It was the end of the road for American Idol contestant Caleb Kennedy after this video of him with a person wearing a KKK hood surfaced this week. Kennedy had made it to the show’s final 7 contestants before the video surfaced. Kennedy who is 16 broke the news to his fans.
“Hey y’all, this is gonna be a bit of a surprise, but I am no longer gonna be on American Idol. There was a video that surfaced on the internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way. I was younger and did not think about the actions, but that’s not an excuse,” he wrote in a statement. “I wanna say sorry to all my fans and everyone who I have let down. I’ll be taking a little time off social media to better myself, but saying that, I know this has hurt and disappointed a lot of people and made people lose respect for me. I’m so sorry!”
Caleb’s mom said the picture was not a KKK hood, but the two children were roleplaying after watching the film “The Strangers: They Prey at Night”.
“This video was taken after Caleb had watched the movie ‘The Strangers: Prey at Night’ and they were imitating those characters. It had nothing to do with the Ku Klux Klan, but I know that’s how it looks. Caleb doesn’t have a racist bone in his body. He loves everyone and has friends of all races,” mom Anita Guy told MSN.