joe Kennedy been officially expelled by KA? Has he called for the abolition of KA? And how had this never come up in any of his previous campaigns for Congress, especially since he was an active member then?
Secondly, Jesse Lyons, Assistant Executive Director for Advancement for the Kappa Alpha Order, told the Stanford Daily in response to Kennedy’s announcement, “Congressman Kennedy has never called to discuss any issue.”
So, Kennedy has explaining to do. Is he still officially a KA member according to KA? Why was his attempt to quit KA done so quietly in 2019? Why did he not publicly announce it then? Was he trying not to bring attention to the fact of his longtime membership? Is cosigning a letter all he’s done to disaffiliate? At what point did he first realize KA is a racist group? At what point did he discover their association with Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy? Did he ever read the KA website or the Varlet of Kappa Alpha Order? If so, when? Before 2019, did he not know of their racist values and deeds?
Why did it take Kennedy so long to attempt to quit KA? His very chapter at Stanford, in 2015, is where 19-year old Brock Turner got drunk at a keg party and sexually assaulted an unconscious woman of color. Why did he not disaffiliate at that time? Why did he not cut ties after Trayvon Martin, or Mike Brown or Eric Garner? Did he quit out of conviction or political convenience? And what does that say about who he is as a person and leader?
Why was his KA chapter placed on housing probation in February 2003, Kennedy’s senior year? Were the issues related to racism or sexual violence?What was the real substance of his experience? Why did he choose KA? He was a billionaire-family heir, he could have joined any frat he wanted. In his FB Live event he made it sound like he needed a place to stay. But the Kennedy family is so wealthy, they could’ve built him his own house…or two!
What was his KA initiation like? Did it involve Robert E. Lee, their “spiritual founder” or Samuel Zenas Ammen, the former-Confederate “practical founder?” Did he ever raise a glass and toast Robert E. Lee? Or participate in any “Old South” celebrations? Did he celebrate Lee’s birthday? Did his chapter have a Civil War-era cannon facing north, as other chapters do? Were there ever any racism issues while he was there? Any other issues with alcohol or sexual violence?
What has been his involvement since graduating? Has he supported them financially? If so, how much money has he given KA over nearly 20 years? How was that money used? Which of their events has he attended since graduating? Did his financial support fund any racist events? Did he ever hire KA members or give them any preferential treatment? Did he every legislate on KA’s behalf or any members’ behalf? Has he given any financial support to the members who spoke at his FB live event?
In his FB Live event, Kennedy made it sound like his Stanford KA chapter was somehow unaffiliated with national KA, but was it not still under the authority of KA? And if they were so dissimilar then why would he feel compelled to quit last year? Is it possible he knows they’re not as fundamentally different as he wants voters to believe? We know from the Southwestern University chapter’s example that the national KA authority will suspend chapters that stray too far from their Confederate culture. So, apparently, Stanford KA couldn’t have been too far afield. Furthermore, the Stanford chapter has a history of promoting white supremacy and veneration of the “Old South.”
Records from the Stanford Daily show Stanford KA pledges in 1976 had a “pledge project” to learn about Ammen and Robert E. Lee, then had to pass a test to become full on “knights.” Did he receive the same indoctrination? And fund the same indoctrination? Records also show in 1931, Stanford KA celebrated Robert E. Lee’s birthday. If Stanford KA ceased these traditions before Kennedy was a member, when did they stop? Is there proof of the Stanford chapter of KA being a wholly separate entity from KA, other than the candidate and his friends’ self-serving accounts? If there is some Stanford Chapter exception in the Varlet of the Kappa Alpha Order, I haven’t seen it and Kennedy implying such is misleading to voters. Furthermore, his excuse that he was just an 18-year old kid when he joined KA does not justify his 19-year membership. Voters cannot have a true picture of who he really is without knowing more about his experience with and support for KA.
Moreover, is Kennedy’s longtime membership in KA inconsistent with the values and judgment he has displayed in his career? After Stanford, he went to Harvard Law. With his last name and a Harvard Law degree, he could have worked anywhere. He chose to become a prosecutor for District Attorney Michael O’Keefe, a conservative, anti-social justice DA who recently wrote an op-Ed in the Globe critical of DA Rachael Rollins, a champion of restorative justice, police transparency/accountability and criminal justice reform.
Kennedy opposed marijuana legalization until recently, because he didn’t want police to lose a valuable pretext they use to search cars. And we all know Black people, people of color and poor people are disproportionately targeted in those searches. “‘If you smelled [marijuana] in a car, you could search a car,’ Kennedy said. ‘When it became decriminalized, you couldn’t do that.’” Did his desire to perpetuate the racist war on drugs tie back to his KA roots?
Kennedy also endorsed status quo white men like Michael Capuano and Greg Henning, backed by the establishment and police, over transformational progressive Black female candidates, Rep. Ayanna Pressley and DA Rachael Rollins, respectively. Is this inconsistent with his KA connection?
Kennedy supporters recently rented out a loud-speaker truck to interrupt Markey events. In Jamaica Plain on August 1, 2020, they repeatedly drove by, within just feet of supporters, and shouted over civil rights activists speaking at an event centered on LGBTQ+ issues and advocacy. Is this the kind of despicable bullying one would expect from a KA frat boy?
And yet, Kennedy’s Senate run pitches him as a newly-woke progressive activist, showing up to protests, using a bullhorn, saying good things and donating to good causes. But do we really know him? Billionaire conservative Bill Weld does and has endorsed Kennedy, bragging, “I’ve known him since the day he was born.” So which is the real Joe Kennedy III? Learning more about his time at KA is crucial to unlocking that mystery.
White silence is violence. In this moment we all must speak up and seek out the truth. Kennedy being so quiet for 19 years about his racist frat that, even he admits, promotes white supremacy is violence, too. He should be working to dismantle racist institutions like KA, not perpetuating them by hiding the truth of his own longtime membership. But that would take real progressive leadership, a quality Joe Kennedy III has yet to demonstrate.
