MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC/CNN) -- For a Tennessee family, a day at the fair ended abruptly when a clown at the dunk tank starting making racial comments.
"We heard over the loud speaker someone said 'Hey nappy head.' When we heard that we looked at each other because we didn't know who they were talking to," said Tanya Jones.
It soon became clear.
"He was like 'yeah I'm talking to you, Sheneneh.' He was like 'you look unbeweavable'," Jones said.
It was the clown at the dunk tank at the Delta Fair, and he didn't stop.
Mark Curry said he heard the clown say: "You got cheap weave, you must have got it from the Dollar Tree."
It was supposed to be a day of fun for this family from Atoka: two sisters, a brother-in-law, and three children ranging in age from 8 to 10 years old.
"I've never experienced anything like that before," Jones said. "I was really humiliated, I think, humiliated."
"I feel really disrespected, you know, because I'm out here with my wife and my children," Curry said.
The family says they understood the dunk tank clown is hurling insults on purpose to lure people over. There are even signs explaining that's the deal, but they think he went too far.
The Delta Fair agreed and fired the clown and refunded the family's entrance fees of more than $100.
Mark Lovell/President, Delta Fair: "We try to promote the Delta Fair as clean, safe and family friendly, and then when you have this guy making comments… we try to keep the comments funny, but without sexual connotations or without racial connotations."
The Delta Fair does have a lot things for families to do at no charge other than the entrance fee. Lovell said the midway company runs the dunk tank. The clown that insulted the Atoka family was fired from the dunk tank.
A new clown has taken over.
"I understand the premise of the dunk," Jones said. "You're trying to coax people to come over. I felt the comments were disrespectful as well as racist."
