# Citadel Military College Cadets: Christmas Ghosts or KKK? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106 "2015-12-10T19:44:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/21 "2015-12-11T19:31:34Z")
I think a better gambit would have been to claim they were dressing up like condemned prisoners, about to be carted to the hanging grounds. ---
**Author:** ![davida03801](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5e925/32.png) [@davida03801](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davida03801)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/22 "2015-12-11T20:16:59Z")
Dumb ass college kids. They should have know better The Citadel or not. ---
**Author:** ![Onthefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9de053/32.png) [@Onthefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onthefly)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/23 "2015-12-11T23:03:57Z")
The guy in the blue is a senior. He will not graduate and therefore, will probably be asked to return his class ring. They will surely find out who took the pictures and whose hand that is in the picture. Cadets will be asked and they punishment for lying is almost always worse than the punishment for the offense committed. The honor code prohibits lying and what they call quibbling. Theiy have a single punishment honor code there. Expulsion is the consequence of being found guilty by the honor court. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/24 "2015-12-11T23:34:37Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > If it’s a skit, where’s the audience? It looks like the guys in hoods are all crammed into someone’s dorm room. Is the audience sitting on the bed? They’re watching on Snapchat. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/25 "2015-12-12T03:08:22Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > If it’s a skit, where’s the audience? It looks like the guys in hoods are all crammed into someone’s dorm room. Is the audience sitting on the bed? Don’t you see the scripts the guys are holding? I assume they are doing a rehearsal. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/26 "2015-12-12T04:07:52Z")
My opinion is they came up with the “ghosts of Christmas past” story so they could dress up as Klansmen. 1. It’s Christmas not Halloween. Who dresses up as a ghost for Christmas? 2. Those don’t look like ghost costumes, which are generally full body sheets and don’t have pointed heads. Those look like KKK hoods. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/27 "2015-12-12T04:53:20Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > My opinion is they came up with the “ghosts of Christmas past” story so they could dress up as Klansmen. > > 1. It’s Christmas not Halloween. Who dresses up as a ghost for Christmas? Well, anyone putting on a production of _A Christmas Carol_, for one. There’s a old tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, which is what Dickens was drawing on when he wrote that story in the first place. Of course, it was primarily a British tradition, and more specifically a Victorian tradition, so I’m not sure how exculpatory that is for a bunch of millennials in South Carolina. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/28 "2015-12-12T07:33:22Z")
Given the Citadel’s history, it has done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/29 "2015-12-12T09:08:46Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Anyway, freshmen are dumb. It’s a defining characteristic. And getting freshman to do dumb things (rushing and hazing) is a legitmate training method, which is why it survives in military colleges, despite community opposition. That’s true - it’s a good way to teach cadets common sense, strength of principle and when to disobey stupid orders. These cadets failed. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/30 "2015-12-12T12:55:01Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Well, anyone putting on a production of _A Christmas Carol_, for one. There’s a old tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, which is what Dickens was drawing on when he wrote that story in the first place. Yes. Though traditionally, none of the Dickens ghosts look like Casper. > [@madmonk28](#): > > Given the Citadel’s history, it has done nothing to earn the benefit of the doubt. You realize that the Citadel suspended these guys instantly, removed them from campus pending investigation, may expel them? The president called the pictures “offensive and disturbing”? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/31 "2015-12-12T12:59:52Z")
_Christmas Carol_ ghosts usually look like one of [these](http://www.wapl.com/assets/wapl/images/blogs/Elwood/Christmas-Carol-Ghosts.jpeg). The only one commonly depicted as faceless is Yet To Come, who looks like Death, or a Ringwraith. That is, in _black_. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/32 "2015-12-12T13:29:17Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > ?..You realize that the Citadel suspended these guys instantly, removed them from campus pending investigation, may expel them? The president called the pictures “offensive and disturbing”? My point was that the Citadel cadets have long tradition of racism and bigotry, including using KKK imagery to intimidate a black student, so there is little reason to give their ghost explanation credence. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/33 "2015-12-12T13:33:04Z")
OK. “It” sounded like a reference to the institution itself. Without excusing anything in the past, it does seem like they’re doing the right thing here. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106/34 "2015-12-12T16:08:09Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > A Klansman wears a whole bed sheet, not a flour bag. The Citadel incident reminded me of [this vintage photo](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/39/49/0a/39490ae55d49cda673f31406da028f00.jpg) of a Klansman warning blacks not to vote, using typically classy imagery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/citadel-military-college-cadets-christmas-ghosts-or-kkk/740106.md?page=1)