'We're dreaming of a white Dorchester': Historical society apologizes for holiday card

BOSTON — A holiday greeting from a local historical society has triggered a quick apology.

The Dorchester Historical Society sent out a holiday card to its supporters with the words: "We're dreaming of a white Dorchester."

Those words are shown on the card along with a photograph of a historical building inside a snow globe, with snow falling.

In a tweet Monday, the historical society representing the city's Dorchester neighborhood apologized for the graphic, calling it "an unfortunate oversight."

"We are very truly sorry about our graphic used for this event. This was an unfortunate oversight on our part and the event photograph has been removed from our social media," the tweet said. "We were simply changing the words to the classic Christmas carol and did not think it through properly."

While the society says the holiday card was designed with Bing Crosby's song "White Christmas" in mind, some Dorchester residents said the choice of wording was a mistake.

"With everything going on today, with the white Christmas, they could have chosen better wording," said Lavesha Stinson.

"It could go either way. It could depend on how you take it. Some people can't wait for a white Christmas, so it would all just depend on how you take it," said Jessica Stephens.

Several attempts made by Boston 25 News to speak with the president of the Dorchester Historical Society were unsuccessful on Monday.

Dorchester is one of the city's most diverse communities. Blacks make up 45 percent of the population, Hispanics 18 percent and whites, 22 percent.

The historical society issued a second tweet on Monday.

"Thank you for alerting us to this matter as we certainly do not want to project that message, even if completely accidentally. Again, thank you," the second tweet said.

The society issued the apology after a tweet by @IndependentRes7 pointed out the wording on social media.

"Looks like some one did not proof this. The message of a white Christmas (sic) implies others are left out. Maybe not intentional but not how it appears," that tweet read.

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