you bring a good point. yeah, the association of white hoods with KKK's hatred is strong, as is the association of the swastika with the nazi, and the associations of the communist symbols and of the US symbols with some of the atrocities carried out in their names. ultimately, symbols, like words, carry whatever meaning communities associate with them, in dynamic and evolutionary processes that can be influenced by creativity, propaganda, appropriation, competing meanings and whatnot. the swastika, for one, may be strongly associated with nazi ideology in the west, while retaining its original religious (?) meaning in the sphere of influence of those religious beliefs. communist symbology may retain the original meaning among people who've studied the theory, while being coopted by propaganda among people who ignore or reject the theory or who disapprove of the alleged attempts to put it in practice. I'm not aware of competing meanings for white hoods, so that could explain a stronger association of the symbol, even if its adoption happened to be accidental (I don't know), or borrowed from unrelated ideology. interesting point, thanks!