Eventing Nation booted from covering Event in Unionville, PA

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@MorganSercu - thank you for sharing some history about a Leesburg. I think it’s really problematic for the headquarters of the USEA to be located in a place like this… don’t you? Maybe EN should sit down with the USEA and propose that it’s headquarters be moved to a place in the US with a different, and more acceptable history when it comes to the topic of slavery.

Oh… but ACTUAL history doesn’t matter. Only the history that names of different places make us all think of. It’s the stuff we all quickly think of when we hear something that matters. If the initial thought associated with a name has the potential to be upsetting to a BIPOC… then the name should change.

Soooo… let’s try an interesting thought experiment.

If I say “LEESburg is a town located in Northern Virginia. What historic person or family was the town named after?”

What’s the first thing that comes to mind?

For most people… it’s Robert E. Lee. He’s kind of a big deal in Northern Virginia history. Some people think he still should be a big thing… other people think it’s horribly insensitive that there are statues and streets and high schools and all sorts of other stuff still named after him and devoted to him.

But guess what? The town of Leesburg was actually named for Thomas Lee, NOT Robert E. Lee. Thomas lived almost 100 years before Robert E Lee, but I think they are cousins of some sort. I’m not sure… can’t remember.

Anyway… under the current logic… it shouldn’t matter that Leesburg in Northern Virginia was named after Thomas Lee and not Robert E Lee… because people mistakenly assume it was named after Robert E Lee ALL THE TIME.

Therefore… either the name of the Town of Leesburg should be changed, or the USEA should find somewhere else for the headquarters to be located. I mean… it’s 2020!!! C’mon people. This is the sort of change the sport needs. I know some folks will find this line of reasoning silly and a stretch…

but that’s because they are insensitive and bigoted, and have a hard time with change. They need to get over that… and the USEA needs to move its headquarters to a town not commonly assumed to have been named after Robert E Lee because it sure does make it SEEM like the whole sport is hostile to BIPOC who might want to participate!

:rolleyes:

@AffirmedHope - I decided to add on to the other post to really answer your thoughtful question regarding the history of the name of Leesburg. I forgot to tag you originally :winkgrin: Hopefully the USEA will take note of our serious concerns, and get the town to change it’s name, or move their headquarters ASAP. Change is hard.

[EventerAJ]

@pluvinel

Perhaps USEA/USEF should require members sign a “Social Media Policy.” Most large corporations I have worked for require employees to sign a policy prescribing their on-line behavior. Perhaps it is time for USEF/USEA to require same.

Yeah won’t happen. But I don’t think it would help, anyway…I would guess that some of the loudest voices on social media (on this issue, or others) are not even USEA or USEF members. It’s not necessary to be a member to have (or obnoxiously voice) an opinion.

Personally, if EN wanted to do this the right way without their own virtue signalling, self-righteous, attention seeking drama…they should have started at the grass roots with THE COMPETITORS. If competitors, particularly admirable big names, respectfully brought up concerns with the Plantation name…maybe the PFEE board would be willing to listen. Competitors who spend thousands on entry fees, stabling, hauling, hotels, to show there…they could have “taken a stand” and decided not to enter, or at least politely made mention of name concerns and proposed a future change. It would have seemed LEGIT if the heart of the Area 2 eventing community voiced their concern, instead of a clickbait driven site, with tone deaf voices whipping up a frenzy of bystanders who stand little to lose by the death of PFEE. This approach would not cause radical change this year, or perhaps next. Maybe not ever. But it would be what EN is supposed to be about…serving the competitors of this sport.

I still am not sure that the event name should be forced to change. But I’m not a woke person, so maybe that’s my problem. From my interactions with others, they share feelings with HelenC…namely, “it’s so annoying that white people are telling me how I should feel about (subject).” I don’t doubt that some may feel the word “plantation” is offensive…but it is equally offensive to assume that all BIPOC feel the same way. It’s not fair to lump any group of people into the same opinion, based on race/gender/etc. Let people be individuals and quit assigning labels and assumptions without respectfully listening to what they have to say. Work to amplify voices, not assume them.

[Ghazzu]

I understand that the very word “plantation” is problematic.
However, in agricultural terms, the word was used to precisely describe the work of the Boy Scouts wrt to their aboricultural activity on the premises, and I can certainly understand the landowner being pissed off that a bunch of folks with whom he has no relationship whatsoever were more or less demanding a name change for the event. I can see how he might interpret this as a slam on his family.
In agricultural contexts, the term “plantation” is still the correct designation for a stand of trees that was umm, planted.
And it isn’t, so far as I can tell, the name of the farm. It is the name of the land over which the event runs.

I strongly suspect that, had the people pushing for a name change used a modicum of finesse, the name change for the event might well have been achieveable. Instead, a valuable resource has been lost.

I’ll risk bringing a political metaphor into this already messy debate.

The EN folks voted for Jill Stein, because Hillary wasn’t the unicorn they wanted, and now look where we are…

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@B and B

The internet mob terrifies me, it can and does ruin people and that is what EN threatened. It also terrifies both of my primary employers (one is tied to Hollywood and the other is a utility company! Strange bedfellows!!)

Full disclosure, my better half is from Phildelphia, he and I lived right outside of the city over a decade ago when we were first married, and we have some family who still live and work there… and we paid close attention to the BLM demonstrations in Philadelphia as they unfolded this summer. Because we were worried about an elderly handicapped family member in particular who worked in an area where there were lots of protests… we were worried that family member might get hurt during some of the activity that went on.

BLM is VERY active in Philly. Which makes sense. There is some really awful racial history in the city. Mayor Frank Rizzo was a brutal guy.

The article the Philadelphia Inquirer just published about this whole thing? Honestly… it was pretty simple, and not overly inflammatory. But it did mention the land owner by name, and the location of the property, and that he is a registered a Republican.

It seriously doesn’t take much for a group of outraged people to shoe up on someone else’s doorstep these days. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen to the LO… but it sure wouldn’t surprise me if it did.

If EN seriously threatened to fan the flames of publicity and racial tension over this man’s property name in the current environment in this country… it’s a truly irresponsible and ugly thing. Even if you don’t like his property’s name… this man didn’t deserve to have HIS name and the location of HIS property put under a glaring spotlight in this sort of tense environment, close to a city that has seen some very intense demonstrations all summer.

[Jealoushe]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/s…me-change.html

[ivy62]

@pluvinel

They will either have to go to Blue Ball…or Paradise.

(Folks who don’t get it…this is an inside joke for the locals)

Or Nowhere Michigan…!!!

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

Wow… it made the NYT. Apparently Leslie Wylie made good on whatever threats were, or were not made. And it’s not a flattering article about the sport of eventing.

But hey, I’m sure this won’t result in challenges or anxieties with respect to any major sponsors, or worries about other venues.

I find it sad that neither the NYT or even the Philadelphia Inquirer made note of the actual story behind the property name, nor any of the philanthropic causes Mr. Walker’s family has been associated with for decades… not did the Philadelphia Inquirer even mention the relationship between the event, and fundraising for Work to Ride.

But… it’s 2020, and expecting news organizations to cover all aspects of a story in an even handed and informative way, so that we can draw our own conclusions? Yeah… that’s so yesterday. That’s not how it works anymore. Editors with “news organizations” help inform us about the change we all need. Or something like that.

I’m sure the NYT article will help drive traffic and clicks to EN’s platform that they typically would never get, because it will be from a lot of people who don’t care at all about eventing. But it should be good for their business model. How fortunate for them.

This whole thing has just been great for our sport and community. :mad:

[TheMoo]

Diplomacy is clearly lost on the younger generations. Such a shame.

[pluvinel]

@Jealoushe

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/s…me-change.html

From the article

Both the chief executives of the Eventing Association and Equestrian Federation said they would review the names of other sites where events are held to check for any offensive references before deciding on any potential further action.

With this publicity, I wonder if any other landowners who are hosting any of these events will be reconsidering the use of their land.

These landowners signed up to provide a venue for an equestrian event, part of a fairly obscure sport…not making a political statement splattered all over the NYT.

If I were a landowner, I would certainly be preemptively avoiding the internet mob and would be considering terminating contracts.

[ake987]

@TheMoo

Diplomacy is clearly lost on the younger generations. Such a shame.

Thanks for this revelation and quality contribution to the discussion.

[Jealoushe]

@OverandOnward

Why I don’t follow twitter. Anyone who tries to live their lives so as to stay on the good side of people with names like ‘Helmet Bitch’ is in for a tough slog.

Some people are worth listening to, and we all choose. That also is what this conversation is about. Who do we care about listening to, who should get our attention. “We” being each of us as individuals, of course.

:lol: well said

[Jealoushe]

That article does not paint Eventing in a very good light

[sherian]

@pluvinel

From the article

With this publicity, I wonder if any other landowners who are hosting any of these events will be reconsidering the use of their land.

These landowners signed up to provide a venue for an equestrian event, part of a fairly obscure sport…not making a political statement splattered all over the NYT.

If I were a landowner, I would certainly be preemptively avoiding the internet mob and would be considering terminating contracts.

this IMHO is a legitimate concern.

[TheMoo]

@ake987

Thanks for this revelation and quality contribution to the discussion.

Are you being sarcastic? Reading through all of this we lost an event due to lack of diplomacy and people seem to want to defend it.

[ake987]

@Jealoushe

That article does not paint Eventing in a very good light

Which further demonstrates the shortsightedness of the threat to go to MSM and should have motivated parties to use even a modicum of tact and perhaps heed warnings of what was to come if cooler heads did not prevail. The general public was never going to read an article like this and recognize two distinct groups of “good” and “bad” eventers - the reporting on this by MSM was always going to paint Eventing, as a whole, in a negative light.

[AffirmedHope]

@Jealoushe

That article does not paint Eventing in a very good light

I really wish PFEE or Mr. Walker responded when they asked for comment. The conduct of EN And USEA should absolutely be mentioned in mainstream articles like this. Though who knows how NYT would have spinned it regardless.

[Virginia_Horse_Mom]

@pluvinel

From the article

With this publicity, I wonder if any other landowners who are hosting any of these events will be reconsidering the use of their land.

These landowners signed up to provide a venue for an equestrian event, part of a fairly obscure sport…not making a political statement splattered all over the NYT.

If I were a landowner, I would certainly be preemptively avoiding the internet mob and would be considering terminating contracts.

In addition to land owners… there is the issue of a few key supporters of the support. People who have multigenerational family wealth, And land holdings, and family history, that all exists in a stratosphere regular people don’t really fully understand. Which is fine.

One in particular who supports eventing to such a degree in the US, that the sport would be crushed if this person walked away like Mr. Walker just did… well… one person does come to mind.

I believe that privacy is sort of a big deal to them as well.

I hope Jenni Autry gets ahold of her buddies at EN, and tells them to please oh please leave this sort of crap 100% alone from here on out, or USEF itself will bar them from covering ANY recognized competition from here on out in the US.

If I were in leadership at either USEF or USEA, that would be my message to EN right now. If they EVER threaten one of our sport’s sponsors, or a land owner with this sort of social media smear job again… they will be barred access to the grounds of recognized competitions across the country. Forever.

That, everyone, would cancel THEIR organization.

[ladyj79]

Eventing Nation, the wacko witch of the event world, but a million times more effective at damaging the sport.

[Gardenhorse]

@TheMoo

Are you being sarcastic? Reading through all of this we lost an event due to lack of diplomacy and people seem to want to defend it.

Or we lost an event because the organizer decided their “First Amendment rights” to name their event whatever they wanted was more important than even considering a compromise. Everyone keeps going on about how EN approached this, but few people have discussed what the organizer’s role in blowing this up into a circus was. From the one email I saw, it’s pretty clear he wasn’t employing any diplomacy. I haven’t seen that anyone else on the PFEE board attempted to play a diplomatic role either. Maybe they did, but we haven’t seen any evidence of it. Did anyone on the board ever say, “Of course we know that’s not what Plantation refers to, but maybe we should consider this concern if that’s what people are thinking about our event.”

[pluvinel]

@AffirmedHope

I really wish PFEE or Mr. Walker responded when they asked for comment. The conduct of EN And USEA should absolutely be mentioned in mainstream articles like this. Though who knows how NYT would have spinned it regardless.

I had the misfortune to attend “media training” at one point in my career. All I remember is some advice I was given, “You don’t want to talk to the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times.” This was pre-internet.

In this electronic day and age, it seems one can’t win against the internet mob, so the best tactic seem no comment and walk away.