Miami Art Professor Turns American Flags into KKK Hoods Causing Outrage

A Florida professor sparked outrage after she transformed three American flags into Ku Klux Klan hoods.

The flags shaped like KKK hoods had the eyes burnt out with nothing but darkness behind them and sat on poles with bases shaped like Nazi swastikas. The artwork is part of the University of Miami’s annual faculty art show, gallery director Milly Cardoso told the Miami New Times.

Billie Grace Lynn, a University of Miami associate professor of sculpture, calls it “American Mask,” a work, she writes on her personal site, that suggests “bigotry and racism are hiding behind our flag.”

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She said she was talking to a construction worker who was angry about her artwork — and she was able to explain its meaning.

“I asked him what he thought it meant and he said, ‘It’s racist.’ And I said, ‘Well, it is racist, it’s about racism. It’s about people hiding their racism behind the flag, behind their patriotism.’ Instantly all of his angry energy dissipated as he had this realization. This is what democracy is. It’s messy business and it requires us to talk with each other.”

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She finds her artwork offensive and hopes to “awaken citizens to the danger of confusing bigotry with patriotism.”

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