"The point you dont't understand in this, Knut, is that black people don just go up to people dressed in KKK uniforms. "

The fact that you don't seem to get, Brian, is that the black kid who was interviewed for this article specifically said that he was infuriated by the mere sight of the robes and immediately approached them to "set them straight".  At which point he could just as easily have asked what was going on.

You are painting a picture of the black kids at this school as if they were all immediately cowering in fear at the very sight of the klan robes and that they would have avoided calm, reasoned questions to clarify the situation because they were in mortal fear for their lives.

That is factually incorrect.

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That way lies the justification for using nukes!

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Most Christians are bad Christians -- at least in the sense that they do not actually follow the alleged teachings of Jesus.

Most of them would be quite shocked, I expect, if they actually read their Bible.

You are painting a picture of the black kids at this school as if they were all immediately cowering in fear at the very sight of the klan robes and that they would have avoided calm, reasoned questions to clarify the situation because they were in mortal fear for their lives.

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Aggression can be a fear response.

Well, we know what good reason - they were making some sort of film. But considering that the Klan is still active in America, and on the upswing, in fact, how do we know the film is not a recruiting film?

There is no legitimate reason to have a Klan robe on.   Wearing it means that you are affiliating yourself with an organization that exists to torture and kill people. You don't wear it because it's hot and the robe feels breezy.

Centuries from now, when all really is equal, and the Klan is a memory, and there is not still actual practiced violent acts against minorities, then it would be perfectly rational to put on a robe for educational purposes and expect a conversation to arise - "Hey! What's that you're wearing there?" "Well, let me explain"

But now?

Again - to repeat my earlier point - just be clear what's going on - make it known what you're doing.

Are "we" Americans wrong to act so viscerally against the Klan? That's what the question is. I don't think we are. I understand reactions. But perhaps you're not. Fair enough.

"There is no legitimate reason to have a Klan robe on."

So it should be absolutely illegal in the US for actors to portray robed Klansmen in films or on stage, even if they portray them as evil or bigoted?  And if they do they should face severe repercussions? Is that what you're saying? Because that seems to be the position you're taking.

It is not a question of whether the teacher was absolutely right, or that the situation couldn't have been handled better or more sensitively. But it's not a goddamn hate crime. These are kids making a film.

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Has anyone on this thread been arguing that this was a hate crime? I thought they were arguing that it was stupid and insensitive for the teacher to do this without giving everyone the heads up. Which it was.

If they told the school - posted flyers, put out an annoucement or something, people would know what was going on. Or if you go to a play and they're wearing it, you know it's part of the play.

If I see a guy wearing one on the street? Whole other story.

Which most of us don't think is an over-reaction.

All things considered, the kid had an understandable reaction. Not a pleasant one, but one I can identify with.

Part of me feels like you're kind of trying to pull a spock or something and remove all human emotions from an arguement, but another part of me feels like this just might be a cultural difference. In the years I've seen you debate, I've been impressed by your stunning command of logic and seemingly limitless knowledge about American culture, but it's possible you don't understand what a violent reaction the Klan gets in some corners of America, and how some of us, understanding how violent reactions can be bad, make an exception at times like this.

I happen to agree with the black student - if I see people in the South dressed in Klan robes, I'm not going to put on my smoking jacket and fill my pipe and study it from my ivory tower - I'm getting hot and reacting. Some crimes - especially ones of such a brutal and society ruining nature, lasting for a century - provoke that kind of response.

Sorry! We're just humans!

Now - to bring it back full circle - the reaction could have been avoided by communication - had the teacher or students communicated clearly what they were doing it wouldn't be an issue.

Let's really bring it full circle - we've brought up the Nazis, since that's a European touchstone, but even that's not the same - it's bad thanks to the fact that it happened in a tighter period of a decade, but this was 100 years of people getting tortured and lynched for looking at white women - like what Jodi pictured above - but not in some backward nation of cavemen in the middle east - but here in America - up to when my parents were alive - black people were hanging from trees as people smiled for photographs for the same reasons Jodi quoted above.

By the way? Jodi? Chirstians. Not all Christians, but they were anyway. Just as not all muslims are going to blow up the WTC. But still... Just saying.

I used to say that we would have a black President, but it wouldn't be in my lifetime.  I was pleasantly surprised to be dead wrong.

In the spirit of continuing my good fortune, let me say: Someday we will have an openly atheist President who vigorously champions secularism over religiosity, but not in my lifetime.

When, honestly, as recently as a few years ago, it was still thought impossible. Remember JB's thread where he questioned the fact that the two leading candidates the Dems had were a black guy and a woman? JB's got about 20 years on me, so based on what he's seen in his life it's more of a mind-blower, but it still was to me, too. But imagine my little cousin Lailah - she's 4. She will only ever know that a black guy is president. No shock there - the future is limitless.

JB made an observation about this recently, if I understood his point correctly, about how awesome it is and what a leap it is for our nation.

But don't get cocky, America, we're not there yet. It's a step. Let's continue to make them! And then we'll get there. Who knows what the future holds. But here's hoping.