Boo At the Zoo sounds fun. It's a children's program at the St. Louis Zoo.
Decorations include pumpkins, graveyards, bales of hay, and ghosts flying from trees.
Cute, right?
However, many said the "ghosts" resemble Blacks hanging from ropes. The ghosts have black faces and are sheathed in white sheets. A local news station even referred to them as "black face ghosts".
One zoo patron, Chris Burnett, went to zoo officials after seeing photos online. He said, "It was like a complete outrage to me, it was very hurtful. The picture appeared to be African-American people hanging from a rope."
Zoo officials say they will be removing the displays and replacing them with non-offensive decorations as there was no intention to offend anyone. Vice President of Internal Relations Wyndel Hill said, "We've looked at what we've seen in terms of photographs, we've discussed and we've made the decision that we'll take them down." Officials said an outside vendor created the displays to look like ghosts at night, including lights in their faces for a spooky effect. But that doesn't really translate during the day. SBW wonders what the replacement decor will be. How about a cheerful scarecrow?
Zoo fail.
