@MichiganGeorgia, i know the Jewish comment is addressing religious bigotry. I didn’t think I would have to explain this. 
@ucbalumnus, I know what you wrote. I am still amazed.
I figured you might know I know I what you linked because we have both been around awhile. 
I don’t know about CC anymore. I wish I could escape this place. I should get a job. A job that doesn’t include wearing sheets over my head and pretending this is funny.
I do not think these young men dressed as KKK members and then claimed to be ghosts. I think they wanted to make ghost costumes and were creatively challenged. I think they did realize their costumes didn’t turn out as planned but they wanted to go ahead with the carols and the fun.
Ditto 43. The realization came after the fact. Probably after someone who saw the photo pointed it out. Way too late by that time.
Time makes a difference–you’d be surprised perhaps at how little impact history lessons can have on young people. I only know some racism from related stories from grandparents- -and now we’re further away in time. It’s a reason the holocaust museum in Wash DC is so impactful (and now necessary in many ways)–it brings home a sad story in human history in ways words cannot.
And being Jewish is ethnic–not just religious. Maybe more people than the Cadets need a history lesson.
Not only did they miss the lecture on historical racism in the US, they also missed the class on Abu Ghraib. One of the many striking things about the photos is that other students are standing around taking pictures with their cell phones. I’d be really uncomfortable with these students making decisions in our military. I hope they are shown the door.
If people don’t believe in racism (or, at the very least, don’t believe such actions as shown in the photos are inherently racist) how does this ironical humor work? Is it possible this was a joke about the Klan? I doubt it. I honestly don’t believe any young person in SC doesn’t get the Klan allusion. I can imagine young white southerners making ironical Klan photos for the internet. Or South Park doing a show. But I think the target audience has to believe in the Klan and that the Klan is an evil, racist, organization for the joke to work.
I’m voting for reprehensible racism. I can’t even believe this is a thread on this board. However, I happen to know first hand the Klan is still alive and well. It isn’t a joking matter to me, even though they don’t have as much power as they had even a couple of decades ago. This isn’t ancient history to me or to anyone my age (59) living where I live in the south.
adding: Up until a year or two ago, a Klan sign was still displayed on a barn on a local highway. Lately a bunch of folks have purchased confederate flags and started flying them, seemingly in response to the reaction to the massacre in Charleston, SC last summer.
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
adding: Yes, I know no one has claimed it a joke. I’m tying it back to the “suspended for a joke” thread. I see a difference of degree but the same issue here. It is worrisome to me, even when life isn’t in danger, because it’s a continuum and thus important to confront. imho.
“And being Jewish is ethnic–not just religious. Maybe more people than the Cadets need a history lesson.”
I was referring about the racism comment. Racism is about race not ethnicity. My FIl was a Jew. Jews are not a race.
I said is was not racism but religious because of what most Christians believe.
@MidwestDad3 Rest easy. While the Citadel is a military school, it is a state school and from my experience many graduates never enter the military .
Carolinamom2boys beat me to it. The citadel is a far cry from the military academies.
Most Christians believe Jews are going to hell?
How nice!
Just to be clear about the timeline here:
Charleston massacre, June 17, 2015. Dylan Roof, the shooter, is a young white southern male.
Citadel (located in Charleston). December, 2015. White male students dress up in white hoods and take photos.
Some here are arguing this was unintentional stupidity on the part of the Citadel students. They are living in a city, very close and only a very short walk from where the sidewalk in front of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is covered with flower memorials and people are making pilgrimages to pray, or at least that was the case during my last visit a few months back. That is certainly what they saw when they began school in the late summer/early fall.
gouf: There was a history lesson about racism right in front of their eyes. They really couldn’t miss it.
Aren’t they also still flying as part of the state flags of Mississippi and Georgia?
While I hope (rather against hope) all of us would see that flag as a racist symbol, some of my neighbors don’t and argue heritage. However, none of them are publicly claiming the Klan as heritage. I don’t know anyone that stupid.
And I see a huge difference in intent if you’ve been flying the flag all along, or if you went out and purchased one for your house and a couple for your truck after last summer. And especially if you then take your truck, with your guns, to the Black Lives Matter marches, which is what has been happening in my area, a short drive from Charleston.
I don’t see an isolated incident at Citadel.
Alh,
Read post # 12. To repeat, “The Citadel is just up the road from where the horrific shooting occurred in Charleston earlier this year. What the heck were they thinking???”
I did read your post and couldn’t believe that wasn’t the end of the thread. I had to go back and read it again and again to be sure you had really written it and people just kept posting about this not really being racist behavior.
To be honest, I have no idea when it even makes sense anymore to say something.
You spoke. It seemed to go unheard. 
Someone even suggests racism is so far in the past, we can’t expect the Citadel students to make the connection.
Since when did cc’ers ever stop beating a topic to death? ;))
I would be curious to see how many of the students involved are from South Carolina. We will probably never know because of confidentiality , but it seems like the impression on this post is that SC is state made up of racists with this being more proof. The Citadel has students from all over the country in attendance. I grew up in the mid Altantic area where I also experienced racism. I am not naive enough to believe that racism is not alive and well in every state in the Union. I personally believe that the act was a combination of racism and tremendous stupidity, but also careful not to believe that it is a reflection of all of the attendees at The Citadel or residents of the state of SC. That would be extremely judgmental and irresponsible .
@jym626 In response to your question about cc’ers beating a topic to death. As long as people have different opinions and the inability to recognize anyone else’s opinion, it will continue.
LOL, it was rhetorical, carolinamom
I am a native white southerner, returned to live after decades away. Not all white southerners are racist. That would be ridiculous to say (to paraphrase dstark on another thread) but white southerners have to speak out and not ignore or excuse racist acts. Remember Harper Lee? Give me a minute and I’ll give you 60 more names.
@alh I am neither ignoring nor excusing their behavior . I believe that there should be strong consequences for their actions. My frustration is when there are sweeping generalizations made based on the actions of a small group of people.