> I don't know the numbers, but many of the people inside the Davidian
> compound were black. Perhaps you'd say that the perception was that they
> were all white, and perhaps you'd be right, but I'm not sure how you'd
> support that.
my impression, from the distance of melbourne, is that the davidians were peculiar for the US in the extent to which they were not a 'white sect'. and maybe this is because of an already false impression that religion in the US is starkly divided, especially at the apocalyptic end of the scale. but the davidians did not seem to conform to this after koresh took over. my other impression is that the the impression that they were a 'white sect' allowed the dems to crazily splutter about how crazy they davidians were without disturbing their constituency building strategies amongst religious african-americans -- ie., it was the dems who peddled this mythology, certainly not the davidians themselves.
and it's the relative success of that myth-building that means there is a split between those who would oppose the murderous infernos at WACO and the MOVE headquarters. crudely, i'd say it's a bit like the dems' other manoevres of sending a few well-advertised white guys to the chair. it allows them to proceed pretty much along the same lines as the repubs whilst making a few spectacular sacrifices of 'whites' (usually poor and thus expendable) along the way in order to placate one of their constituencies.
Angela _________