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most good costumes (along with most good jokes, most good art, and most good literature for that matter) are going to be offensive to certain people.

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yeah. i've worn costumes that were offensive (a few years ago i went as a "dangerous minority"), but you would not hear me say that no one should have been offended. in large part i was wearing them b/c they were offensive in some way or another, and i'm sure this kid knew what he doing. you can't wear a costume explicitly for shock value and then get defensive when you are called out.

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I agree that he probably was doing it for shock value or to stand out. I just think that he should not have been sent home or forced to apologize for the costume. If they think the costume is too far overboard then take the kid aside and tell him to take it off without making a big deal out of it. It would take him probably less than a minute to slip out of a kkk robe. I think that measure would have been fine, but punishing him for bad taste is overboard.


edit: From a quick glossing over of the wikipedia page it seems that jews were as much of a target as blacks. I think it is more of a popular belief (which may be more relevant or important to this argument since offense stems from perception) that the kkk targeted black people first and foremost.