Picture taken of the man outside Canada Post in Grimshaw (photo supplied)

By Liam Verster

Grimshaw

Grimshaw woman who posted picture of man in apparent KKK hood facing public backlash

Jan 11, 2021 | 1:25 PM

A woman in Grimshaw who saw a man wearing what appeared to resemble a hood similar to those worn by members of the Klu Klux Klan is feeling deflated with the public backlash she is facing after posting a picture of the man online.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, saw the man on Friday afternoon outside of the Canada Post building in the Town of Grimshaw.

She says the man took out a piece of cloth from his pocket, which was a hood that resembled something that would be worn by the KKK.

The woman says she took a photo of the man and uploaded it to Facebook, in the hopes that someone who knows the man would see it and speak with him about the inappropriate and racist connotations it represents.

“I would hope that they see that this is not funny, that this is being taken really seriously by a lot of people, and it’s extremely offensive and harmful to a lot of people. And if you have never had to wonder why it’s harmful, then you need to take a look at your privilege and ask yourself why you have never had to think about that.”

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Since the picture was posted, she says a slew of public backlash has been directed back at her. She says while a lot of people have been supportive of her decision, there have also been people commenting saying it’s not as bad as it looks, mostly with the argument that it isn’t an actual KKK hood as it’s not an exact replication.

“When I’m seeing people jump in to defend this kind of behaviour, and questioning my intentions as opposed to questioning the intentions of the person who actually did this act, that’s really discouraging. We shouldn’t be more concerned with being called racist than with actual racism.”

She adds there have been responses to her post calling her a “snowflake”, a “Karen”, and other derogatory names. She says the name-calling is very disheartening, but also alludes to people being defensive for the wrong reasons.

“I posted this, but I didn’t do this. Anybody else’s reactions to what they see are their own. I didn’t post this with the intention of smearing somebody all over the internet or in the news, I have no idea who this person was.

“I posted this to say ‘I saw something that I think is wrong, and this is wrong.’ Anyone else’s reaction is their own, and they need to look at how they react to this situation.”

She also says this backlash has brought forward the notion that people are more concerned about saying Alberta is not racist, instead of dealing with actual racist acts.

“The problem is we will make excuses for racism just so people don’t think we’re racist, well that’s not the way it works. You deal with the racism… If racist people are living here, that does not mean you are a racist. If you choose not to deal with it, then that’s the bigger problem.”

She says lots of people have also berated her for not confronting the hooded person at the time, but she says she was afraid for her wellbeing.

“Quite honestly, I’m not about to approach a person who appears to be making choices that are extremely questionable. Especially with his face covered, especially because he’s got maybe 150 lbs on me. I’m not going up to approach somebody in a public place and accuse them of something at the risk to my own safety when they look to me like a person who is not safe.”

There have also been responses to her post saying it could be the man is making a sort of protest about the mandatory mask bylaw, and the woman says that’s the case, it’s a very insensitive decision to have made.

“Somebody thinks this is a joke, that it’s funny to say ‘oh, you want me to wear a mask, then this is what I’ll wear.’ But they’re not considering the harm that this can cause, the fact that a person of colour could see someone like this crossing the street in the town where they live and feel extremely unsafe.”

She says it’s also very upsetting to see this hood worn in today’s society.

“I feel like it would be very unlikely that in 2021 that you could not know what it represents. There’s a million other ways to put a piece of cloth over your face that don’t look like that. You have to be very disconnected from any form of media to not know what that is.”

Meanwhile, the Mayor of the Town of Grimshaw, Bob Regal, says he does not condone this action and that this individual does not represent the community.

“It’s not appropriate, it’s not something that I approve of, or anybody else does for that matter, and my comments were that I found that very unacceptable, along with the insinuations that the Town of Grimshaw was somehow a racist community because there was some individual wearing a hood on a street.”

Regal adds that if this was used as a protest to the mask bylaw, then it was an extremely inappropriate way to go about it, and that if it were some form of joke, then it was in very poor taste.

The RCMP have confirmed that, following multiple reports from the public, an investigation into this incident has been launched.