I don't think they just walk around in their white garb - unless they have a group meeting. How do you explain the three, perfectly timed, anonymous cross burnings in that town? Possibly a few pranksters having a big night - eh? C'mon...
How do you explain a series of letters received by a college against their black students that struck such fear in the students and administrators that they moved the black students off campus and put them in hotels?
Klan activity or fellow black student?
Answer: Black student
How do you explain a lesbian being attacked and the word Dyke being carved into her arm? Gay bashers or self inflicted wound?
Answer: Self inflicted wound.
Time after time after time these supposed hate crimes turn out to be committed by the very people who were supposedly the targets of the attack or intimidation.
I will be very surprised if it turns out these cross burnings were actually the work of Klan members. Very surprised.
Copycats? Communists with an agenda? Dumbasses of any race proving that the gene pool really is polluted?
Probably just about anything but Klan. I used to live in Durham for quite a while. I knew the town pretty well. I'm with Perdogg, there hasn't been an active Klan presence in Durham for well over thirty years. There are, however, plenty of groups in and around Durham who would profit from the perception that the Klan had popped up there again. All this media attention just plays right into that agenda.
The Klan is the perfect Southern bogeyman to scare the Yanks with and someone is using that to their best advantage. Nothing more, nothing less.