It was the parody that went wrong. Police department administrative secretary Jeri Minnick-Dukes only wanted to get some laughs from her Mifflin County co-workers, but she received criticisms from the entire country instead. Minnick-Dukes is currently being reprimanded for sending email copies of the Night Befo’ Crizzmus, a parody of Clement Clarke Moore’s The Night Before Christmas that contains several racial slurs and slang words, which are obviously references to the African-American community.
The black Christmas poem
The email, which was originally sent by Minnick-Dukes as a joke to her Democrat (and Obama supporter) co-worker, is currently receiving a lot of attention and criticism for containing several references to negative stereotypes against black people. Night Befo’ Crizzmus, after all, is an obvious play on the original title of the poem using Black slang. Other negative stereotypes mentioned in the email imply piracy, drug use, prostitution, and robbery.
The black Santa Claus
The part of the email that drew the most attention, however, is the depiction of President-elect Barack Obama as a “black Santa Claus.” As the black Santa, Obama entered houses not by going down the chimneys but by picking the door locks. And although it was mentioned that he had a big bag full of Air Jordans and fake gold, the black Santa Claus did not give away any presents on Christmas Eve. Instead, he stole the narrator’s guns, crack, knife, and new burglar’s kit.
Getting a letter of reprimand is the only “punishment” that Minnick-Dukes is expected to receive from the board of directors. African-American Bernard Chapman, who used to work as a police trooper in Pennsylvania, believes that the proper disciplinary action for Minnick-Dukes’ unethical sending of the racial email is the termination of her employment. “To only place a letter of reprimand in her file is not sufficient. To demean the President-elect of the United States solely because he is African-American is an egregious violation of protocol here,” he said.