Black Florida Family Receives Racist Letter From Neighbor After Celebrating Daughters’ Graduation
A Black family in Florida received a racist note demanding they remove decorations outside their home celebrating the high school graduation of twin sisters.
The family found the anonymous letter in their mailbox on Thursday. It referenced posters displayed on the front yard of twin teenagers Xanah and Xarah Sproul, celebrating their participation in the marching band and high school graduation.
"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," the hateful letter read. "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!"
According to Buzzfeed News, other families in the neighborhood put up similar decorations, but the Sprouls were the only ones to be targeted and harassed with a racist warning.
The twins father, David Sproul, told NBC News that he was shocked by the letter. The family has lived in the Timber Creek Plantation neighborhood in Yulee for five years and never experienced anything similar.
"I would say that was cold blooded because it was directed about kids. Even if it wasn't about race, to do something like that to a child, say something like that to children is terrible," he said.
Sproul's wife, Toya, shared the letter on her Facebook page, in which she noted, "Racism is alive but we ain't scared!!!!”
Sproul said his daughters read the letter and weren't the least but fazed by it.
"They realized that the person who wrote it didn't even know them, so they kind of disregarded it instantly," he said.
The family filed a police report with the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
“We at the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office do not tolerate racism and hate crimes in our county," Undersheriff Roy Henderson said in a statement. "This is out of character for Nassau County and we will continue to investigate this incident. We are proud of the Sproul twins’ accomplishments and hope to get to the bottom of this soon.”
The department said the incident is under investigation.
Meanwhile, Xanah and Xarah graduated from Yulee High School as part of the National Honors Society. Both will be studying pre-med at Saint Leo University in Florida, as they each received full-ride scholarships.
"Although they are very accomplished young ladies and they do work very hard ... at the same time, this didn't happen to two accomplished young women. This happened to two young Black women," Sproul said. "The person who did this didn't know that they had any accomplishments, didn't know their work ethic in any way. This happened to two humans, and it shouldn't have happened at all."
