Suspension proceedings are underway after photos surfaced online of students at The Citadel military college wearing white Ku Klux Klan-type hoods, Charleston station WCIV reported Thursday.
The images show cadets dressed in white and wearing pointed white hoods with eye holes. Citadel President Lt. Gen. John Rosa said in a statement the students were apparently dressed for a “Ghosts of Christmas Past” skit and singing Christmas carols, and that an investigation is ongoing.
Rosa also called the photos “offensive and disturbing.”
The photos were posted to Snapchat and later uploaded to Facebook by a woman who does not attend The Citadel, local TV station WCSC reported. The woman said she has been “threatened, harassed, and offered money from numerous Citadel Cadets to take it offline in order to not ‘ruin their lives.'”
A university spokesman told the Associated Press that at this point in the investigation, there’s no evidence the incident was hazing.
There are around 2,300 students in the school’s Corps of Cadets.
This post has been updated.
Southern Heritage Month, again?
Nothing says “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men” like Christmas carols sung from under KKK hoods.
Well, considering that the Citadel was founded in order to suppress potential slave rebellions, and Citadel cadets fired the first (and secessionist) shots in the Civil War, this incident seems quite appropriate.
““Ghosts of Christmas Past””
Try again. The Ghost of Christmas past is usually depicted wearing a stocking cap that does not go over the face. Sometimes he’s portrayed as wearing a full head of hair that covers most of his face. Sometimes the hair is on fire.
Dickens was an Englishman…and not a member of the KKK.
This will go on, indefinitely. It is the best way to have to hit the “re-set” button (from scratch) on acting like a human being.
People are of many origins and levels of socioeconomic status. People make friends across colour lines…they fall in love, they work together.
They begin to see commonalities.
Maybe, in a Citadel business class, two cadets of different colours begin to see the stranglehold the 0.001% has on them, as well as most everyone else.
Bingo! The hoods come out, everything I talk about above is erased and people have to hit “re-set” and start anew being fellow Americans.
In all my days, I have never seen people as dedicated to shooting themselves in the foot as American racists. Not only is their own nationality secondary to their “race”, but they repeatedly drive away a group of people (African Americans) who have demonstrated over the years a desire to be loyal and hardworking Americans.