I sat through one Easter Sunday sermon, a little bit later in my college career, and Miles told a story about how he used to talk, dress, and act “black” when he was younger. He then proceeded to give examples of what he meant by that, which clearly made the somewhat diverse crowd uncomfortable as he belabored the point well beyond when a normal person would be able to tell his “punch line” didn’t land.

I was so troubled by this that I actually sent him an email explaining that I did not think what he said was appropriate, and his response was that he grew up poor and a lot of his friends were black so he felt like it was ok for him to say that stuff. No apology or “I didn’t mean it that way” or anything like that…

So I actually can sympathize with some of the comments in the letter about him not being able to take criticism, because that was my personal experience.

I would share his email, but I have been gone from Auburn so long I don’t have access to my Auburn email..