Jeremy and Gina Miller, an interracial husband-and-wife real estate team in the Birmingham metro area, were shocked on Wednesday to discover a racial slur painted on one of their “For Sale” signs at a local property.
ABC 33/40 reported that “NO N***R” was painted on the Local Realty sign in large white letters.
However, the Millers are responding to this hateful incident purely with love, guided by their faith, according to The Trussville Tribune.
“I think that God has been preparing Gina and me for a long time, in ways that we never would have expected, to touch a lot of people,” Jeremy told the newspaper.
The Millers, who live in Clay, will not be pressing charges on the individual responsible for the racist graffiti, whose identity is at this time unknown.
“We would love to know who did it because if we find them, we will show them mercy,” Jeremy advised. “I don’t think anything good comes from pressing charges. That’s not the message here.”
The couple hopes to use the incident to unite their community and lift others up.
“We just got a message on Facebook yesterday about how God spoke to him through my post and our response,” Jeremy told The Trussville Tribune. “It encouraged him to see us responding through love and not through retaliation.”
“When something like this occurs, you can love back instead. We want to unite people,” he added.
Jeremy also wants people to know the racist incident is not representative of their community.
“This is not indicative of the people in this area,” he emphasized. “It happens everywhere and they don’t always say it to your face.”
Perhaps the toughest part of the incident personally for the Millers has been trying to tell their children what happened.
“Having to explain to them what happened with the sign has been a little frustrating,” Gina noted.
The Millers are also using this incident as a learning opportunity.
“We tell [our children] all the time, hurt people, hurt people,” Jeremy explained. “I tell them that even adults do mean things sometimes. When you’re angry, you’re not nice to other people… We want to respond in love when maybe that person hasn’t received such things.”
Jeremy stressed a constant message of love.
“It (racism) is not dead and it probably won’t die for a very, very long time, but we as a culture and society have to keep perpetuating the message of loving one another,” he remarked. “If someone’s hurting and they lash out at you, you don’t have to respond negatively.”
The defaced sign has been replaced with a fresh one that includes both Jeremy and Gina’s headshots.
Read more here.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.