NY Police Probe Allegedly Racist T-Shirts Left Outside Black and Asian Homes

Allegedly racist t-shirts left outside the homes of families of color have stirred controversy in a village in upstate New York.

Three families, two Black and one Asian, received the inflammatory shirts outside their homes in the village of Dobbs Ferry on Monday morning, according to a Wednesday report from The Journal News. A message appearing on the shirt claims to not be "anti whatever-you-are" while urging the residents to leave the area.

"You came here from there be­cause you did­n't like there, and now you want to change here to be like there," the text on the t-shirt reads. "We are not racist, pho­bic, or anti what­ever-you-are, we sim­ply like here the way it is and many of us were ac­tu­ally born here and stayed be­cause it is not like there, wher­ever there was."

"You are wel­come here with open arms!" it continues. "But please stop try­ing to make here like there. If you want here to be like there, you should not have left there to come here. Please love Dobbs Ferry as we do and please do your best to leave it just as you found it."

Dobbs Ferry is located about 20 miles north of New York City and has a nearly 80 percent white population. New York state's overall white population is around 64 percent, according to World Population Review.

After denouncing the message on the shirt, the Dobbs Ferry Democratic Committee also shared a Facebook post on Wednesday warning of what was said to be a "fake" Black Lives Matter flyer meant to incite racial hostility, featuring a bullet hole graphic surrounded by the words "white privilege is Black oppression."

Dobbs Ferry police are reportedly investigating the unsolicited distribution of the shirts but had not spoken to those who received them as of Wednesday. Although the text on the shirt claims to be "not racist," some locals are less than convinced.

"If you are not racist or phobic, you would not call people 'whatever you are,'" local activist Kelli Scott told WNBC. "These shirts were in driveways and doorsteps. Families woke up to this ... They're pretty shaken and kind of in a state of disbelief."

The statement on the shirt does not appear to be original or specific to Dobbs Ferry. It is not clear who first wrote the message, but versions of it have appeared in different places around the country for more than a year. Last month, a police board member in Connecticut came under fire after posting a nearly identical statement to social media, swapping out only location references.

Newsweek reached out to Dobbs Ferry police for comment.