As the novel coronavirus pandemic upends just about every aspect of education, graduation ceremonies and traditions have changed, too. To celebrate a monumental time in young peoples’ lives, many families are putting signs, posters, or other decorations outside of their homes to show off the graduate in their family. For some, this means honoring where the student finished high school, where they were accepted to college, or what degree program they’ve just completed. Especially given that graduation parties and the like are no longer advisable amid the pandemic, this sort of celebration is now both common and heartwarming.
One family, however, says they received a racist, anonymous letter in response to the posters they put outside of their home. Xanah and Xarah Sproul, twins who finished high school with all A’s and a number of honor society accolades under their belts, were featured in celebratory posters outside of their family home in Yulee, Florida. The family says they received the following racist letter, urging them to take “those hideous posters” down, as reported by local outlet News 4 Jax.
The letter reportedly reads: “Resident: Don’t you think enough is enough? It’s time to take those hideous posters of that ugly fat black girl down off your house. What a disgrace to the neighborhood. In fact, your entire brood is a disgrace to the neighborhood. Consider moving to a “hood” of your kind. Your neighbors are watching you!”
As BuzzFeed News reports, other families in the neighborhood had similar celebratory posters outside, but no other families received a letter. The letter was not signed (surprising no one). It was typed and postmarked in Jacksonville, which is about 25 miles from where the family lives.
“Even if it wasn't about race,” father David Sproul told NBC News in an interview, “to do something like that to a child, say something like that to children is terrible.” He told the outlet that they’ve lived in the Timber Creek Plantation neighborhood for five years, and have never experienced anything like this before. He described the letter as “coldblooded.”
The twins, who are headed to college in the fall to begin a pre-med program, did read the letter when they got home that day, but as Sproul told BuzzFeed, they ultimately tossed the letter aside and “went about their way.” He added to the outlet that “after reading [the letter] they could clearly see that the person doesn't know them. That's the nature of how they are because they're just super sweet girls."
In the end, David’s wife, Toya Sproul, filed a police report."You see all the things happening all across the country," David Sproul said to local outlet News 4 Jax, adding that “it's absolutely different when it's literally in your own yard, literally in your own house."
If this story sounds upsettingly familiar, that’s because it is. As Daily Kos covered in mid-July, for example, a Black family in Indiana said they received a racist letter about the volume of a birthday party they’d held at their home one year prior. The anonymous letter writer noted they were writing on behalf of the entire neighborhood, and that they were disappointed to be living next to a Black family. Luckily in that scenario, many neighbors spoke out against the letter and in defense of the family, but the very existence of the letter is disturbing.
You can check out an interview with the family below, courtesy of News 4 Jax via YouTube.