By now, you know that on Friday night, Richard Spencer and several of his racist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist friends returned to Charlottesville for another Tiki torch rally. But what you may not know is that while Spencer and his buddies were chanting “You will not replace us!” in Charlottesville, an equally disturbing scene was playing out in the parking lot of a high school in Hope Mills, North Carolina. It seems that local members of the Ku Klux Klan got the bright idea to troll for recruits at a high school football game.
A man attending a football game at Gray’s Creek High School in Hope Mills, near Fayetteville, came back to his car after the game and discovered this flier on his car. He took a picture of the flier and emailed it to Myron Pitts of The Fayetteville Observer.
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
The man was so frightened for his safety that he was only willing to identify himself as the parent of a student in Cumberland County Schools.
This flyer was typical white supremacist agitprop slamming the effort to take down Confederate monuments. As these Klansmen see it, this is nothing more than an attempt to “erase and vilify” the Confederate “heritage of fighting for our freedom.” Supposedly, this effort is being led by a “Zionist Occupation Government”–a common canard among white supremacists that argues “Jewish agents” secretly control the government.
This same government is supposedly trying to force us to accept gays, immigrants, and “filthy, disease ridden” Muslim refugees, as well as numerous monuments to the “Communist Pervert Alcoholic” Martin Luther King. The removal of monuments is supposedly part of a “Communist revolution” that has George Washington in its sights next.
The flier was supposedly crafted by the “Loyal White Knights.” When reporters called the number on the flier, they reached James Spears, who identified himself as the great titan of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He admitted that his outfit was behind the fliers.
According to The Charlotte Observer, it’s not the first time that these knuckledraggers have shown up in the Fayetteville area. Two area residents claim to have seen fliers posted in their mailboxes. They were both especially unnerved by it because they both live near a high school.
Gray’s Creek principal Lisa Stewart said that the fliers were a clear violation of system policy that forbids distribution of any material containing “personal attacks or abusive language such as language defaming a person’s character, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender, family status or disability.” She said that an investigation is well underway.
That’s only a preliminary step. It’s clear beyond any doubt that these Klansmen were trying to recruit high school students. While Stewart and officials at both the school and district level need to find out how those fliers got on campus, they also need to find out if they’ve made any inroads at Gray’s Creek or any other school.
Admittedly, they don’t have the kind of latitude that private schools have to delve into something like this. So it’s not likely we’ll see a repeat of what happened when officials at The Lovett School, an elite private school in Atlanta, got word that several of their students took part in a Nazi-themed beer pong game. After an investigation, a number of students were disciplined. One student was expelled, while another was dismissed and forced to reapply for admission.
But there is a lot that public schools can do to root out any potential KKK influence on campus. After all, had teachers, counselors, and parents intervened with James Fields, it’s very likely that Heather Hyer would still be alive. The only way to deal with racist, neo-Nazi, and white supremacist influence in our schools is to nip it in the bud, and now.
(featured image: screenshot courtesy WTVD)
