KKK documentary from US TV channel accused of 'normalising white supremacy'

Generation KKK focuses on klansmen and the family members who want to distance themselves from the group

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A US TV channel has attracted controversy after reports emerged that it would air a programme that provides an inside look at the KKK.

Generation KKK, set to premiere on 10 January 2017, focuses on family members of prominent klansmen who are trying to distance themselves from the hate group.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, cable and satellite network A&E has given an eight-episode order to the show, which embedded cameras with the KKK over the past year in an attempt to facilitate a discussion between leaders in the group and members of their family who want to get out.

Subjects include an 'Imperial Wizard' trying to recruit his daughter, an Iraq war veteran teaching his four-year-old son racist rhetoric, and one Klan member attempting to recruit a family friend.

Names are not changed in the programme and faces are not obscured, with all KKK members participating in the programme giving their full attention.

Several prominent industry figure have already condemned A&E and accused them of giving a platform to white supremacists.

Suits actor Wendell Pierce said the channel was normalising the KKK, and called for a boycott.

Author Olivia Cole warned that giving "cute names" such as 'alt-right' and 'Generation KKK' legitimised their views, and suggested that it was this alleged normalisation of such views that led to figures like Dylann Roof.

Rob Sharenow, general manager of A&E, defended the decision to air the programme, telling the New York Times: "We certainly didn’t want the show to be seen as a platform for the views of the KKK. The only political agenda is that we really do stand against hate."

The KKK has an estimated 3,000 to 8,000 members across the US, with 190 Klan chapters in 2015 - more than twice the 72 chapters accounted for in 2014, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.