Discovery Park of America has apologized after a number of racist letters to Santa were left at its Christmas tree.
The science and heritage museum, which is about 100 miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, said it had destroyed the letters and is investigating. One letter to Santa, which appeared to be in a children’s handwriting, stated: “I want a slave for Christmas.”
Other racist messages to Santa were also found on Sunday afternoon. Several visitors complained about the messages and one ripped them down and handed them to staff.
Jessie Smith III removed some of the messages, telling WREG TV station in Memphis: “My wife and I only saw three. We took them all down, and she turned them in. She said the worker seemed shocked.” His photograph of one of the messages has been shared dozens of times on Facebook.
Discovery Park of America is a 100,000 square-foot science and history museum in Union City, about 100 miles northeast of Memphis.
Newsweek sought email comment from the museum on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for the museum wrote on Facebook on Sunday: “As many of you know, we have a ‘Letters to Santa’ station as part of our Christmas celebration.
“From time to time, a guest will write something inappropriate on a letter. That happened tonight, and a guest saw it and let us know. Any inappropriate letters are removed and destroyed as soon as we see them. We apologize for any offense this may have caused.”
The museum said that letters to Santa are supposed to be placed in special mailboxes, but whoever wrote the racist letters had placed them over vintage Christmas cards that the museum had placed on display.
Smith said he was at the museum with his wife and children when he saw the letters.
“We are trying to raise our kids the right way in a world full of hate, so we removed them so no one else had to see the mess,” Smith told WREG. “Racism is taught, and that’s just something that our kids aren’t going to be taught. We want them to be kind to everyone in this world.”
Discovery Park of America said it has a security camera in the building, but it was not pointing towards the Santa letters section. However, it said it is examining other ways to investigate.
Some people wrote critical comments in reply to the museum’s Facebook statement.
In response to those comments, one woman wrote: “Amazing how many are attacking Discovery Park instead of blaming the person who clearly has no clue how to act. Even a five year old knows right from wrong when taught.”
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