# White Supremacists and Amerika **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 24, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391 "2000-09-24T20:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/1 "2000-09-24T20:38:25Z")
I notice that whenever there’s a rally of white supremacists, they carry banners with America spelled with a “k,” as in Ameri **k** a. 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? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/2 "2000-09-24T20:46:30Z")
The KKK has been known to purposefully mispell things a lot. I think they’re the precursors to l33t-sp34k. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/3 "2000-09-24T20:57:37Z")
The Ameri **k** a 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](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0805210644/spydersempireA/104-4318529-4963969), a novel by Franz Kafka. Somebody more familiar with tthat book might be able to tell you why. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/4 "2000-09-24T23:59:15Z")
“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. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/5 "2000-09-25T01:00:36Z")
YOu mean the same morons who talk about Klinton? ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/6 "2000-09-25T01:13:47Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/7 "2000-09-25T03:03:28Z")
There’s a satirical spelling one used to see from leftist radicals: ameriKKKa. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/8 "2000-09-25T03:50:23Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mofo\_Rising](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mofo\_Rising](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mofo_Rising)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2000, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-supremacists-and-amerika/34391/9 "2000-09-25T06:51:12Z")
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.