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.
So are you one of those "real men" who wears "the proper white linens"?
Is there room in your new south for a free black man to be your neighbor?
One of my neighbors happens to be a free black man as a matter of fact. We're kind of new in the neighborhood, but I haven't noticed anyone protesting, picketing, or lighting crosses on his lawn.
"Is there room in your new south for a free black man to be your neighbor?"
One fact you and other Northerners always fail to realize while in the middle of your "All Southerners are racist" rants is we actually live and co-exist with blacks. I noticed that you stated in an earlier post that there weren't many black people in the Indiana county you live in.
It may surprise you to know in the West Georgia county(Douglas co,25 miles west of Atlanta). I grew up in and currently live in, I went to school with, played ball with, went to church with, ate supper with, hung out with black kids. Derek Caldwell, Greg Washington, Percy Williams, Eric Kelly and Tisha Johnson,Stacy Danley(Starting tailback Auburn University 86-89).My neighbors on one side are black. My subdivision is about 30% black.
Our fellow freeper mhking, is a black conservative that I very proudly call neighbor.
Does it surprise you to know this?
I was a child during segregation, and I remember when the South was forced to integrate the schools. All I can tell you is what a white child saw.
I saw that people complained about it where I lived, including the black people, because they felt they were losing their schools and part of their communities and heritage.
But I also saw that even though everyone complained, the change happened relatively peacefully, and we were all amazed at the riots that occurred when the schools in Boston - UP NORTH! - were integrated, and we were all amazed that our schools were integrated sooner than, and more peacefully than theirs were.
You'd have to ask someone who was raised black in the South if it was better and more peaceful for them. I don't know that the answer would be "black and white" and I think in part the answer would depend on where in the South they lived and what part of life you were talking about, but I think on the whole things are better now.
I remember the "white only" and "colored only" restrooms and water fountains, and how the "need" for such always confused me as a child. I can tell you other things that weren't right, but things are not that way now.
Is it? I was raised in the South, and our hearts are complicated things. We in the South were the ones who lost, the ones who are denigrated by the rest of the world for being racist and backwards and marrying our cousins. We're the only people it's still politically correct to make fun of.
I think perhaps the popularity of the Dixie Outfitters line down here is in part a reaction to all that. I have no idea why such things would be popular in Indiana.
My ancestors and relatives fought with Francis Marion in the Revolutionary War, and they've fought in every other war this country has been involved in since the Revolution. My grandfather's great-grandfather argued against secession, but when the South seceded anyway, his boys went and fought for the South - should I be ashamed of my ancestors who were Confederate soldiers?
Err...After stating in an earlier post that you lived in a mostly white, rural Indiana county, you asked the question," Is there room in the new south for black people?"
What generalization of Southerners did you use in asking that question?
Pot....kettle...
What? You spent 20 years in the Yankee army? What kind of carpetbagging, scalawag traitor are you?
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