For everyone saying “but the definition of plantation is a field” or some other ridiculous thing, look up what the actual definition of swastika is.
copied and pasted from google: The swastika or sauwastika — as a character, å or å respectively — is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the cultures of Eurasia.
so…see how a word can have a certain definition, yet what you think of when you hear the word is different than the definition.
Yea, EN needs to be straight up cancelled for this. They knew the situation was hostile but continued to escalate instead of handing it over to the governing bodies to handle.
I do hope event organizers band together and ban them from any and all coverage. They made the decision that “there are worse things for the sport” for all of us. goodbye.
You know that Hindus and other groups continue to use the swastika, right?
So that is an example of how a word or symbol can have a terrible connotation, yet people can be reasonable and thoughtful enough to realize it also has uses that don’t relate to the terrible connotation.
https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-swastika/
From the article:
Many Hindus adorn the threshold of the front entrance to their homes with the swastika
Especially during Diwali, this year on October 30, they may wash away old swastikas and reapply them, or include them as part of their rangoli (a traditional art form using dyed powders, rice and grains, or flowers to decorate the ground of courtyards). Often, the swastika is created by artfully arranging diyas (clay lamps).
In 2008, at the second Hindu-Jewish Leadership Summit a resolution formally recognized the long positive history of the swastika
He was such a cool guy. He didn’t give two sh*ts about feelings, he overcame it all. As a Pakistani school kid in England, and a foreigner in flyover country. He was a confident, talented and amazing person.
I rode against him several times, and even beat him once on my pony which I will remember forever although the horse he was on was probably like 2 weeks under saddle. A great guy, so sad he’s gone too soon.
I grew up in Chester County, just a few towns over from Unionville and Plantation Field.
As a white woman, the name is not triggering for me. Yet I can also appreciate why the name may be upsetting for many people of color.
While I think pushing for the name change was a bizarre manner to enact social change, I think the reaction of the organizers and the property owner is far more tone deaf and myopic.
To me, the property owner’s response sounded similar to the “heritage not hate” crowd in support of the Confederate flag. The Confederate flag may not be personally hurtful to a descendant of the Confederacy, but to many others it represents a time when southerners were willing to go to war to protect their right to enslave individuals.
The word “plantation” evokes a similar response for some people.
“Racist” also elicits a strong response. We have done a good job of associating “racism” and related terms with horrible atrocities that were committed throughout American history, making it a really bad thing to be. Yet you don’t have to be committing horrible atrocities like enslavement to be contributing to the oppression of people of color. That point is so often missed.
There is a lot to be learned from this situation, in my opinion. I appreciate EN’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, but could this have been approached differently? To the organizers of the event and the owner of the land, your actions have demonstrated that you care more about a name than you care about how it may be affecting people of color. That is really disappointing.
And EN STILL goes and takes a jab at the organizers in the end.
Why is Plymouth spelled “P-l-i-m-o-t-h”?[/I] [/B]
Museum guests often question the unusual spelling of Plymouth in Plimoth Plantation. Plimoth is an old-fashioned spelling used by Governor William Bradford in his history of the colony, Of Plymouth Plantation. This spelling was adopted to differentiate the Museum from the modern town of Plymouth. There were no rules for the spelling of English words in the early 17th century, and each writer did as he or she pleased, phonetically spelling the word as seemed fit – sometimes differently on a single page. Plymouth is spelled a number of ways in colonial documents, including Plymouth, Plimouth, Plymoth, and Plimoth. When Plimoth Plantation was founded, it was decided to use Governor Bradford’s most common usage, Plimoth.
To make it easier …
https://eventingnation.com/usea-issues-statement-about-unionville-event-venue/?fbclid=IwAR28QwDZAtsYDsIXfI_17nX4eMVDO7wc5fuzXboEyWZq8ohMF-SnbURSWIc
USEA statement:
“Having this historic competition close isn’t the right result for the sport, and the United States Eventing Association (USEA) is working hard to find a solution. The organizer and landowners operate exceptional events on a beautiful piece of land. We are deeply sensitive to the history of the word ‘plantation’ and its connection to slavery; however, this property has no known connections to slavery and was instead named after ‘plantings’ on the property.”
“We understand that neither the organizer nor the landowners have ever intended to cause any discomfort related to the name of the event and to imply otherwise is a disservice to our organizers, landowners, and our sport. The USEA does not have the ability to require an event to change its name as we are required to carry the US Equestrian (USEF) licensed name of the competition on our calendar of events. However, we are hopeful that an acceptable solution to this issue can be reached.”
EN statement below it:
As EN expressed in an editorial on Wednesday, as was shared in a post today, and as we’ve seen reflected in many comments by our readers, the venue’s name carries significant negative connotations for some people. EN would like to reiterate that we do not believe it was ever the event’s intention to cause offense. The event’s cancellation was never the intention of our discussions between ourselves and the governing bodies, which have been ongoing since June 26, nor was it ever a condition of ours for covering this event.
This venue is an important fixture on the U.S. eventing calendar and one that we look forward to each year. It is unfortunate that the event’s stakeholders chose to cancel the event rather than entertain the possibility that their venue name may be offensive to an important population of our eventing community. We hope to see USEA and USEF demonstrate more follow-through in their commitments to prioritizing diversity and inclusion in our sport going forward.
What a half assed apology from EN, throwing the entire blame on the land owners. Based on this not apology it’s pretty clear that they tried to ram rod this down the land owner’s throat and the attack caused him to cancel.
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/plantation-system/
Little history lesson for the origins of plantations in America.
I live in the South. When I first heard of the Plantation Fields event, I thought it was in the south, I’ve never heard any northern places called plantations. Which, a plantation brings to mind the big white columned houses with the slave houses in the back and huge fields of tobacco and cotton.
Can’t possibly imagine why that might be a bit upsetting to people.
I know its hard to take a step back and change the way you think, rather than digging in and insisting things are fine because they don’t affect you personally, but personal growth is a really good thing to work on. I’m always working on it, it’s not easy. Just…keep that in mind.
That’s…not the impression I got from that.
For me personal growth is difficult. Would you change your set in routine or ways if someone walked up to you, punched you in the face, and said change or I’ll ruin you? Or change now you’re a big racist and are upsetting thousands of people?
Probably not, especially when most people don’t realize that they need to change. When confronted in that manner people dig in. I don’t think it’s possible to read how the land owner feels about racism when they were confronted in this manner. They were deeply insulted. People on the internet instantly started to bash them. Despite their standing in the community people on this BB have called them racist and said they’re happy the event is gone.
It’s not exactly a place for inner thought and reflection.
EN basically says they didn’t do anything wrong and it’s the landowners refusal to grow that caused this travesty.
THIS^^^
I don’t know the parties involved, but since this is a horse board, I am sure people know the old adage, “My Barn - My Rules.” The details/name etc of this situation are irrelevant. This is someone’s private property.
I lost access to a great and convenient boarding situation at a private farm when some boarders decided they did not like the footing in the indoor and started complaining. The owners decided they did not need the hassle of a group of bitching women and booted the boarders.
Same with PF. This event is/was run at a private estate. Regardless of who is in the right or not, in this day and age, with all the current violence, if the owners decided that they just did not want to deal with the publicity this EN article was bringing, who can blame them for shutting the door? I can’t.
Because I was born and raised in MA, my earliest introduction to the word “plantation” was in reference to Plimoth Plantation and, thus, associated with Pilgrims, the rock, and cranberry sauce.
Found the link … this is the email sent Monday Sep. 14th from Cuyler Walker to Rob Bork, copying D. Glaccum and one other.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158537097356287&set=p.10158537097356287&type=3
Noting by the subject line that it is a reply, subject “Time to talk?”
My first knowledge of plantations were with the sugar cane and pineapple plantations. No slaves from Africa. The workers were migrant workers and immigrants from Asia and South Pacific countries. There were plantation towns which were equivalent to company towns. Shrug.
Ergo you’re racist. Duh.
I spent a large part of my childhood in the south and I have also worked for the US Forest Service out of a timber/fire office in Northern California. I have seen the word plantation used in both contexts being discussed on here (as a place where slave laborer was used and as a place where trees have been planted). I feel that understanding the context being used is extremely important when you are going to try and change someone’s views on an important subject. I can understand why people get upset when things are taken out of context and it’s probably not the best approach to take if you want to change someone’s mind on the matter.
So while I agree 100% with you that we need try harder to understand the point of view of poc we also need to do a better job of trying to keep things in context and perspective so we can have more productive dialogues about the what is a very important subject.
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