Racism is everywhere, more so these days. One would think that people already learned a lot after World War II, but apparently not. Hence, people can get rather sensitive in the face of apparent racist depictions, even if the message is anti-racism. So when one high school made their students wear a KKK costume for a play, you can bet the parents went ballistic.
The Arizona State University Preparatory Academy in Phoenix, Arizona, US, seemingly did not mean any harm. You see, they had a high school play last Friday and it involved the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) which is a racist faction who loved to dress up as spooky ghosts. The said university then dressed up some students in a KKK costume, this shocked the parents.
“We can talk about racial prejudice, we can talk about the insensitivity, but to have our children put on the robes and assume the characters, it’s wrong. There is no justification for it,” said one parent. However, the said play is about a dark comedy from Larry Shue called, “The Foreigner,” — a staple of professional and amateur theatre.
KKK costumes at high school play shock students, outrage parents: https://t.co/JrXJEQTcFw #abc15 pic.twitter.com/xmwbr4UO6v
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) December 11, 2018
As such, it did have scenes where KKK members wearing KKK costume need to be depicted. Still, parents probably did not want their children wearing the costume. Hence, the school still had to apologize:
“We apologize if anyone was caught by surprise with the appearance of these characters. We are confident that a fair reading of the text of the play, and a fair interpretation of the intentions of students who performed it, reveals no endorsement of bigotry,” said the high school in a statement.
One parent was still not convinced, however, and said “At least inform the parents, give us the ability to make that decision. The KKK walked into my kid’s school Friday and I didn’t get to stop it.” What do you think of the school’s decision though? Feel free to discuss in the comments.
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