Wal-Mart shoppers find Klan cards hidden among books in patriotic display

Associated Press / SFGate

[RCW2001]

Tuesday, August 27, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/08/27/national0732EDT0477.DTL

(08-27) 04:32 PDT MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (AP) --

Shoppers at a Wal-Mart in Alabama found business cards from the Ku Klux Klan inside books at a patriotic display in the store.

"I was so startled I read it three times," said Mary Meherg, who saw the cards while shopping at the Muscle Shoals store on Monday. "I couldn't believe it."

The cards were tucked inside copies of a book written by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, and red, zip-up book covers sold to benefit a nonprofit foundation named for Todd Beamer, one of the heroes on United Airlines Flight 93 last September.

The KKK cards touted a "message of hope and deliverance to America" and solicited a $3 donation to the group for information on helping white children, "America's new minority." The cards listed an Arkansas post office box and the address for an online Klan store.

Officials at the Muscle Shoals Wal-Mart said they previously have found KKK literature in other goods. As in Monday's case, the literature was removed as soon as it was found, store officials said.

"It's definitely not something we want in our store," company spokeswoman Sharon Weber said. "Now that we've learned about it, we need to get them out."

Rebecca Irwin, marketing director for Gregg Gift Co., which makes the book covers for the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, said the company was "shocked and extremely upset to learn that someone is using our product as a vehicle to promote their hate organization."

©2002 Associated Press  

[Poohbah]

Were these cards left by friends of yours, perchance?

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[vetvetdoug]

Big deal. This has been going on for a couple of decades. One can't go to a restroom from the Shoals to Memphis without seeing some of the KKK literature laid on the urinal or comode. In fact, there is a lot of NAACP and religious literature in the same areas. I guess we need the "hate Crime" police to check this out too.

[strela]

One can't go to a restroom from the Shoals to Memphis without seeing some of the KKK literature laid on the urinal or comode.

And a good deal inside as well.

[xJones]

Have you ever met a Klansman or seen any of their *literature*? I've met one, and he was so stereotypical it was funny. Pot-belly, hair on the shoulders showing underneath the white sleeveless t-shirt, one middle front tooth missing. He tried to hand me a very poorly xeroxed brochure, and I wish so much I had kept it as a collector's item. Dumb doesn't begin to describe it. If dumbnitude were a virtue, that man would have been an archangel.

[joesnuffy]

So I guess they didnt leave any 40% off coupons for the local rib joint?.....just kidding...

[Arkinsaw]

That's like somebody throwing a dirty diaper up in your yard.

[CWRWinger]

"It's definitely not something we want in our store," company spokeswoman Sharon Weber said. "Now that we've learned about it, we need to get them out."

In a knee jerk response to this, the next thing we know WalMart will be banning all vehicles with Confederate symbols from their parking lots.

[Arkinsaw]

Have you ever met a Klansman or seen any of their *literature*? I've met one, and he was so stereotypical it was funny. Pot-belly, hair on the shoulders showing underneath the white sleeveless t-shirt, one middle front tooth missing. He tried to hand me a very poorly xeroxed brochure, and I wish so much I had kept it as a collector's item. Dumb doesn't begin to describe it. If dumbnitude were a virtue, that man would have been an archangel.

I was on the way back from Dallas one time and they had a live interview on the radio with the "Southwest Regional Public Relations officer" or some such. This guy was the dumbest guy I had ever heard speak and had no idea how to pronounce half the words he used. I had to wonder if they had actually chosen their most articulate spokesperson for this position. Probably so.

[iav2]

lol

[GraniteStateConservative]

I recall the KKK particpating in Adopt-a-Highway in Arkansas.

[gundog]

I believe it was David James Duncan (The River Why)that coined the term 'litterture' for such rubbish. From the locations listed, I can't make out whether this is an attack on Ms. Cheney, the Klan, or if this is how the Klan chooses to disseminate their 'ideas'.

[robowombat]

Attention! Fascism in Aisle 3.

[Poohbah]

litterture

THAT is a great word for it! Bravo Zulu to David James Duncan!

[GraniteStateConservative]

I met a guy at college who came from a good family and I discovered he listened to nazi hate-rock. He let me listen to it and it made me nauseous. This guy was not just off the Springer show.

[dead]

Howard Stern often has Daniel Carver on his show. The guy is something like "The Grand Poohbah" of the KKK.

He really is one of the most unintentionally funny people I've ever heard speak. His dumbness is boundless.

[gundog]

...up in your yard.

A lovely turn of phrase, that.

gundog(whelped in Siloam Springs)

[Non-Sequitur]

Odd. You would have expected them to be in linens.

[IsItTimeYet]

...This guy was the dumbest guy I had ever heard speak and had no idea how to pronounce half the words he used. I had to wonder if they had actually chosen their most articulate spokesperson for this position. Probably so.

Or, more in keeping with the media's practice, they probably shelved the interview until they could corner some illiterate, hairy shouldered mumbler and pay him to spit a few words into the microphone. They know that it never hurts to perpetuate a stereo-type, especially not when there are still people out there who fall for it (ahem)