Posted on 12/13/2002 4:04:26 PM PST by stainlessbanner
The manager of a Mobile mall has evicted a merchant selling clothing with Confederate battle flag designs, citing complaints from people angered by the merchandise.
The merchant, Camo Unlimited, opened a kiosk in Colonial Mall Bel Air just after Thanksgiving. The Blountsville-based company sells Dixie Outfitters clothing at the Mobile mall and at other malls throughout the Southeast, owner Toby Smith said.
Dixie Outfitters offers more than 600 designs with themes such as hunting, trucks and dogs, all including the stars and bars of the Confederate battle flag. The clothing line's "Legends of the Confederacy" series features generals and other leaders of the Confederacy.
Smith said that soon after he opened the kiosk, employees of another store at the mall complained. Soon afterward, the mall's management told him to clear out by Sunday.
Tim Nolan, the mall's general manager, said he heard from several people who indicated the store could spur a boycott of the mall.
"May I remind you that blacks and other minorities constitute a major portion of consumers who patronize Colonial Bel Air Mall," chapter president Lettie Malone wrote in a Dec. 5 letter to Nolan.
"They should not be embarrassed or made to feel uncomfortable by those who are still fighting and trying to revive a war that never should have been a part of our civilized society."
The state president of the NAACP, the Rev. R.L. Shanklin, said the group never had plans for a boycott, and that he would have to approve any boycott carried out by the organization.
Nevertheless, Nolan said the mall was in an "emotionally charged controversy that we didn't want to be in the middle of."
"There was going to be no easy decision," he told the Mobile Register. "Certainly customers are disappointed that we took them out. Customers would have been disappointed had we left them in."
Asked whether he thought his clothing was offensive, Dixie Outfitters owner Dewey Barber said, "We certainly don't put any designs out there that we feel are offensive to anyone."
Dixie Outfitters' Web site has links and news stories about the Battle Flag, and in a section called "Our Mission" it states:
"The truth about the Confederate Flag is that it has nothing to do with racism or hate. The Civil War was not fought over slavery or racism. We at Dixie Outfitters are trying to tell the real truth via our art and products in regards to the Confederate Flag."
Ben George, head of a local Sons of Confederate Veterans camp, said he was considering a protest against the eviction.
The white, Christian, middle-class may be offended by some of the stuff -- but mostly not offended enough to shop elsewhere. And almost certainly not offended enough to make the offending store burn to the ground (unlike certain other groups that have an easier time getting their way in such situations).
The reality on the ground is that extortion works, but only to the extent that there is a real threat behind it.
I'm sure it does. All contracts have vague general clauses that are used to try to get away with as much as you have the nerve to try to get away with.
However, if such a clause were ever enforced in regards to a Mall owner banning the sale of Malcolm X T-shirts at a black store because white Mall customers found the merchandise "offensive", the legal night soil would hit the fan.
In 1861, that was a legal question whose answer depended on which side you asked.
The United States answer was, "Yes. Fort Sumter is U.S. soil. Our troops are defending U.S. property."
The South Carolina answer was, "No. Fort Sumter is sovereign South Carolinian soil just as Castle Pinckney, which we occupied on December 27, 1860, is sovereign South Carolinian soil. Foreign troops are trespassing on South Carolina property and are in a position to threaten shipping entering Charleston Harbor."
were it my place of business, i'd sue the mall owner for everything he has.it's called paying for a lease to do business, which is a contract. you cannot get out of a lease just because someone complains about what is being sold on the premises.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
i'm NOW ashamed that i was once a dues-paying member.
free dixie,sw
which is indoctrination, rather than education.PROPAGANDA is their business.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
must be a damnyankee thing. i've never heard that down south.
free dixie,sw
I was born in Michigan and always had a "Union" mentality. Within the last year I found out that two great-great uncles of mine died under confederate command at Vicksburg. In fact, U. S. Grant told later that the men in the regiment my two uncles were in, were in his opinion the bravest soldiers he had ever witnessed during the entire war.
And today we are being forced to make the Confederate flag a point of derision.
being northernborn makes you a damnyankee in precisely the same way it makes you a plumber. damnyankees are made rather than born. they are HATERS & BIGOTS, every one!
free dixie,sw
ask any vietnam era veteran what FUBU is an abbreviation for.
free dixie,sw
i suspect, but do not know that you are a member of the bar.
free dixie,sw
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