Police and the El Paso, Texas, branch of the NAACP are condemning a group of people, possibly including youths, who were shown wearing Ku Klux Klan-style white robes and hoods in viral social media videos.
The videos show the group walking on a neighborhood street, which police indicated is in El Paso. In one video, the person recording can be heard laughing and telling the group, “Y’all gotta yell something, güey.” (“Güey” is Spanish slang, most commonly used in Mexico, akin to “dude” in English.)
Carl B. Dwyer Jr., the NAACP’s El Paso branch president, denounced the display at a news conference Monday morning as deeply hurtful to Black Americans, for whom the KKK has been a real-life terror since the Civil War.
“Many believe that it’s just a joke,” he said after supporters joined in to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the hymn often referred to as the Black national anthem.
“It hurts,” Dwyer said. “It hurts.”
El Paso Police Chief Peter Pacillas said in a statement that the department was looking into whether the group, “reportedly including young people,” violated any laws, including disorderly conduct “or other applicable offenses.”
“Symbols and language associated with the Ku Klux Klan represent a history of terror, violence, and racial hatred,” he said. “They have no place in our community. Treating that history as a costume or a joke is unacceptable and contrary to the values of respect and safety that define El Paso.”
Artie C. Maxwell Jr., pastor of El Paso’s Mount Zion Baptist Church, also spoke at Monday’s news conference and provided historical context for a city that briefly sympathized with the Confederacy.
“We may think that it is a joke, but it’s not a joke when it comes to the lives that have come before us,” he said. “God, that many have died at the hands of those who have worn those costumes.”
Pacillas invited those with information about the incident to step forward.
“Free expression has limits when it crosses into conduct that threatens public order or the safety of others,” he said.
Dwyer urged local educators to remind students of history and its influence on the present.
“We’re calling on all of the superintendents, all of the school districts, please, speak up. Please, do something about this,” he said.