I notice that whenever there’s a rally of white supremacists, they carry banners with America spelled with a “k,” as in Amerika.
I’m sure there’s some signifcance to this, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. Any ideas?
The KKK has been known to purposefully mispell things a lot. I think they’re the precursors to l33t-sp34k.
The Amerika spelling has long been used by radical groups on both the left and the right. In the '60s it was the left that used it predominantly. I believe the original usage was somehow associated with Amerika, a novel by Franz Kafka. Somebody more familiar with tthat book might be able to tell you why.
“Amerika” is simply the standard German spelling of America. Since German has long been associated, in many people’s minds, with Naziism, calling the USA “Amerika” is a way of implying that we’re a Hitlerite, fascist state.
Only idiots ever used this spelling in the 60s, and only unimaginative, unoriginal idiots use it now.
YOu mean the same morons who talk about Klinton?
FWIW, The chapter “In Amerika they call us Dykes” in my mom’s copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves (1972) was the first time I saw the spelling. This seems to support the “German spelling to imply fascism” argument.
There’s a satirical spelling one used to see from leftist radicals:
ameriKKKa.
Doesn’t anyone remember the over-the-top miniseries in the mid-80s about a Soviet invasion of the USA, Amerika?
Or, the subsequent SNL spoof, *Amerida[/a], about an invasion from the north. 
I remember reading something about the KKK replacing a lot of the “k” sounds in words with “kl”. Like the name for the preacher of the group (hint to this guy, you’re going to Hell) had the “kl” at the beginning of his title. The place where they met was called the klavern (cavern). This was from a book written by a guy who had infiltrated the klan. I read the book quite a few years ago and remember none of the details so I could be wrong.