"There is absolutely no proof of a hate crime", said John Gill, special counsel to Knox County District Attorney Randy Nichols. "We know from our investigation that the people charged in this case were friends with white people, socialized with white people, dated white people. So not only is there no evidence of any racial animus, there's evidence to the contrary."

Oh cool, "we know they weren't racist because they had white friends." Now flip that and use it as a defense against accusations of "white supremacy"...