Black Santa in Brookside in solidarity with Arkansas family that received racist note

The inflatable Black Santa in Kathi Krouch’s yard in Kansas City’s Brookside neighborhood is meant to be in solidarity with the African American family in North Little Rock, Ark., that recently received a racist letter signed “Santa Claus.”

But it wasn’t so easy to find a Black Santa in Kansas City, Krouch said, because so many people seem to have had the same idea.

“Please remove your negro Santa Claus yard decoration,” the note to Chris Kennedy’s family said in response to the jolly old Black man in their yard in North Little Rock. “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.”

Lakewood, the neighborhood where the Kennedys live, answered by putting up a bunch of Black Santas to let the family know that yes, they are welcome there, and no, white supremacist Santa does not speak for them.

When Krouch saw a story about the letter on the news, “I was enraged,” she said. “This is a family with kids, and the man’s initial reaction was, ‘What did I do wrong?’ He did nothing wrong! I told my partner Susie, ‘Find us a Black Santa.’ But apparently lots of people had seen the same story, because one or two were bought out from under us.”

On Nextdoor.com, the response to Krouch’s photo of her new yard decoration has been overwhelmingly positive, though she said a couple of people have suggested that maybe he’s “not Black enough.” (“I’m not putting blackface on my Santa!” she said.)

And inevitably, one person called her “just plain racist” for mentioning what had happened to the family in Arkansas: “This is the season to pass on positive things that happen and not keep vomiting up more tension and depression.”

Here’s something positive that happened: The Kennedy family really appreciates the number of Black Santas they’re seeing around their North Little Rock neighborhood, and well beyond. “At the end of the day,” Chris Kennedy has said, “what was meant for evil was flipped for good.”

Bad Santa brought them a gift after all.