When a woman in Bakersfield, California, placed a Black Lives Matter sign in her front yard, it brought out the worst in at least one racist, who targeted her with a hateful letter, insisting that the sign “lowered the area’s property values,” Kern Golden Empire reports.
Racist Letter Laden With Epithets
Latoya Johnson put up the sign a couple of months ago, and when she checked her mail Saturday, she found the unpleasant surprise from an unknown sender.
It reads, in part: “Please take down your Black Lives Matter sign, it’s reducing the property value of the area.”
Lacing the letter with the N-word, the letter writer went on to say “This is not the ghetto” and ominously added:
“We are asking nicely this one time, and one time only.”
I’m not sure how bombarding someone with the N-word is “asking nicely,” but hey, maybe that’s just me.
The letter is signed “residents of Silver Creek.”
Fortunately, Johnson plans to remain defiant and has no plans to move the sign, KBAK reports.
“I just want everyone to be equal, and that’s what it’s all about,” she said.
The mother of four, who also runs a daycare center out of her home, told KBAK the letter has unsettled her.
“I’m just shocked, I’m angry, I’m scared because I take it as a threat and my children walk to school you know, every morning and I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “I don’t know if someone is feeling some sort of way and may harm my children or may go as far as threatening my house. I don’t know what to think.”
Patrick Jackson, president of the local NAACP, wants authorities to step up.
“It’s startling. It’s understanding that we are now in 2017 about to head into 2018, that our children in today’s time are still exposed to all these negative issues,” he said.
And Johnson said she just wants people to treat each other with respect and civility, Raw Story reports.
“Why is my freedom of speech making you upset, that’s my right as an American to have my own freedom of speech, but if it’s not harming anyone or myself, why is that a problem,” she asked.
It’s a problem because racists like the letter writer above make it a problem. Perhaps this sign that supports Black Lives Matter reminds them that people of color are living in the area and that rubs their feelings the wrong way. Or maybe it reminds them that we live in a country where African-Americans are still persecuted. Every. Single. Day.
Johnson said she’d reported the threat to The Bakersfield Police Department, but police say they aren’t aware of any letter, BakersfieldNow reports.
Johnson discusses the incident in the video below.
Featured image courtesy of KRON4
