Having upside down pink triangles attached to white robes is really offensive. The KKK is against LGBT people.

what? I don't get it. Is this a joke?

Queerty is really sinking into the shithole. I get that this is Mexico but shit, the editors are really stupid for posting this with no context.

Looks like there's context to me in the caption below the pic, maybe that was just added. This is one of those demonstrations where some local activist comes up with a 'great idea' that isn't thought through very well.

I was just thinking this morning how the reporting and content level seem to have gone up lately in many respects. Thanks Queerty!

I wouldn't say offensive…perhaps a little mixed up. I think their message is not best communicated through this combination of references. The pink triangles on the white robes and the rainbow flag on the coffin sort of contradict each other, no?

Confusing sure, but it's inventive and attention-grabbing and the point it's making (hate = bad) is a good one. I like it.

What?

I'm afraid I just don't get it. While the KKK is opposed to gay people, they're not really known for that. A more honest depiction would use an evangelical pastor, frankly. And the upside down triangles are just confusing.

@Alec:

This is supposedly taking place in Mexico. Queerty provide no context or no link for context. And I can't find this image on the Web, either.

I don't think this is meant to be a reference to the KKK at all. The hoods are called capirotes, and they're worn with the robes during Holy Week processions in Spain and Mexico–dating back well before the KKK ever existed. I think the protesters here are trying to evoke religion. The costumes are jarring to Americans, but they have a very different connotation in Roman Catholic countries. Is the KKK even in Mexico?

See this, if you're interested (in Spanish):
http://www.erroreshistoricos.c.....uchon.html

@kmr76:
Thank you for the context.

They use these hoods in Italy too. I'll research this more. The KKK is also anti-Catholic, so this made no sense whatsoever.

@Chitown Kev: Yeah. Although if what is KMR76 is stating is true, it makes much more sense, as the KKK is not exactly something one would use as a cultural reference in Mexico. On the other hand, it would probably have a dual meaning, and perhaps that was the intent. If so, it is very clever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirote

Can we get a bit more sensational?

[img]http://reclaimtheswastika.com/images/edmonton_swastikas_s.jpg[/img]

Want to know what the picture is actually about?
http://reclaimtheswastika.com

@Chitown Kev: This kind of context would have been extremely helpful, Queerty, for your US-based readership

@strumpetwindsock:

I knew that about the swastika, that it originated in India.

And it onlky took until post 10 to figure this out.

Sorry queerty, 35 posts tops on this.

The concept of deliberate irony escapes many it seems.

Are you people ignorant?

That style of robe is worn by worshippers of the Catholic Church in Spanish-speaking countries.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirote
(Thanks ChiTown Kev!_

Um hello? Mexico? Can you put things in a cultural context?

Maybe if some of you weren't so damn reflexively anti-Christian and USA-centric you would bother to learn about some of the mannerisms and customs that form one of the largest religions in the world.

@Tony:
No, we got that.

It just might have helped the story to point out that the outfits were not a satirical gibe at the KKK, but had an entirely different meaning.

The way it is some people might misinterpret it as a joke in very bad taste.

@strumpetwindsock: Irony is often ineffective as it escapes most people.

@Tony:
Although Queerty was being ironic, the people in the original ceremony were not (at least not about the KKK – the funeral WAS dark satire).

@Tony:

There's multiple levels of irony here, th KKK is also anti-Catholic yet this is the origin of their garb.

@Tony: The title of this post obfuscates the meaning of the photograph. I understand the deliberate irony of the picture but why the reference to KKK at all?

& @kevin (not that one): You're criticizing the wrong people here. If anything, Queerty has a tendency to promote anti-Christian and US-centric values, not its readership.

@Tony:
I agree with you completely.And if you have to spell it out it ruins it.

Unfortunately though, satire often doesn't translate well (like a lot of cultural references).

@Chitown Kev:
like the mormons and the masons.

Sometimes I will say something completely offensive about a group other than LGBT people that is a direct analogy to something that is commonly said regarding LGBT people or the LGBT Community. Most times I have to debrief the individual or individuals I am talking to to explain the irony and the analogy.

If they get it, I can often make the point I am trying to make with greater impact than if I didn't use this tactic. Many times however I have been misquoted as stating or supporting something I am completely against. The use of irony in communication relies on the assumption that the audience has the capacity to understand the meaning. Good communication communicates, and irony, however biting and clever often fails to meet the goal of clear communication.

@Tony:
Many times however I have been misquoted as stating or supporting something I am completely against.

Well I don't think you have to ever worry about that happening on this site.

Tony,

Of course, when you do that, you do it within a certain cultural setting. There's bound to be a failure of communication if you make an immediate reference, for example here, to the KKK, but fail to make the reference to the capirotes.

Clearly, the protest here was meant to evoke both. But (most of) the American audience isn't going to be familiar with Spanish Catholic garb, only the KKK reference.

@Alec:
That's the thing…

I wouldn't assume they are making any reference to the KKK at all.
I think it's a mock funeral, with no other layers of meaning.

@strumpetwindsock:

It's all Obama's fault for not explaining this.

@Chitown Kev: Well that goes without saying.

@Chitown Kev:
LOL

Now there's the lesson in all this – if you push things too far you wind up being a mockery of yourself.

@Chitown Kev:

What do you bet Obama does not even mention this photo when he makes his trip to Mexico? I'm mad already!!!!!

@Landon Bryce:

LOL

Actually that guy in back on the right looks like me might BE Obama.

I bet he talked them all into making this insulting joke.

@strumpetwindsock:

Nah, Obama is the tall guy on the left, you know that's the only place Obama will stand.

Of course both guys could be Obama, being that he's a "magic negro" and all of that. LOL

You Obamabots have a one tracked mind!! When you masturbate do you imagine his face on bodys that do not have sagging breasteses like his, and aren't damn near 50?? Just curious, since you love love love him so.

Do you have Obamagasms???

oops I meant "bodies"

Ohhh, Ohhh, Ohhhhbama (Sound of Obamabot when savior speaks…)

It reminds me of Dave Chapelle's KKK spoof.

@Tony: President Obama's supporters have a one track mind? The queerty editors are so simple minded they had to delete a post on Jenny Durkan, the first openly gay nominee for a US attorney post, because they erroneously claimed she wasn't subject to senate confirmation: http://www.shewired.com/Articl.....p;ID=22796

I think we know who has the one track mind here.

Queerty should do a series on what it means to be lgbt or whatever, because I feel that a lot of it's viewers have a pretty egocentric view of who the lgbt's are, and even the society at large, but let's keep "Queertycentric" lol.

@Tony:
Yes!! Yes!!! But Obama MAKES us do it!

@Alec:
Speaking of which, look at how that rainbow flag is TOUCHING the symbol of our oppressors.

Obama probably didn't need to convince them to stage this little "protest". I bet they were happy to do it because they're not even gay at all.

They're counterrevolutionaries trying to get us to let down our guard against the skypixie worshipping christers and undermine our worldwide movement.

strumpetwindsock

So clever. Yawn.

Hey Alec, I never saw the post you mentioned being deleted. Maybe it was here maybe it wasn't. You Obamabots see all kinds of things that aren't there. Like the best friend the LGBT Community has ever had, or change we can believe in.

@Tony:
I saw it, it was there with 4 comments.

@Tony: It was there, as Chitown Kev notes. It was deleted, mysteriously and without explanation. Which is strange, I mean, it is gay-related….you might think there was an inherent bias here against reporting good news from Obama…

@Alec:

Although my name automatically designates me as an Obamabot, I suppose.

@Tony: I guess Queerty likes to dilute relevant issues with lame advertising, Anderson Cooper, flame war inducing Obamanews and dull airbrushed narcissists. Ok, true, this isn't fair, me love me some narcissists hubby.

@Tony:

Gee… I thought you were joking (the rest of us are, near as I can tell).

And hey, I didn't even vote for him.

I also saw the post pre-deletion (or perhaps it is just Obama's mysterious power to cloud men's minds).

As an ex-Skinhead myself, I know for a fact that there are Neo-Nazi Skinheads in Mexico, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were also KKK there as well.
That being said, I didn't need to read the caption text below the photo to understand the message that they're making. It was pretty cut & dry to me.
They're making a very loud and very disturbing message about Homophobia. In that it is a very ugly and scary thing.
I applaud them.

In my Fraternity in College we burned crosses for some of our ceremonies and it had no racial or discrimination meaning to it, however no one could see past their pre-concieved views and the practice was stopped. Its a shame as it was really cool to see this done at night in the quarries.

Oh white people.