"Klan, Klam, and Oyster" bar in Georgia displays racist sign calling President Obama the n-word

This just in: racists remain racist. Local news, HuffPo, and MSNBC's The Ed Show have reported on the shocking roadside sign below, but the bar's website (above) includes a collection of past signs, a horribly dated mouse trail effect, and the inability to correctly spell the word "original." All very troubling. (screenshot below courtesy Fox News Atlanta)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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PhosPhorious

Today’s Special: Klans on the half-wit.
Guest

Bless their hearts
- allium
  
  With the light of a thousand suns.
LinkMan

I actually find this story paradoxically reassuring.

Sure it’s disturbing that racism like this still exists. But more important than the racist message itself is the fact that it’s so out of the ordinary as to warrant national news coverage.
planettom

Potential best future episode of the Spike TV reality show BAR RESCUE…ever!
gtrjnky

Oysters and a martini sound perfect right now. Too bad I am land locked and in the north. No racism here though, yeah right.
http://twitter.com/BonzoDog1 BonzoDog1

Wednesday is mullet night.
- Marky
  
  No, no, no. Every night is mullet night!
Antinous / Moderator

But he says that he’s not racist. So, never mind.
- Cowicide
  
  I was here to say, “at least they’re honest”… until I read that.
RJ

Paulding County administrator Mike Jones says he’d like to do something about it if he could. Well Mike, I’m pretty sure the n-word qualifies as hate speech. We have laws prohibiting hate speech, so why don’t you use those laws to force that white trash loser to take down his sign and pay a hefty fine?

Or maybe Mike Jones is also a bigot and doesn’t want to hurt that racist he’s friends with. Maybe Governor Nathan Deal ought to start an investigation into Mike Jones and his ties to known white supremacists.
- Phoc Yu
  
  > We have laws prohibiting hate speech
  No, that would be unconstitutional.
  
  The sign may be unpleasant and offensive, but it’s not using any of the Seven Dirty Words that would qualify it as outright obscenity in most jurisdictions, nor is it calling for violence against the Commander in Chief. That pesky first amendment gives him the right to voice his opinion, provided that all the other local laws (zoning, lighting, etc) are followed in displaying the sign.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    You make a good point. I wonder what redress I could expect if my neighbor put up signage on his lawn that reads, “I really don’t care for that ignorant, misbegotten, ill-dressed, lazy, foul-smelling, hellbound, doghumping, plug-ugly cracker ne’er-do-well across the street.”
    
    Could I at least compel him to remove “doghumping” in the absence of a conviction?
    - http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
      
      Depends, IANAL, but if there is (in)appropriate photo evidence accompanying the accusation it would probably be okay.
Teller

Their slogan certainly delivers.
JontKopeck

It’s a shame to give them publicity, but just think of what this attention is going to do to their hosting fees.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  their hosting fees.
  
  I am sure I have a copy of LOIC around here somewhere.
Saunt Feynman

I keep reading the domain name as “gape…”
chgoliz

“…and the inability to correctly spell the word “original”…”

Or “give them” (I’d accept give ‘em) or “something” (I’d accept somethin’) or “clam”.
http://www.commodorecrush.com/ Commodore Crush

They also misspelled “Gay Peach Bar”.
- http://iynque.com Andrew Williams
  
  I’m gonna guess it’s not a gay bar.
  - Cowicide
    
    It is, they just don’t know it yet.
King_Rocket

These people may be evil, but at least they’re stupid.
- Cowicide
  
  Usually goes with the territory, thank goodness.
http://twitter.com/jbeltzsnyder John Beltz Snyder

One time, at a concert, my friend was wearing a shirt with the rebel flag that said, “You lost. Get over it.” A bouncer said to him, “It’s only halftime.” We all laughed at how stupid he was.

As time goes on, though, and I see bigotry like this pervading conservative culture, I begin to think maybe that bouncer was right. The Civil War has not ended, and was merely smoldering, waiting for folks to politicize their racism, fanning the flames for another horrible American struggle.

Sadly, it’s not simply divided by geography anymore, either.
- petsounds
  
  The embers that grew into the flames of the Civil War were already smouldering during the construction of the U.S. Constitution. Even then, the delegates knew that the largest conflicts were not between the large and small states (though these were potent), but between the Northern and Southern states. And though they used euphemisms, slavery was already a contentious issue between the states as they were drafting our founding document.
  
  The Civil War happened because the Constitutional delegates failed to provide a civil recourse for conflicts between the state and federal governments. They basically ignored the issue of slavery in order to get a Constitution passed. But using Federal troops to force states to remain part of the Union against their will was not something I believe any of the delegates would have foreseen or approved of, except perhaps King-loving Alexander Hamilton or James Madison. Most had a very uneasy relationship with the idea of a strong Federal government, and surely the southern delegates would’ve never signed the Constitution had they known what lay ahead.
- Cowicide
  
  The Civil War has not ended
  
  If they want to step up again, we’ll decimate them again… but this time we won’t let them build those 2nd place trophies up on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA after they’ve been leveled to the ground.
  - http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose
    
    Frankly, I’d just let them go and say good riddance.
    - Cowicide
      
      Moon colony?
  - testpattern
    
    Who is the “them” that you’re referring to? The idea that the South is home to a racist monoculture, not only to the people fighting for change, but disempowering to the minorities who are the objects of said racism. Or are they not Southerners?
    - Cowicide
      
      The idea that the South is home to a racist monoculture
      
      Not my idea. Hyperbole will get you nowhere with me.
      
      Who is the “them” that you’re referring to?
      
      Well, if you actually read the post I’m responding to, it makes it clear who the “them” is. Racist idiots that want “the south to rise again” under the banner of racism and bigotry. You have now been spoon-fed.
      - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UWDFQHLRCTYZIOWFK3UZK223WI Rusty Shackleford
        
        You sound like George Bush.
http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell

I’m disappointed that the news report stopped at calling the sign “controversial,” and didn’t have the guts to say, “offensive.”
- travtastic
  
  In a just world, news reporters would feel comfortable describing things as ‘fucking racist‘, when warranted.
- Cowicide
  
  didn’t have the guts to say, “offensive.”
  
  They reserve that word for Occupy Wall Street protestors.
- retepslluerb
  
  I think that’s a result of the rather paradoxical view on neutrality most of the US press seems to have.
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

In AZ those brainiacs would be calling themselves a “border patrol.”
- estragon_nyc
  
  You mean a “bodur patroul.” They’re origionalists when it comes to spelling.
  - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
    
    I’m guessing they’d spell ethyl alcohol with an “m”.
bcsizemo

Monday, Rush Limbaugh spends all day “discussing” this…
Petzl

Keep it classy, Georgia!
http://borborygmist.influxofdust.com/ Wayne Dyer

They also seem to have a dual case of contactus and aboutus.
zantony

Gape Achbar . com? It’s a trap, indeed!
ill lich

All I can figure is that this is what passes for hipster irony in the deep south, like it’s “slumming” or something: “Hey, let’s go down to the faux-Klan bar, put on some white hoods and get drunk listenin’ to Skynyrd!”

Please tell me that’s what this is, although I don’t see how that makes it any better.
- atlantan
  
  i’m pretty sure that Paulding County is both hipster- and irony-free. Shit like this makes me hate this state sometimes.
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Witt/1041651388 David Witt

Southern Fried Goatse!
Keith Hoerig

a
heeesh

I have never felt the need to comment here before, but as a native born Southerner, I feel like commenting and asking for help (FYI: Born NOLA, lived elsewhere for awhile. I’m kind of old and don’t know what the “kids” are into right now, but I think they have the potential to change things. I don’t care if you agree or disagree).

I would love to do anything legal to show my disapproval of this establishment, but I am currently geographically far from GA.

Does anyone know how we can legally protest this establishment from a distance? Try and revoke their liquor license? Make an inordinate number of requests to have the health department inspect their kitchen? Tie up their phone lines with non-threatening legal, but still prank, inquiries?

Any creative (but legal) ideas are welcome. Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
- http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
  
  Ridicule. That shitheel is doing more for progressive causes than any hundred of the rest of us, just by giving a reality check to people who don’t understand what’s out there. Here in Kentucky, you see bumper stickers like that constantly.
http://www.facebook.com/bobthebiggeek Bob Hendren

So proud to live in Georgia just a few miles from there.
Beezy

I’m truly horrified. That mouse trail effect should be illegal.
Teller

Unbelievable, the tininess of doctrinaire minds.
http://twitter.com/ChemicalOli Oli Newsham

Why does he have a scan of his membership to the “National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People” on this page
http://www.gapeachbar.com/founder.html
- Guest
  
  To piss you off. DUH.
- Felton / Moderator
  
  Proof that he’s NotRacist™.
CLamb

Did anyone notice that the website shows the owner is a member of the NAACP?

I am reminded of the Simpson’s character “Ku Klux Klam”.