Black Santa didn’t sign up for this. A slew of bigoted shoppers at the trendy Mall of America in Minnesota are threatening to boycott after the mall hired its first black Santa Claus for 4 days.
Readers sounded off in the comments section of the Minneapolis newspaper. Many of the comments revealed the racism that divided this country in post-Obama America.
Larry Jefferson-Gamble, a retired military veteran who played Santa since he was 12, was hired so that children of color could sit on his lap for holiday photos.
The reaction was so vociferous that the newspaper was forced to shut down the comments section.
“Looks like we had to turn comments off on story about Mall of America’s first black Santa. Merry Christmas everyone!” an editor wrote.
A report on a CBS Minnesota website that was inundated with racist and vile comments was also shut down.
“Watching people meltdown over a Black Santa in the Mall of America. “Santa is white!” Well, in our internment camp he was Asian. So there,” wrote George Takei, the openly gay actor who played helmsman Hikaru Sulu on TV’s Star Trek.
