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Clown Canned for Shouting Insults at Black Family

At fair, he called mom 'nappy head,' 'unbeweaveable'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 3, 2014 5:05 PM CDT
Clown Canned for Shouting Insults at Black Family
Stock photo.   (Shutterstock)

If you're a clown in a dunk tank at a carnival, part of your job is to gently egg on attendees so that they'll hand over a couple of bucks and try to sink you. But a Tennessee family says one performer crossed the line at the Delta Fair in Memphis, throwing out racial epithets to rile them up. Tanya Jones, who was with her three kids, tells WSMV that they heard someone say, "Hey, nappy head" over the PA system. Another member of her party says next came, "Yeah, I'm talking to you, Sheneneh … you look unbeweaveable." Jones complained to fair management, which promptly refunded the family's $100-plus entry fees and fired the clown. "We try to keep the comments fun without sexual and racial connotations," says the president of the fair. (More clown stories.)

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