The Ku Klux Klan is passing out bags full of candy and recruitment information in South Carolinian neighborhoods.
Residents in Seneca, SC, in the northwestern part of the state, say they found the bags in their driveways over the weekend. In addition to the sweet treats, the bags contained a flier imploring readers to “Save our land, join the Klan.”
The flier also bore the number for a Klan hotline, which, when dialed, offered information on how to join.
According to Robert Jones, the imperial klaliff of the Klan’s local sect, the effort is part of a thrice-yearly membership drive. Currently, the Klan is using an anti-illegal immigration message to try and boost its numbers.
And he apologized to non-white residents who received the bags, saying, without a trace of irony:
I mean, we can’t tell who lives in a house, whether they’re black, white, Mexican, gay, we can’t tell that. And if you were to look at somebody’s house like that, that means you’d be pretty much a racist.
Jones added that the KKK is not a hate group, but a civil rights organization following the Bible.
The Klan was at its most powerful in the 1920s, when its membership numbered several million. Today, its members number somewhere in the low four digits.
Earlier this month, residents of Katy, TX, found similar messages in their driveways. Their bags, however, were weighted with gravel.
