Letter to Sophie

I was quite taken a back when I read the letter written to one of the character in the book by the author. I must say, this is quite new to me. I have never experienced an author writing to a character she’s created. But, is it really a letter to Sophie, the character? Or preemptive responses to the very voice of ignorant critics who will quickly jump to the conclusion that all Haitian mothers do on fact test their daughters. This I believe is Danticat’s reason for writing this letter.
But, I am looking at this aftereword as a non Haitian person, and questioning why Danticat chose to write this afterword. Should a non Haitian person feel offended by this afterword? I asked a friend this question, a friend who is not Haitian. I wanted to get another point of view. I asked my friend, if this afterword by Danticat offended her? Her response was yes! It did. Now my question is to my fellow classmates. Do you agree with me, and believe that the afterword was written to prevent the reader from thinking or believing that all Haitian mothers practiced “testing”? Or did you comprehend this Afterword as something else. If so, I would really like to hear it.