Black residents of El Paso, Texas, found themselves in a real horror movie when images and videos of apparent teens dressed as KKK members began circulating online over the weekend.
The clips show about seven people wearing pointy white hoods and white robes at a Halloween event that reportedly took place on El Paso’s east side.
The identities of those involved remain unknown. However, most of the teens appear to be Hispanic, a group that makes up 81% of the city’s population, according to 2025 U.S. Census data.
Pointed white hoods also have a history in Hispanic Catholic traditions. In Spain and parts of Mexico, participants wear capirotes during Holy Week processions, including the Procesión del Silencio (Procession of Silence) on Good Friday. The penitential garments date back centuries before the Ku Klux Klan emerged.
In at least one of the videos, the man filming tells the group to “yell something as a team,” as they’re walking through a neighborhood.
The group allegedly shouted racial slurs, but the versions of the videos circulating online censor the language.
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The incident has sparked widespread outrage in El Paso and beyond. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar strongly condemned the group’s hateful act, calling it “deeply disturbing and unacceptable” in an October 25 statement released on Facebook.
“The KKK represents a shameful history of white supremacy, racial terror, and violence against Black Americans and other communities of color,” she said. “Treating that history as a costume is not a joke.”
She also emphasized El Paso’s commitment to diversity, resilience and respect, saying, “No one should have to fear being targeted or harassed because of who they are or what they look like.” She added that “no El Pasoan is too young to understand that racism has no place in our community.”
On the morning of October 26, the El Paso branch of the NAACP held a press conference led by President Carl B. Dwyer, Jr. Standing outside the El Paso County Courthouse, he addressed supporters and expressed the raw heartache of watching hooded figures parade through a neighborhood.
“It hurts, it hurts,” he said. “Fighting for freedom, still to this day in 2026, we have people who think it’s okay to don white sheets, white robes, and white hats that are emblematic of the most racist time and period of this country. It is not a joke, and it is not funny.”
