‘Cowardly clowns’: Students ripped for wearing KKK, blackface costumes
Students at an Australian university have courted controversy after a group dressed up as the Ku Klux Klan and another student dressed in blackface for a “politically incorrect” party.
The party was held Thursday night among students at Charles Sturt University and has erupted in scandal after photos of attendees were posted on social media and quickly circulated online. Charles Sturt University is home to around 20,000 students and is located in Sydney.
In one photo, five people believed to be students at the university’s Wagga campus are dressed in full KKK garments, complete with hoods, while another attendee was covered in black body paint and held a basket of cotton.
“Very very politically incorrect,” read the photo caption, posted on Instagram. “Cotton prices are unreal though so it’s a great time to be pickin’.”
After the picture was posted on Facebook by activist group FISTT, comments flooded in condemning the costumes.
“WTF is actually wrong with you. Total disgrace,” wrote one person.
“Cowardly clowns … still covering their ugly faces,” said another.
The photo drew attention after it was re-posted online by a young indigenous man who said he attended the same high school as some of the students involved.
“I went to school with these so called university educated losers,” he wrote on Facebook.
“They need kicking out of university. Is this what they teach them out there?”
Other students at the politically incorrect themed party dressed up as Jewish Holocaust prisoners and Hitler in a Nazi uniform, according to Welcome to Country.
In a statement provided to News.com.au, the university’s vice-chancellor, Andrew Vann, labeled the incident as “offensive” and said it was not tolerated by the school.
“Charles Sturt University will not tolerate this offensive behavior. It does not reflect our university values and we strongly condemn these actions,” he said.
“CSU is currently investigating these incidents and social media posts.”
The party was held at the Black Swan Hotel in Wagga, which has since been flooded with negative online reviews by angry Facebook users.
“These racist activities have been supported by you and you have profited from this kind of dreadful activity,” one user posted on the pub’s Facebook page. “How do you think people of color feel about such offensive treatment?”
The venue has sought to distance itself from the event and said it wasn’t aware of the controversial costumes.
“The pub was made aware of an incident unbeknownst to staff,” it said in a Facebook post that has since been removed.
“To all that message. Thank you very much for your message. We were unaware of this behavior happening out the back of the pub, however, we have immediately dealt with this.
“We have zero tolerance and do not condone this sort of behavior.”