Easter Sunday egg hunts in one Virginia neighborhood were suddenly interrupted when a family discovered racist notes inside eggs in their yard.
Families in the West End neighborhood were outraged when it was discovered that an anonymous person, or possibly group, filled their yards with racist notes inside Easter eggs.
One egg revealed a message that read, “Diversity = white genocide.”
Another egg discovered later read, “Mass immigration and forced assimilation of non-whites into our lands is genocide.”
The Smith family made the first discovery when the father, Brandon Smith, found an egg in the yard that neither he nor his wife had hidden.
“My husband noticed the last Easter egg and I knew it wasn’t one that I put out,” the mother, Jackie Smith, said. “We opened it and it’s got the white supremacist stuff in it.”
Jackie Smith said that unfortunately there are more than enough ways that racists can spread their message, but coming into her yard is well beyond the protections of free speech.
“You can hit the whole world with the Internet, stay out of my yard,” she added.
After discovering the racist Easter eggs, both Jackie and Brandon Smith went around the neighborhood warning other families.
Sure enough, more eggs with messages of white supremacy were found – luckily before the children were able to get to them.
Brandon Smith could only describe the notes and the faux Easter eggs as “absurd” and “disturbing.”
“It’s disturbing knowing my son is walking around the yard a lot and finding that,” he said. “It’s something he may find and have questions about that, not necessarily at his age, I want to explain to him – That there are people in this world who don’t think everyone is equal.”
Residents from around the neighborhood said they were “genuinely floored” that someone would do this.
Henrico County Police are currently investigating the incident, but did not release any further information.
The findings of the investigation could lead to trespassing and littering charges; hate speech is another possible charge although difficult to prove in court.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first incident of this kind.
On April 18, residents in Oakdale, Calif., also discovered Easter eggs with racist notes inside.
The eggs were left on their doorsteps and contained messages like “Diversity is a code word for White GenNOcide” and “Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white.”
The messages were similar to those that a group of white women read for a promotional video that encourages people to “fight white geNOcide.”
A link at the end of the video refers people to a website that promises to keep “saying what respectable conservatives won’t” and features the same claims of a white genocide.
