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WalMart Promotes KKK as Patriotism

 
 
grant
19:16 / 29.08.02
Northwest Alabama...

Meherg and other Wal-Mart shoppers were shocked to find business cards from the Ku Klux Klan tucked inside books and book covers at a patriotic display at the Muscle Shoals Wal-Mart.

The cards issued "A message of hope and deliverance to America," and asked for a $3 donation to the KKK for information on helping white children, "America's new minority."

The card lists an Arkansas post office box and a Web address to the Klan's online version of a patriotism store selling T-shirts and other products.
 
 
grant
19:46 / 29.08.02
I might add that in a way, I find this sort of thing quite beautiful. Triple subversion, maybe - patriotism vs. "patriotism" vs "patriotism(?)".
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
19:47 / 29.08.02
The thread title was a dirty trick, grant. It's like you put slipped your business card into my copy of I AM SPOCK.
 
 
Mr Tricks
19:52 / 29.08.02
Ironic in that Walmart is Known for appearances in "poor" communities and hiring predominantly "black" employees at embarisingly low wages... Not that I have any links but I keep hearing the ACLU amongst others have an Axe to Grind for Keeping People of Color "poor" because of this.
 
 
w1rebaby
19:52 / 29.08.02
Well, technically white children are a minority... there's more people who aren't white and aren't children...

At least, while the KKK may spam our books, they're not spamming our inboxes. I've yet to receive any racist mail. Can you imagine the shitstorm that would ensue if a few decent hackers got white power spam?

and... Muscle Shoals?
 
 
grant
19:52 / 29.08.02
It *seems* like the books were actually shipped that way from some plant in Arkansas, where Walmart is headquartered.

Muscle Shoals is a town in Alabama, of course.
 
 
bio k9
20:03 / 29.08.02
This type of shit happens all the time. I have a friend that works at Borders and she says that people are always putting religious stuff in the gay books and magazines.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
20:03 / 29.08.02
Waitaminnit! Wait just a goddam minute. Muscle Shoals? Seriously?

I'm going to have to take a closer look here...
 
 
gridley
20:27 / 29.08.02
yeah, when I worked at Borders we had these guys who were always ink stamping racist and anti-semitic messages in books. It's really touch to catch anyone doing it. Fortunately we had a full time security guard and he started watching their favorite sections. Caught a couple.
 
 
remorse
20:29 / 29.08.02
I was at a birthday party for a friend a while ago and some guy was trying to "recruit" me into some sort of white power group or something like the KKK. He was totally beating around the bush and would not tell me the name of his so called group. He continued throwing about sloppy statistics like 'twenty percent of the white population aren't proud to be white' blahblahblah...I really can't remember the stupid shit he said. I asked him what was he telling me this all for and he said I should join him and he has books by good people that I should read. I said I like rap music and have black friends. That pretty much kept him away for the day.

I told my friend whose Birthday it was about that guy and asked him why the hell was he there. He said it was his brother's 'friend', and he has never met him before.

I guess the klan needs members badly, if they are seeking help from me and stuffing books at Wal-Mart.


"Is you, or is you not, my constituants?"
Klan member/Politician from the movie
'Oh Brother, Where Art Thou'
 
 
William Sack
20:52 / 29.08.02
"Companies say message doesn’t reflect their beliefs" - is this a generalisation?
 
 
Hieronymus
22:32 / 29.08.02
Walmart's not the only store being infected by the racist meme. Seems Target has unknowingly been sporting hardcore Neo-Nazi apparel. Make sure you hit Stop on your browser after the page loads. There seems to be some weird Javascripting that suddenly links you to an error page which reads "Sorry. Couldn't find the story".

Don't know about you guys, but the whole 88 "Heil Hitler" iconography is news to me.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
22:53 / 29.08.02
"88" kinda sounds like "idiot".
 
 
moriarty
23:52 / 29.08.02
I worked with some friends on a comic awhile back called Agent 88. We found out about the racist implications, and were divided on whether we should change the name or not. Thankfully, the whole thing fell apart before we had to reach a decision.
 
 
Mazarine
00:34 / 30.08.02
Two of the bookstores that I've worked for had similar problems, while there was no direct mention of the KKK on the card, it was a white supremecist group, but we always suspected people were putting them into the books while in the store. At one, we tended to find them in political science and current affairs books by African American authors. At the other, a few of the employees had a theory that it was a fellow employee- a notably antagonistic, hyper-conservative fellow employee.

It seems unlikely that the cards were put in at the distributors/warehouse, since they've only turned up in one display (that we know of). Why stop at one if you were sticking them in there?
I would guess that the cards were inserted after the display arrived. So that means employee or customer.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:37 / 30.08.02
Probably customer, I'd guess. Anyone whose idea of subtlety is shoving cards into books people they know probably aren't gonna agree with them'll buy... they'll probably have inadvertently tipped off their colleagues as to their bonehead nature.

(off topic- Pierce-I think his name was- who wrote "The Turner Diaries" died recently. I shouldn't find that funny, but fuck it, I just do, okay?)

The "88" thing- I guess it's like Combat 18 (the "18" standing for "Adolf Hitler"... goddamn, ain't these Nazis erudite?)
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
09:40 / 30.08.02
Having just re-read the original post, I realise my "people who're gonna buy them probably aren't gonna agree with anyway" thing was probably a little optimistic.

Still, I'd go with "customer". And will rephrase my argument- anyone who's fervent enough about their fascism to risk their job over it (I assume- or indeed hope- this would be a sackable offence)- would, again, probably have alerted their colleagues, inadvertently or otherwise etc.
 
 
.
12:16 / 30.08.02
Am I the only one who finds it disturbing that use of a number is now off limits... OK, so I can see how certain words are likely to cause offence and probably shouldn't be used, but 88 is a number damnit! We need to the number 88 to count between 87 and 89- it's no good sacrificing the use of a number just because some idiot nazis want to subvert it. Surely the only way to make sure that "88" doesn't become totally taboo is to not get all uppity about using it?[trivialising]It's like not wearing black trousers because neo-nazis wear them too[/trivialising].
 
 
All Acting Regiment
03:19 / 01.06.06
Context, mate. In the case of "Agent 88", there's that whole secret/millitary thing going on. I'd imagine that in certain areas where 88 is associated with fascists on the street, it would be an issue if somewhere stocked shirts with that on.

Apparently fascists in parts of Germany wear Lonsdale tops with an unzipped coat over it so it spells NSDA (National Socialist Something Something)- that wouldn't stop me wearing a Lonsdale top in the UK (where Lonsdale is hip hop fashion) but were I to go to Germany I'd avoid it.
 
 
Ninjas make great pets
07:09 / 01.06.06
(am I reading this right? four years is a long time to take to make such a short response!)
 
 
illmatic
07:25 / 01.06.06
Legba, why are mining The Conversation?
 
 
Pingle!Pop
09:36 / 01.06.06
He continued throwing about sloppy statistics like 'twenty percent of the white population aren't proud to be white'

Waitaminute... assuming that statistic's not just pulled out of nowhere, 80% of the white population refer to themselves as proud to be white?!
 
 
petunia
12:49 / 01.06.06
Does this mean Legba has been in deep freeze for the past four years?

If it does, who's been posting as him all this time?!
 
 
iamus
12:54 / 01.06.06
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
12:56 / 01.06.06
Wouldn't worry, Pingles- probably just means 80% couldn't be arsed to answer such a fucknutted question.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
14:07 / 01.06.06
Wow, that's odd. I could've sworn this topic was on the front page...
 
 
Mourne Kransky
14:28 / 01.06.06
With your flair for digging up long forgotten items, Legba, could you see if you can lay your talented hands on the Massive Attack album I lost some years back, two house moves ago? And, if there's time before you have your tea, I could use my youth and six pack back as well. Haven't seen either of them in over twenty years.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
14:49 / 01.06.06
I could use my youth and six pack back as well.

Some kid ran off with your beer? That's not good.
 
 
Quantum
14:55 / 01.06.06
Ganesh maybe?
 
 
All Acting Regiment
17:02 / 01.06.06
A six pack back? You had six backs?
 
 
Sniv
17:10 / 01.06.06
No, he had a youth and a six-pack but the youth stole the six-pack.
 
 
Jack Fear
17:11 / 01.06.06
The beast with six backs, perhaps? The mind boggles.
 
 
Sniv
17:14 / 01.06.06
Yeah, hexagons are freaky.
 
 
Mon Oncle Ignatius
06:25 / 02.06.06
Yeah, hexagons are freaky.

Speaking of cod-numerology - maybe we should avoid all this reference to sixes too, what with it being so close to the Day Of Sla-(you-know-who) - there have been three posts in a row so far with the Numeral in - and a mention of "the Beast" too.

There are probably some things with which we should not mess, after all.
 
  
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