The Ku Klux Klan are generally unhappy folk as it is, terribly saddened by the fact their beloved ‘Merica has become a diverse multicultural nation. However one photograph by Tyler Shields has sent them even deeper into their depressive states.
These backward folk still cling onto the white supremacist ideals that have their origins in pre civil war America. It’s quite hard to join the Klan these days; you obviously have to have a bright skin pigmentation, possess the skilful ability to be a vehemently racist bigot and of course, the most important pre-requisite, a giant douche (check out this KKK photo collection for an accurate depiction of their small-minded past).
Shields’s photograph is a clever role reversal of the Klan’s barbaric lynchings of African-Americans that were so prevalent throughout the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. The photograph has received a lot of attention and Shields says that the Ku Klux Klan are not at all happy about it and nor are a number of his artist friends who claim the image is too controversial.
Shields said:
It was too much for them. I have a photographer friend who looked at the image and freaked out: ‘You can’t put this out there. It’s too crazy. It’s too much.’
They kept telling me: ‘People are going to ask you too many questions.’ I wouldn’t even know what to say.
None of this fazes Shields, for him this is actually the point in the first place. Big up the guy for taking on these backward philistines and producing a powerful piece of art that gets under the skin of these backward clowns. Respect.