Mall boots kiosk selling Confederate flag clothing

TuscaloosaNews ^ | December 13, 2002 | AP

[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.

[TN4Liberty]

my personal experience here, in SE Indiana, with anyone flying these flags, bumper stickers, etc, has been that they are all big time racists. I am talking, to a person.

Which supports my theory that the north is far more racist than the south, because that certainly isn't the case down here.

I also enjoyed your "dialog" about how other people are inferior to you because of what they wear or drive. You guys are real charmers. No wonder people don't want to associate with you. Is you behavior any better than insulting people because of their skin? Looks like it is you who are prejudiced and close-minded.

[TN4Liberty]

They seem to like to refer to blacks as "Gars."

By the way, I have lived in the south for 47 years and have never heard that expression. Must just be your friends.

[Bluntpoint]

Did I say anything about inferiority? I drive a truck, I live on a farm, I hunt, I fish, I have 3 dead deer in my freezer out in the barn, I am a good ole boy.

Most of my friends are good ole boys. None are racist crackers.

[Bluntpoint]

I served in the military with some folks in the south, some on them used the term. Just talking personal experience.

[Amelia]

By the way, I have lived in the south for 47 years and have never heard that expression.

I've only been in the south for 46 years, but I've never heard that expression either.

[Jhoffa_]

Just wait till Clarence Thomas rules that the Confederate Flag convey's an inherent threat to all African Americans.

That's his latest opinion regarding some idiot burning a cross on his own property.

[Bluntpoint]

I agree. It should be protected in the same manner as a child molester who puts up a sign in front yard that reads:

"Your 7 year old daughter is next."

[Jhoffa_]

You need to remember that a government powerful enough to remove a burning cross from your own lawn is also powerful enough to remove one from your church.

All they need is the right public sentiment.

Subvert the Constitution long enough, use it to quash things you find objectionable then don't be surprised when your ox is gored.

[Old Professer]

You don't have the right to come on to private property, which the mall is, and sell any product. If you come to an agreement with the mall owner then you can sell in the mall.

I would assume the kiosk owner had some sort of contract with the mall management; if the management broke the terms of the contract by eviction prior to expiration of the term, the kiosk owner has a perfect right to sue for non-performance.

The manager probably learned a lesson here, vet your clients.

[mac_truck]

Was Ft Sumter part of the US when it was fired on by the confederates?

[Old Professer]

Since the contract would have been written by the Mall Owner's Attorney the clause is in there.

Man, you're just the guy I need to answer a question: I need to repair my roof, is it going to be sunny tomorrow?

[Bluntpoint]

I don't need to be reminded of government's intoxication with removing my rights.

That said, you have every right to do what you want on your property.

Just don't try to bullsh@t me in believing that this was anything other than an attempt to intimidate.

Just like the molester and the sign. I am just asking for intellectual honesty here.

If my black neighbor burns in effigy a white man, with a sign reading:

"I love the smell of burning crackers in morning."

Don't no one try to tell me that I am misreading his sentiments.

[Old Professer]

I am all for freedom of speech. That said, my personal experience here, in SE Indiana, with anyone flying these flags, bumper stickers, etc, has been that they are all big time racists. I am talking, to a person. They seem to like to refer to blacks as "Gars."

There's no accounting for regional bias-dialect; I was taking a class in Oklahoma City at the F.A.A. Academy and a classmate referred to some local blacks as "porch-monkeys," I had never heard that one before (the guy who said this was a full-blooded Navajo).

[Jhoffa_]

If my black neighbor burns in effigy a white man, with a sign reading:

No sign was mentioned.

And that's the point. Other people get to pick the definition of what they find "threatening" about your activities on your own property.

Personally, I don't burn crosses, but anyone who wants to burn one in they own yard and write: "you're next Jhoffa_" on it is welcome to do so afaiac.

[Amelia]

At least one of the incidents in front of the Supreme Court involved the cross being burned on the lawn of a black neighbor, if I heard it correctly. Seems to me there would also be some tresspassing issues involved in that.

[Bluntpoint]

Are you sure it was not some form of a redneck welcome wagon.

[Jhoffa_]

LOL!

Yes, that's a threat.

It would be pretty tough to sell your "right" to burn crosses on your neighbors lawn.

(Ideally such an idiot would be shot and the whole question would become moot)

[Amelia]

Are you sure it was not some form of a redneck welcome wagon.

You really do hate southerners, don't you?

[SauronOfMordor]

Store Owners's Attorney to Mall Owner's Attorney: "Show me the clause in the rental lease that my client signed that gives your client the right to pass political judgement on the wares that my client sells. If you cannot, your client is in breach of contract."

I would be surprised if the mall's rental agreement did not have a clause which basicly gives mall management the discretion to bar the sale or display of items which (in the sole and arbitrary judgement of mall management) was disturbing or annoying to mall customers, or which generated excessive complaints.

[Amelia]

Did not the confedrates attack the United States of America and kill more US Citizens than Osama could ever fantazise about?

If I recall correctly, (and I'm sure if I don't someone will correct me) the debate about whether or not a state could secede began about the time the Constitution was ratified.

Seems to me that S.C. and some of the other states wouldn't even ratify the Constitution until the Bill of Rights was added (and even then there was some reluctance), because they were afraid that it gave the Federal government too much power and they'd be trading one tyranny for another.

Seems to me that about the time of the War of 1812, some of the New England states were threatening to secede for some reason or another. There was also the Nullification movement around the 1830s.

You can search FR and find plenty of threads "refighting" the Civil War, but I know the question of whether or not a state or states could secede from the union was there from the beginning of our country, and I'm thinking that Thomas Jefferson was one of those who thought it totally legal.