P&O Cruises insists staff weren't dressed in Ku Klux Klan gear after fancy dress mishap
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The cruise line said staff in controversial white costumes were dressed as ‘upside-down snow cones’. P&O Cruises Australia has said that pointed white hoods worn by cruise ship staff at a Christmas costume party were “upside-down snow cones” not the Ku Klux Klan.
To the horror of travellers, staff believed to be housekeeping, appeared dressed in all-white boiler suits and pointed white masks at a December event onboard P&O’s Pacific Explorer. The Ku Klux Klan is a far-right white supremacist hate group in the US – members are recognisable by distinctive all-white robes and pointed masked hoods.
A spokesperson for P&O Cruises Australia claimed that staff “had no idea” and were “horrified” that the outfits resembled the KKK uniform. P&O communications director Lynne Scrivens told 2GB radio on Wednesday (22 January): “Our crew are from different cultures all over the world. They’re young, and they had just never heard of that organisation or what their outfits could symbolise.
“They live and work on a cruise ship. They’re not going to Spotlight to buy a bunch of materials for fancy dress. “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.
