“I graduated from Berea College in 2010. In 2015, it was the 10-year reunion for my highschool. At this point, I was in New York and writing for Fusion, a joint venture by Univision and ABC. My beat was pop culture. Right after Dylann Roof went to a church in Charleston and murdered nine churchgoers, I found myself on a plane, heading to my high school reunion. I read his manifesto from my window seat. It was filled with confederate flags, confederate imagery, and all the stuff that I remembered from high school.

Right then and there, I had this come-to-Jesus moment, where I was like, "Why am I going back here? What about this place is worth revisiting?" There were confederate flags on people's bumper stickers. The same flag from the manifesto would be tattooed on arms and printed on T-shirts. I remember having discussions about it in high school and how they would end with, "Well, I guess it represents pride and prejudice. Oh, well." But no. As a Black person who went to this high school, it is not only offensive, it is inherently violent. The confederates are people who fought to keep my people enslaved, raped, without rights, and seen as less than human.”