A Sun City couple and their small band of followers were attacked at a Wal-Mart center by angry mobs Thursday for handing out "offensive" pamphlets.
Stan Whitton, the president of the group, said the pamphlets are to help the public "figure out how the hell a black person can be African, American and French at the same time, and still be black."
Whitton and his wife Joleen recently learned of the existence of French black people while watching clips from the 1998 winter Olympics on CNN.
"We were watching that pretty black girl, that ice-skater, Suria Bonalee doing her triple axles and such," Joleen Whitton said. "Next thing you know they've got the interview people interviewing her, and when she opens her mouth, it's all in French!"
The couple said it shocked them that not all black people were African and American.
"What we don't understand," Stan Whitton said, "Is how she got triple citizenship to be an African and an American and a Frenchie at the same time."
The Whittons did not stew in their disbelief alone. They immediately contacted dozens of friends via their Sun City Golf Club phone-tree system. Seven other adult-living community members also expressed surprise at Bonalee's apparent triple-citizenship.
The surprised persons formed an activist group called, "Settle Down and Choose a Country." The 13 members educate the public each Tuesday at a card table in front of Wal-Mart stores. Their club was nearly shut down when the Sun City Poker Club met at the Whitton's home, said Dan Martin, poker club president.
"I reached for the cooler to get another cold one," Martin said. "And next to the Coleman is a stack of brochures two feet high. I read them, and what a bunch of crap. These fools actually think all black people are African Americans. Stan puts on a hell of a poker night, but he's a damned moron."
