I would like to know why it is that it is okay for children to view a KKK uniform and images of lynchings?

People can tolerate images of hate better than images of genitalia. Sex and things sexual make some folks really queasy

No matter how bad history is...that is what it is history. We should never try to sugar coat things, because eventually the kids will be exposed to it. It will be a much greater shock to them that these things exist, if they do not experience them until say in college, where things are never sugar coated. If we hide things...this is called censorship. You should try to explain that things have happened and will continue to happen that are bad...and that they need to continue to be reinforced this throughout there childhood. As to what age you decide to do this is up to you the parent/grandparent etc. All children mature at a different pace.

Good question. I'm split. One side of me says that slavery/lynchings were real history, they actually happened. We shoudl learn and remember our past. Whereas, let's say, sculptures are just one man's vision of something, even if a sculpture is based on a real model and the likeness is almost lifelike .... it is still a fiction. The other side of me agrees with you and says slavery ended 140 years ago (in my country). No one alive today for the past 3-4 generations has experienced slavery, nor has anyone owned slaves. To force the images of our past onto the conscience of today's people (as if we are to blame for what happened back then), only serves to continue to divide our country and keep black Americans in a state of perpetual "victim-hood".

It's easier to drape a statue then to put a drape over history. I learned about the Holocaust very young because my Grandmother survived it, and she thought it was important to teach us what silence and looking the other way when we see evil can lead to. This is a lesson that has stuck with me all my life and gave me the courage to stand up for what I think is right, even when it meant going against the majority and standing alone. There is a time and a place for children to learn about Mankind's capacity for evil, if for no other reason so that when they see it they are not stunned and silent.

I have heard that the failure of man is that they forget. knowing where your coming from may keep you from ever going there again.

i guess like when theyre 10 or something

well they are both natural.(the men in the hooded coats and the statue.) i don't know how pictures of objects from back than would help young African Americans children to see how things use to be, it brings a lot of anger and distrust to white Americans though. and to white Americans it must bring some kind of shame knowing there where (and still are) some people that wouldn't of hesitated to do such heinous acts. in my opinion it should be allowed to be viewed but why people wouldnt want to see a naked statue is beyond me!!

History is history. Awareness of what the world is , is imparitive if the child is to grow to find his/her place in it. Sure parents want to show a beautiful world and should, but realistically it's not all beautiful or kind or disneyland. My folks were from the depression era and wwII, I was told that I lived in the best place in the world to live. Maybe I did , I was safe at night , but I grew up sheltered with unrealistic awareness of the world and not much interest in the world outside of my own, then came Vietnam blowing my illusion of American Government all to hell.I was impressionable but not educated. We seemed to love war, Civil rights had to be fought for amoungst our own. here in the land of the free?There is more hate here then one would imagine.How did I fit in? I didn't I was sheltered and now that I realized it was all a lie I had no respect for my government or authority, I rebelled with out a solution , I had skipped school so didnt learn how the system was designed to work or not. I ended up an oblivious American who has never regained respect for authority,trying to fit in to my own world where I don't feel I belong and able to do nothing for those who are victims of horrific events , all I can do is welcome those from other lands who come here looking for a chance to make a decent living in peace.I think the more a child knows growing up the better he'll be about making his way in the world where it counts .

I'm not so sure that serpent (KKK) is quite as dead as we've come to believe. At the suggestion of a rather astute friend who's been looking at some exchanges on some various websites, I (and a few others) seem to be picking up on some "unusual" appearing nuances these past two or three years among a certain group not normally thought of as being racist. I'm afraid to elaborate because this group has a very high tech presense on the internet, but it's similar to a covert language, reminiscent of that used by the masons or certain "churches". (it's not the masons by the way) It's only a suspicion, and I could very well be wrong, but there may be something going on we don't know about. Don't ask for details, I've no intention of becoming directly involved, just passing along some interesting trivia.