Klan in the driveway
My newspaper column
Over the Christmas holidays, some people in Guilford County awoke to find a rolled paper wrapped in blue plastic on their driveways.
I would say it looked suspiciously somewhat like a newspaper, but I don't want to equate what was lying there with what we produce every day.
Inside the plastic bag was an advertising circular of the type you might find in the News & Record and a one-page hate message that confused and upset some newspaper readers. I don't blame them.
The flyer came from the Knights Party of the Ku Klux Klan, which delivers its toxic message in this way a few times a year, often around holidays. Last February, the group delivered one "in recognition of Black History Month." Nice.
Normally, the group uses newspaper pages for weight so that it can be thrown from what I imagine is a fleeing vehicle. There is no local telephone number or address and as they appear in the dead of night, I can only assume the people who deliver them are ashamed.
Can you tell what we at the newspaper think of the Klan?
Normally, I wouldn't waste even the newsprint on the group -- or give them any publicity -- except that readers complain to us, thinking we've distributed the message of hate. And that can't stand.
Some of the flyers I have seen have wording similar to this, which was on one delivered to my home last year: "The attached newspaper/magazine is for weight purposes only and should not be considered an endorsement of either this flyer or the Knights Party."
The one delivered over Christmas didn't.
This isn't just a Guilford County issue. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, such hate groups have done this across the nation for years.
A year ago, The Rhinocerous Times sued one branch of the Klan for using pages from the Rhino as a wrapper for its message, saying it was using unfair and deceptive trade practices. The case went to mediation and the Klan leadership agreed to discourage its followers from using the Rhino for distribution.
That agreement apparently didn't last very long because the Rhino has sued the Knights Party for breach of contract.
The whole thing is troubling, not only because people are led to believe that the News & Record and the Rhino support the Klan or its message.
It's also bothersome because I fear this sort of message dissemination works. That Klan members continue to do it suggests it gets results. It is probably not unlike the Nigerian e-mail scams that prey on people's greed, except that these messages prey on fear and ignorance.
And even though the e-mail scams are so preposterous as to be unbelievable, people still bite. That's why we all continue to get e-mail messages promising millions of dollars if we help a member of royalty move his money somewhere safe.
The best thing to do is the obvious thing: throw the flyers in the garbage where they belong. And you can call the city and ask them to enforce the anti-littering ordinance.
Comments (4)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
John, I'm still laughing, although now I'm starting to suffer because I blew my orange jucie up into my nose and sinuses after reading the one-two comedy punch of you telling us the N&R doesn't subscribe to the Klan philosophy and Lorraine lamenting the thinning of the police ranks.
I think you both should seriously audition to write for SNL or Letterman.
Posted on January 13, 2008 12:00 PM
I know what you mean, Skeet. But you'd be surprised at the conclusions that some readers come to based on nothing but their own preconceived notions about people and things like the paper.
Posted on January 13, 2008 12:04 PM
I'm not sure I'm following on that, John. "Preconceptions" meaning I must have formed an opinion of the N&R somehow before reading the paper. ????
Or the tone and content of the things that do appear in the paper aren't an accurate reflection of the people who write for or put the paper together????
Posted on January 13, 2008 4:52 PM
My first reaction to getting the "little blue bag" was that it was tied to Sears, not the N&R, since it was wrapped in a Sears ad. I wonder why we haven't heard from them or any other advertiser that "went to bed" with the Klan in the blue bag.
Additionally, John, I think your statement 'That Klan members continue to do it suggests it gets results' is erroneous. I believe they do it because they are too stupid to realize it doesn't work, and they've deluded themselves into thinking this is effective. Furthermore, I believe that single sentence you wrote backs up their method more than is warranted - sorry! It actually gives fuel to their cause by spreading the belief that they are getting results.
Posted on January 14, 2008 6:35 AM