An interracial couple in Vacaville say they received a letter from someone who claims to be their neighbor but the content of the message is more threatening and demeaning than hospitable.
As Marc Yu was heading to work Wednesday morning, he said he checked his mailbox and found the letter that said he and his Mexican-American wife are "not welcome here." The letter asked his family to move away from The Meadowlands neighborhood.
"Renters like yourselves couldn’t possibly afford a home in our area," the letter said. Yu is of Chinese and Filipino descent.
The letter claimed that Yu's family, who moved into the predominantly white city of Vacaville 70 miles northeast of San Francisco last November, "destroyed" the front lawn of their rental home.
Yu says he received an anonymous complaint a couple months ago about his yard, and after a notice from the city, he said he cleaned up the mess.
"We have a lot of stuff. We have a lot of kids. So a lot of our stuff was in the driveway at one point," he told NBC Bay Area. "I worked really hard to get that house. I don’t know why people would treat us that way," Yu said.
The letter also threatened to contact Yu's landlord and request an eviction if he doesn't leave in the next 60 days. "We may sound harsh, but your interracial family is not welcome here," it read.
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Yu's wife, Sandy, said the couple own the home and that they're "not going anywhere. We're here to stay."
Neighbors NBC Bay Area spoke with say they are stunned by the racist letter.
"I think it’s disgusting. There’s a reason they didn’t put their name on the letter. It’s racist," neighbor John McCleese said.
