A&E received tons of backlash for their now canceled series Escaping the KKK: A Documentary Series Exposing Hate in America by those who thought the network was trying to normalize hate. However, one grand master is speaking out against the network’s producers claiming they were paid hundreds of dollars a day to participate in fake scenes for the show.
Richard Nichols, the grand dragon of a KKK cell known as the Tennessee White Knights of the Invisible Empire, spoke with Variety and said some of the storylines were scripted and they were advised to lie about their identities.
“We were betrayed by the producers and A&E,” said Nichols. “It was all made up—pretty much everything we said and did was fake because that is what the film people told us to do and say.”
Nichols continues and says producers told them not to file taxes on the money they received for their participation in the show, which Nichols alleges he made $600 a day. H also claims he was encouraged to use the N-Word.
“They kept asking me, wanting me, to use the word ‘[n***r],” he said. “I was sitting down being filmed and interviewed with the lights and the backdrop set up, and I said something and used the word ‘blacks.’ Then the producer interrupted me and said ‘No, no, no. We want him to use the word ‘[n***r!]”