Virginia newspaper puts KKK recruitment flyer on front page. Oops.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

A Virginia newspaper has come under fire from its readers after it ran a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyer in full on its front page. 

The Westmoreland News ran a story on how KKK recruitment flyers and DVDs had started appearing in the town of Colonial Beach, Virginia. 

However, the paper decided to include a copy of the recruitment flyer, which included racist and anti-Semitic language, in full on the front page to illustrate its story. 

“They posted the whole flyer as if they were giving them free advertising,” Colonial Beach resident Betty Tate Thompson told WTVR. “It even had the number on flyer to contact the head of the KKK. Which I thought was totally ridiculous.”

Now I can see why the newspaper would do this as they are accurately relating events, and providing a visual example of what they are reporting. 

(I just did the same thing up above as well.)

However if you were the local chapter of the KKK, and you were having a devil of a time handing out enough flyers to really increase recruitment, just imagine how gratified you would be if the newspaper printed your entire invitation, including contact information, for their thousands of subscribers?

I mean that would be the kind of gift to warm an old racist's heart.

So the criticism is quite valid.

While we were all enjoying the holidays, the North Carolina KKK was busy with recruitment.

Courtesy of The News and Observer:  

Some Triangle residents found a delivery in their driveways on Christmas Eve that clearly didn’t come from FedEx. 

People in the White Oak area of Garner woke up Sunday morning to plastic bags containing propaganda from the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, a statewide chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Some of the bags distributed in the Hillandale neighborhood contained flyers that read, “White pride doesn’t mean hate! It’s OK, you can say it! I’m proud to be white! There is no need to feel guilty because of the past!” 

The flyer asks, “Why can’t pro-white rights organizations exist without being labeled racist?” and, “Why are other races in this country allowed these rights, as they SHOULD, but not the folk of European ancestory (sic)?”

The bags also contained business cards, mints and rocks used to weigh them down.

I think the rocks are a nice touch.

You know just in case you wanted to stone any of your neighbors for daring to not be white. 

Apparently if you call the number they ask you to leave a voice message. And I imagine they received some rather colorful recorded messages.

Look there is nothing inherently wrong with being proud of your heritage.

However to call for ethnic pride usually suggests that there was some reason that you were oppressed due to the color of your skin, that is simply not the case when it comes to being a Caucasian.

Instead our pigment has served as a blessing that typically affords us far more opportunities than our darker brothers and sisters.

And to be honest the KKK was NEVER about celebrating whiteness, it was about terrorizing and oppressing those who were not blessed lily white skin.

Today's KKK roundup.

KKK flyers threatening to beat black men who 'make eyes' at white girls show up in Jax neighborhoods. STORY: https://t.co/hcKk1BvYyV pic.twitter.com/t5kcC3Cxhv

— First Coast News (@FCN2go) October 9, 2017

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

Multiple neighborhoods in Jacksonville, Florida were littered with KKK recruiting fliers that make specific threats against black men who they catch “‘making eyes’ at a white girl.” 

As Jacksonville’s First Coast News reports, the city has seen Klan fliers before, but these differ from the norm with their “specific threats.” 

“Notice to all (N-word): Any of you black apes caught ‘making eyes’ at a white girl will be beaten with bats and your mothers won’t get anymo’ bananas-That’s a promise,” the fliers read.

Along with threats against black people, the flier also contained multiple anti-Semitic references, including the phrase “smash Jew communism” and comparisons between Jewish people and Satan.

And Florida was not the only state targeted with KKK propaganda.

Someone emailed to say KKK fliers were left on a number of cars during Grays Creek High football game. @mvendituoli looking into it. #racism pic.twitter.com/G70dPfE898

— Myron B. Pitts ❄️ (@FOmyronpitts) October 7, 2017

Courtesy of The Charlotte Observer:  

The Ku Klux Klan was recruiting this weekend in Eastern North Carolina – at a high school football game. 

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan put fliers on vehicles at a Friday night game at Gray’s Creek High School, near Fayetteville, according to the Fayetteville Observer. 

A parent of a student in the Cumberland County Schools reported finding one of the fliers, and the newspaper said a KKK official confirmed to the newspaper that the group distributed them.

The fliers placed on vehicles at the game Friday referenced the removal of Confederate flags and monuments as an “attack on the white race and America,” according to Twitter posts.

Now what do you think has suddenly made these KKK members comfortable enough to recruit so aggressively? 

Oh I think you know.

A flyer apparently being handed out by Christians to stump Atheists.

What can I say?

There is simply no way to refute this logic.

Virginia Republican flyer touts "Christian heritage." Yeah who needs that whole "separation of church and state" rule anyhow?

County GOP ad touts Christian heritage https://t.co/CDX9bHjMqa via @newsleadernow

— wmramsey (@wmramsey) October 29, 2015

Courtesy of the News Leader: 

An ad by the Augusta County Republican Committee touting the need to "Preserve our Christian Heritage" was created to be a reflection of the party's creed, officials say. 

Larry Roller, 87, created the political flier that says, "Preserve our Christian Heritage! VOTE REPUBLICAN" on Nov. 3. The ad ran as an insert in The News Leader Thursday. 

"God is a foundation of our nation," said Roller, of Mount Sidney, who is on the GOP committee. "If you read the histories of our founding fathers, (they say) you should not run for office if you are not a Christian."

The News Leader goes on to point out that in Article VI of the Constitution it states that there will be no religious test for those seeking to hold office in the United States.

This Larry Roller guy, who believe it or not is a former teacher, does not let that change his point of view however:

"They have taken the Ten Commandments out of public places, along with the Pledge of Allegiance and daily prayer out of the schools," he said. "They seem to forget the very first thing they did before writing the Constitution was pray for 3 1/2 hours."

Doesn't this sound suspiciously like the same ideals embraced by white supremacist groups?

Has an answer for that as well:  

Roller said he was aware of supremacy groups using the idea of preserving a Christian heritage when designing the GOP flier, but "just because some people have misused the words does not mean there is anything wrong with using 'Christian heritage.'"

Actually yes, there is.

It essentially excludes every other religious group in the country and suggests that by virtue of their faith, or lack of faith, that they are unfit to serve this nation.

That is antithetical to the values embraced by the Founding Fathers, or espoused in the documents that they created.

However it certainly reflects the thinking, and prejudices, of the Republican party as we know it today.  Doesn't it?

(H/T to Raw Story.)