Florida Parents Told to Move to a "Hood of Your Kind" After Posting Congratulations Banner
Xanah and Xarah Sproul of Yulee, Florida have very VERY proud parents. The Sproul twins recently graduated from High School, with honors, and their parents, like many around the country, wanted to do something special to commemorate the occasion! Their parents,David and Toya Sproul, hung up banners outside of their home, one for each daughter, and unfortunately, that's when the problems began.
A neighbor sent an anonymous letter to the Sproul home telling them to remove the 'hideous' posters of the 'ugly fat black girls.
The full letter 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!”
Their father told NBC News in a phone interview Tuesday that he was shocked by the letter.
"I would say that was coldblooded 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 said he and his family, including twin daughters Xanah and Xarah, have lived in the Timber Creek Plantation neighborhood in Yulee, about 25 miles north of Jacksonville, for five years and have never experienced anything similar.
Mrs. Sproul took to Facebook to express her anger calling the letter's author a "coward".
"Racism is alive but we ain't scared!!!! This showed up in my mailbox today," she wrote in a post on Thursday.
Sproul said he let his daughters read the letter when they got home later that day, and the girls "didn't let it bother them."
"They realized that the person who wrote it didn't even know them, so they kind of disregarded it instantly," he said.
The Sproul twins are straight-A students who graduated from Yulee High School with a variety of accomplishments: members of the National Honor Society, Beta Club and VyStar program. The twins were also section leaders in the marching band. They are set to attend Saint Leo University on scholarship in the fall, both on Friday receiving four-year “Tipping the Scale” scholarships from the Boys and Girls Club.
A "Drive-By" Celebration will be held this week for the girls and their neighborhood is already showing their support. Neighbors have been showing up at their house dropping off cards and offering kind words of support. One neighbor, Rowdy Griffin, said “You know, the actual thing going on it is complete garbage. The letter that they received does not speak for this neighborhood at all, you know we’re a pretty positive neighborhood. We all come together for each other, and I just want to show my support for them.”
We're proud of these two and their parents. The dark ignorance of others can't stop a star destined to shine.
