The kkk is racist ever heard of lynching
I am afraid that you are ignoring just how common lynching was around the United States through its history. Mexicans, abolitionists, Freedmen, socialists, Republicans, Carpetbaggers, Poles, Portuguese... This happened with or without the KKK, which I think we should remember is based many from old Scotch-Irish traditions (or so the founders said) and so perhaps it was natural for the non-Ulster based Scotch, Irish, English, Germans, and others from the North thinking they were as bad as the Freemasons or Daughters of the Confederacy. Actually, let us look at Tammany Hall. They based themselves on a made up saint, dress up as Indians, use a silver tomahawk, and control New York's political landscape. And of course they supported the Irish, who voted for them and got some jobs and gifts, or they were best to s pulp, if their votes weren't simply shredded. Doesn't make them a racist organization. What about how Manhattan was basically completely depopulated of Blacks when the Irish immigrants rioted when New York abolished slavery? Why should their lynchings be ignored? Or how about the Draft Riots?
As others have said, this is mostly a social club. A think in many cases they used terms about chain mail or interlocking rings, as many people claimed membership in overlapping clan groups. It was basically a confederation, so people who were in the same division as each over in the Confederate Army, or those who fought in certain campaigns. I think a lot of parallels should be made to both the Sons of Liberty and the Committees of Correspondence. Yes, various Rings murdered or tormented large amounts of Freedmen, Abolitionists, Unionists, Germans, Northerners, Spaniardos, and Republicans in general. That was pretty much standard procedure back then for committee leaders. The only issue is whether or not they were in costume when they did it and if it should be counted as a primary motivation of the group. Anyways, everyone has their own dirty laundry. Just look at the Copperheads. To think that their founders work against the Union, only to end up with their great-grandchildren wearing pins with Honest Abe's face mounted on it as they parade through the Land of Lincoln.