Ken is currently dressed in full KKK regalia and locked in storage closet. He is named Ken because that is what is molded into the back of his plastic head. He is a six foot tall mannequin. His job is to model one of the ADL's civil rights artifacts, a full set of KKK robes. It is an important thing for people to see. We knew using Ken to present the Klan robes would be powerful.
We had no idea.
Ken's Klan robes are the real deal, not some costume or idealized Hollywood version. Despite Ken's blank expression, the malice he emits is palpable. There is horror in the history of those robes which transcends my experience. Although perfectly clean, the robes are unmistakably stained with history.
I have no direct experience with the Klan. I have certainly had interactions with other extremists and I am fairly thick skinned in my own right. I expected to have no problem managing my feelings about Ken. Sorry Ken, you are awful and shocking.
Everyone who meets Ken gasps, groans or curses. And if I am so shaken by him, what about those people whose families were directly impacted by that history he embodies.
Symbols of hate are plentiful. We've all seen the pictures of burning crosses in front of homes and swastikas sprayed on Jewish grave stones. Ken showed me and many others that pictures don't come close to the real thing. That is why he has been appropriately banned from public view, for now.
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