Arkansas Neighborhood Fights Racism For Christmas

Chris Kennedy, who lives in Arkansas with his wife, Iddy, and their four-year-old daughter, has been putting an inflatable Black Santa in their front yard for years, but this year he got a letter from “Santa” about his lawn display:

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration. You should try not to deceive children into believing that I am negro. I am a caucasian (white man, to you) and have been for the past 600 years. Your being jealous of my race is no excuse for your dishonesty. Besides that, you are making yourself the laughing stock of the neighborhood. Obviously, your values are not that of the Lakewood area and maybe you should move to a neighborhood out east with the rest of your racist kind.”

Well, as folks do nowadays, Kennedy took his outrage to Facebook live:

“I just got something in the mail that is one, incredibly offensive, and two, just says where we are. I am trying to be as nice as I can in this very moment because I am actually filled with rage. It’s very disheartening because it’s holiday time; we’re in a pandemic.”

And, also as folks do nowadays, the good decent honest non-racist kind of folks, when Kennedy’s neighbors found out about “Santa’s” letter, they took their own stance: all over the neighborhood, Black Santas started appearing in front yards. And as more and more people joined in, local stores are running out of Black Santas.

Chip Welch, the first neighbor to erect his own Santa said:

“It was unsolicited, it was undeserved, it was un-Christmas, and hopefully it was not reflective of Lakewood, and certainly not reflective of the kind of country I want to live in. We were all pretty concerned about it, and we decided it would be poetic for everyone to get Black Santas.”

Ben Keller, another neighbor, joined in:

“When we saw what happened to Chris, we knew we couldn’t just stand by and not do anything. We instantly decided what better way to support him than getting our own Santa display?”

Keller’s young son is Black, he said, and “he is absolutely thrilled to see some Santas that reflect back to him.” 

And the same goes for Chris and Iddy Kennedy’s daughter:

“There is definitely more positive than negative. The outpouring of support made me realize that this is the perfect place to raise our daughter. She may not understand but she definitely notices the Black Santas popping up. I would like to think that’s a warm and fuzzy feeling. I didn’t see it growing up, but the fact that it will be normalized for her gives me hope for the future.”

It gives me hope, too, that maybe the hatred we’ve been seeing the last four years might be lifting. Wouldn‘t that be the best Christmas gift of all?

LGBTQ Nation