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'You don't belong here': Family receives racist letter

Part of a racist letter sent anonymously to an African-American family in the US.

Police are investigating after an African-American family in the United States was sent an anonymous letter telling them they “don’t belong” in the predominately white town where they live.

The Copes family, from Lindenhurst in New York, received a note in the mail on Thursday encouraging them to move away, WPIX reports.


“Please leave Lindenhurst as soon as you can. It will be better for all of us,” the note read.

“Find the town where there are more people like you,” it continued.

“Sorry if this is rude, but it’s the truth.”

The family said they were shocked and hurt by the letter but ultimately felt sorry for the culprit.

“Sometimes you have a preconceived idea of how a person is just because you don’t know them,” father Darcell Copes told WABC.

“You don’t know how they live, you don’t know what they believe.

“I’ll continue to pray for you and you need to get out and meet people.”

Mr Copes said the family had been overwhelmed with support from the local community.

Many residents wrote their own letters in response to the hate crime.

“To the coward who committed a hate crime against an innocent family in Lindenhurst,” Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone wrote on Friday.

“There is no place for intolerance in Suffolk County. I know the Suffolk County Police Department will do everything possible to solve this hate crime, out you and see you punished.”

The letter is reportedly being tested for fingerprints.

News break - May 25