A clearly-racist sticker someone put on a lamp post right on Main Street upset folks in Harrisonburg, Virginia —a municipality that likes to call itself The Friendly City. One downtown business, The Golden Pony, offered a $200 gift card reward for "anyone who can get a picture of, or identify the person" putting up the stickers, according to a post on their official Facebook page.

The black sticker pictures a white hand with an upraised middle finger —above the phrase "RACE MIXERS." As if it weren't already clear that the sticker gives the middle finger to people in multi-cultural relationships or families, the only other words on the sticker are: the URL of a white-supremacist website.

Lest it be considered editorializing to call that website white-supremacist, the reader should be aware of what's on the site. It is mostly a catalog site for Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazi, neo-Confederate, and self-identifying skinhead audiences. The site even has a "KKK" section with stickers and T-shirts. That section sells KKK logo stickers and a also strange hybrid flag design combining Gestapo SS runes with the familiar Confederate battle emblem. Some of the KKK-themed merchandise features what passes for humor in Klan circles. One design pictures hooded Klansmen around a burning cross with the words "The Original BOYS IN THE HOOD." Another design has Klansmen with a Christmas tree and the words "Dreaming of a White Christmas."

The website's "Stickers" section has "WHITE PRIDE WORLD WIDE," "WHITE POWER," and "100% WHITE" designs —as well as various hate messages using the n-word. The "Stickers" area's second page includes a "Hitler Smiley Face" emoji design and also a "RaHoWa" white fist emblem. RaHoWa is white-supremacist code for "racial holy war." The site sells 100-packs of pre-printed white-supremacist windshield leaflets. The site's very name refers to a tightly-stretched lynching rope; the website logo is a noose. Simply put, it is a white-supremacist website.

To avoid unintentionally advertising that website, this article will not directly publish its entire name.

As for the middle finger "RACE MIXERS" stickers found in Harrisonburg, one was noticed on the streetlamp post outside The Golden Pony on Friday, Sept. 23, according to the Pony's owner, Paul Somers. That sticker didn't last long before folks picked at it and finally used nail polish remover to make it go away. Somers told WHSV's Terry Ward that another one was stuck to a hair stylist's car just around the corner. The White Unicorn hair salon where the stylist works is owned by someone of Puerto Rican heritage, according to Somers. Somers said more stickers "were seen on cars around the intersection of E. Wolfe and Broad" streets in Harrisonburg. This article includes a map.

Somers said, considering his family and community connections, "the whole bigotry for 'race mixing' really hits home." Somers said hair salon staff notified police who made a note of the incident.

The Golden Pony's reward offer note on Facebook also said: "One of the wonderful hair stylists next door had one put on her car and we found one on the light pole outside of The Golden Pony. This is not acceptable. Please anyone that sees this person, take their picture or report them to the police non-emergency line. We are firm supporters of people's ability to love whoever they choose to love and it's so sad to see that other people think that it is any of their business."

The $200 gift card reward offer still stands. Somers updated WHSV on Oct. 1: "Nothing turned up. A few people suggested someone with some consistency, but no hard evidence and so no concrete suspects and all I can do is keep an eye out... I haven't seen any more pop up or heard of any, so it seems to have had its run I suppose." Somers added, "It was nice to see people reacting positively to the cause for concern it gave us."

The Harrisonburg Police Dept. non-emergency number is 540-434-4436.