A pubgoer sparked outrage on New Year’s Eve after turning up to the boozer dressed as a racist Klansman.
On December 31, The Chiverton Arms near Blackwater in Cornwall was hosting an 80s themed fancy dress night to ring in the new year.
But at around 7pm, a reveller turned up wearing the highly-offensive outfit, which is typically worn by members of the Ku Klux Klan, an American Protestant, white-supremacist hate group, which has been blamed for countless lynchings, murders and assaults in the US since their inception in the mid 19th Century.
Pub staff reportedly asked the person wearing the costume – which is typically made up of a white robe and white face covering with holes for the eyes and a pointed tip – to remove it.
Another pubgoer told Cornwall Live she was “so angry and annoyed” to see it, adding: “It’s not right and people should not be dressed like that”.
The wearer could not argue they were dressed as something else as the costume included the distinguishable blood drop cross, a symbol synonymous with the KKK.
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The pubgoer left because she was disgusted
“We were in shock at first and couldn’t believe it. We spoke to a guy standing near us and he thought it was a game character as some people were dressed as Mario”, she said. “No one seemed to take much notice and they did seem to know people and staff.”
That individual left after just a couple of drinks as they were mortified. Previous similar instances across the country have been treated as hate crimes.
A spokesperson for the pub said: “I’m the landlord and was made aware that one person was dressed like that and costume was removed. We put up a fancy dress 80s theme for the new year and we can’t tell people what to wear.
“We did though tell the person to remove it once we were aware. No complaints were made on the evening for us to deal with.”