Bad Santa

What the heck was going through the mind of the man playing Santa Claus at the Cherry Hill Photo booth at the Solano mall in Fairfield? Did you read about this story? The Santa asked a black woman if she’d be offended if he called her a “picaninny”. When she said she would, he asked her, “What about a coon?” The insulted woman went to management and the Santa was fired on the spot.

Later this genius wrote to his manager that he didn’t intend for the questions to be offensive. That could be. Maybe the fellow didn’t have any African-American friends to ask. Perhaps he had no access to dictionaries or the internet to divine the derogatory nature of the words. Perhaps he’d been living under a rock or was new to our planet.

I say this because this fellow apparently couldn’t think of anywhere else to obtain the answers to these burning questions except while on the job talking to a stranger while dressed as Santa Claus.

Now it would’ve really been something if he’d asked these questions of the wrong brother or sister. Imagine the horrified looks on youngsters’ faces as they watch Santa get this jolly red butt kicked right in front of them.

I assume to be a mall Santa in 2006, one would have to undergo some kind of background check to make sure one isn’t a sex offender or have some other nefarious deeds in one’s background. What about an I.Q. test?