Cruise staff wore white boilersuits and masked hoods (Image: Twitter/@collinrugg)
A major cruise line has insisted its staff were not wearing Ku Klux Klan outfits after they walked out in bizarre white costumes.
Passengers on P&O’s Pacific Explorer were left horrified after members of the crew were seen wearing KKK-esque white masked on their way to a Christmas event.
The Ku Klux Klan is an American Christian extremist, white supremacist, far-right hate group. It uses violence such as lynchings and acts of intimidation such as cross burnings to oppress its victims – African Americans, Jewish people, and Catholics.
The group is known for its members wearing white robes and pointed masked hoods. The image has become a popular hate symbol, displayed on t-shirts and tattoos by white supremacists around the world.
Around eight staff members, believed to be housekeeping, were seen by passengers while wearing all-white boiler suits and pointed white masks.
NEW: Cruise line staff dresses up for a Christmas costume party, cruise line insists they were dressed up as “upside-down snow cones.”Travelers on a P&O Cruises Australia ship were horrified to see staff walking around with white hoods on.Communications director Lynne…
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg)
A passenger who photographed the costumes told that onlookers started calling the voyage the “KKK cruise” afterwards.
Communications director Lynne Scrivens now claims the staff were simply dressing up as “snow cones” and didn’t have a lot of materials for “fancy dress.”
She said: “They’ve got to make do with what they’ve got. And they were wearing their cleaning uniforms, and they’ve put something on their head that looks like a snow cone – an upside-down snow cone.”
Scrivens added that the staff “had no idea” and were “horrified” that the outfits resembled the KKK uniform. Management quickly intervened to tell them to remove the costumes.
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The KKK are an American white supremacist hate group (Image: Getty)
Around 2,000 guests were onboard the Pacific Explorer in December when the Christmas-themed tug-of-war for crew took place. They were on an eight-day voyage from Melbourne to Hobart, Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands
P&O Cruises Australia said in a statement: “We regret if a recent incident on a Pacific Explorer cruise offended any guests.
“Several crew members dressed up as snow cones for a Christmas family event, not understanding how their costumes could be misconstrued. They were only in public view for a short time before management acted quickly and had them remove the costumes.
“The crew members were horrified and extremely apologetic when they learned of the distress their outfits could cause.”