Racist caricature seen on Connecticut holiday festival ride

GREENWICH, Conn. – A holiday festival in Connecticut is being criticized for a children’s ride that includes what some festivalgoers saw as a racist caricature that depicts a black cannibal in a loin cloth trying to cook a white man.

The Greenwich Time reports (http://bit.ly/2hvJclz ) the images appeared on the Safari Train at the Sam Bridge Nursery’s Reindeer Festival in Greenwich.

The black man is depicted with oversized red lips and a bone in his hair.

Lauren Lodato, who is studying for a graduate degree in early childhood education, says she complained to management after visiting the festival. She says it perpetuates inappropriate stereotypes.

Event organizer TMK Sports and Entertainment says the train is “telling a story” and “absolutely not racially inappropriate.”

The train’s owner, Marenna Amusements, says it’s never had a complaint.

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Information from: Greenwich Time, http://www.greenwichtime.com