A Letter To A Troll

“ I am willing to disagree but I am not willing to hate. On the anniversary of the Charleston Church Murders your rhetoric is sad but held by many. I will pray for you. I will not call you names. I will even be responsive to a certain point because our interaction exposes who you are. Why can't you see if it was up to the confederacy I would still be a slave? Brutalized each day, in bondage. I don't know you to call you a racist but I know I'm not. I'm a mommy of an awesome Black son and a beautiful Black daughter. I'm a preacher of a beautiful church family but most important I'm a child of God. How can you ignore that less than 60 years ago this country was segregated and less than 160 years ago my family were your family's slaves? Meaning my great, great, great grandmother was working on your ancestors plantation. Her name was Mozzel Byrd. My great, great grandmother, Lula Byrd Woods, spent her childhood in slavery and was an adult to Black Codes and Reconstruction. My great grandmother, Fannie Bell Enoch lived through Emitt Till and lynching during segregation. My grandmother Lula Aaron cleaned your houses and couldn't even sit in the movies with your people. And my beloved mother Ruth sat in the back of the bus. And this oppressive ideology was manifested by a confederacy that I don't go around disrespecting but held an ideology to oppress my mothers. The KKK emerged from your beloved confederacy. I post the pictures of my people like you do your confederate angels. They are my heroes but I will not ask you to erect a statue for them to look at each day because I am also God fearing. Love to your brother. This is a complicated conversation but your insults don't hurt me.”