To the girl I grew up around, who we went to church with:

To the girl I grew up around, who we went to church with: I remember you. And I remember your family. You might not remember me, but we grew up in the same area around the same time. Um, I believe I was a year above your older sister in school, and my younger sister was a year above you in school. She's the one who sent me your video. And our families went to the same Catholic church. That's how I remember your family. When we saw your family and say hi to your mom at the end of mass. And here you are now, where your whole deal is sharing really hateful, divisive, misinformed opinions that you hold to, I guess, gain followers, gain clout. It was so disappointing to see this video as a former community member of yours. How much you hate multiculturalism. I know the area where we grew up. There wasn't much multiculturalism. I think the most multiculturalism you probably saw in your everyday life in our small town was my multiracial family. It's crazy to hear you talk about how much disdain you have for the black community. My mom was probably one of the first black people that you saw growing up, I know in our small town. And probably one of the only ones that you saw regularly growing up. Basically what I'm saying is I know where and how we grew up. I'm not saying we had the exact same experience, but I know that all of these opinions that you hold are not things that we were taught in our school system, are not things that we were taught in our church. Because if they were teaching what your opinions are, my parents would not have felt comfortable raising me in those places. They are things that you independently have picked up. Or maybe you pick them up in the way that you were raised. And that's kind of concerning to me because, you know, my family was in community with your family. What were you saying about people that looked like us behind closed doors? And I know one of your points is that you think that you should be able to say anything you like, and words can't hurt anybody. These are words that you have never once said to my family. They're words you never once said to other members of our community out loud. You feel very comfortable saying them online, but I don't think you would ever feel comfortable saying them to my mom in church, if you guys were ever having a conversation again. And I know you were young when I knew you and my mom was an adult, but kids did come up to her questions like, why are you black? Why are you in this town if you're black? So I guess the thing I'll also say to people that are witnessing people that are posting really inflammatory stuff, when they talk about how much they hate multiculturalism, they're not talking about it from a place of understanding. They're not talking about it from a place of being like, I know what it's like to grow up in a multicultural society. They're talking about it from a place of ignorance, a bubble, and just repeating other people's rhetoric they hear online. I would think that maybe the way that you are interacting with the world is damaging your own community. I don't feel in communion with you. I don't feel like you are a pillar of what our community should be. What kind of community are you building, putting this out into the world? You are not building the community that you were raised in. You are building a worse one. And maybe she forgot about us. We weren't really in the same age group. But for every opinion she holds, there's a member of her community that was there that she could have talked to. And she chose not to. I wonder why. She's just talking to other people online who are going back and forth with her, either in a supportive way because they share the same opinions of, or they're trying to dismantle her hateful opinions. Either way, she's not touching grass. And the final thing I'll say is anytime you hear a person of color or a black person who grew up in a primarily white area talk about their instances of going through racism, and people are like, that didn't happen, that's not true. Yes, it did, because there were people like this in their communities.