why do the owners need to change the name of the event, now, when there has been NO racism ever associated with the event. Your points don’t make sense. Why should a family who has graciously allowed us the use of their beautiful property, be made to feel anything other than welcome, and thanked for it. Instead, they are strong armed and called racist, because the history behind the name/ event has NEVER been linked to slavery. Why would they continue to support us. There is no reasons. And in this day and age, when you are called racist ( whether or not it’s true- and it’s not in this case) you are verbally and sometimes physically attacked.
Y’all this is beyond stupid. Cancel culture is stupid. Woke culture is stupid.
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That’s the queer thing with words - one minute you’re feeling very gay about grammar, the next thing plantation means something racist…
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Before social media I didn’t really follow the events in that part of the country, which is far away from this area.
So the first time I noticed the name of the event “Plantation Fields”, I was a bit startled. I was surprised that someone was using such a loaded term for a horse event. I’ve continued to be surprised every year that someone had not yet come along and quietly made a change to remove ‘plantation’.
The names of so many things have been buffed up in certain states, over the years. I just concluded that Pennsylvanians were far enough removed from that movement, geographically, that somehow the name polishing movement hadn’t reached them … yet.
The challenge to the name has been coming for a long time. If EN hadn’t called it out, sooner or later someone else would have done. It might have been someone from outside the world of horses and eventing.
This name movement will continue regardless of anyone’s opinion or anyone’s ranting. And regardless of who actually makes that challenge to a name.
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@TXnGA I didn’t call the owners of the land or organizers racist. I think this is a growth opportunity. Not cancel culture… growth culture.
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When the name of the event is in the headline, the context of “but it’s totally okay because we don’t think this piece of land in Pennsylvania had slaves on it after it got that name” is not apparent. People hear the name of the event only. And from that, sorry everyone, the image that comes across to me is that the event is on former slaveholding land in South Carolina. It doesn’t feel comfortable. It doesn’t feel welcoming.
Words change in meaning and weight whether you like it or not. I could use the word “gay” to mean happy and lighthearted but I would be sowing confusion when I spoke of my heterosexual friend that way, or held The Gay Horse Trials.
Event names change all the time. Venues get name changes. We don’t have CTETA or Ram Tap or Rolex any more either. But there are still terrific events happening at those same venues and same dates.
As I read it, the kerfuffle started when Eventing Nation asked for the organizer’s opinion on an alternative name to use in their headline. And no one accused the owner or organizer of racism… except if anything, they have done so themselves by melting down.
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Also can I say that the idea that people will hear “Plantation” and think of the “grandparents’ generous support of the Boy Scouts” is … surprising.
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Sounds like the USEA was trying to exercise leadership. They couldn’t control the name, but by example they were trying to lead the name away from future controversy. While keeping their own site a bit more clear of future problems.
There are a number of words that at one time were acceptable to the patrons of the public gatherings that had them in their names, but would be inappropriate now. The change was made to avoid the wrong impression and to maintain the kind of public perception that they wanted. Historically, the names of certain towns, cities, mountains, rivers, etc. have been changed over time to reflect shifting public understandings and attitudes.
How society understands and defines words changes over time. IMO it is those who are in denial about these changes are the ones who are dying on a hill - a hill that barely exists any more.
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Well said.
Maybe if everything had been carefully explained just like this to the owner over a nice lunch, with months before the next running to give time to ruminate, there would have been a chance for the owner to process the necessity for a change in his own time. (The organizer as well needed that, it would seem. That might be the real problem?)
Regardless of the historical context, meanings have evolved, and public perception does matter to the long-term future of any large event. That name could not stand the test of future time. EN didn’t create that situation and neither did the USEA. They just responded to it as best they could at the moment.
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I moved from Montana to Area II in 2005. I did think the name “Plantation” was a bit odd when I first saw it. Growing up out west, the only exposure to “plantation” I had was through American history and the word’s ties to slavery. Cultivated trees grew in tree farms or woodlots, so the definition of “plantation” as a tree farm was unfamiliar to me.
I think a valid point was raised that while multiple meanings of the word exist, for most Americans, it is inevitably associated with slavery. However, it seems that the point was raised tactlessly and without consideration for what is deeply important for the landowners. As seems to be too often the case, the compromise is lost between whomever can yell loudest.
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Interesting, I grew up in the 1960’s. Real change for African Americans was accomplished by a guy named Martin Luther King. His legacy of non-violent protest and his dream of a color blind society where everyone was judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin has been absolutely shredded. Today, violence is rampant and the only thing that seems to matter to anyone is skin color. I don’t see racism here. I see a debacle. A botched attempt by a bunch of virtue signaling half wits, suddenly offended by the word “Plantation” to show their “wokeness” by pressuring a name change by playing the race card. They lost, we lost and our sport lost.
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The poster was referring to what the event organizer had posted on Facebook, not to their own opinions.
So there is an email from the owner to the organizer circulating on Facebook about the lease cancellation dated 9/14. So before any of this was made public. I wonder what the rest of the story is…
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What was her opinion? You didn’t say what her answer was, beyond saying she hadn’t been asked.
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I have not read all the posts, and so I apologize in advance.
This whole situation reminds me a really insightful conversation I had with my Black colleagues at work this past summer. We all work in publishing medical research.
First of all, I asked them what term they preferred for referring to race, and they told me “Black” versus people of color, African American, etc.
And then I asked them how they were doing, and what they saw as the best actions our company could take to promote diversity and inclusivity (which we do a fantastic job with, but this doesn’t mean we can leave it at that).
They thanked me for asking them. They told me what tires them the most is having large groups of privileged white people (italics are my words, not theirs) deciding how to be “woke” and what changes they think should be implemented. It is incredibly insulting for my colleagues to be left out of these conversations because people are too busy trying to prove how inclusive they are.
So here we have a media outlet and equestrian organization–both overwhelmingly filled with privileged white people–determining what they think represents inclusivity and diversity (or not).
This is the epitome of everything we are fighting against with regard to privilege and, as my colleagues pointed out, so MANY of these types of actions are made in ignorance because we (white people) think we know better than the people who are the actual victims of systemic racism.
Why do I get the feeling that this may have been a ham-handed approach, especially by EN, to force this change? Why do I feel that this could have been handled much differently and positively, becoming an educational experience in inclusivity that didn’t end with the loss of this beautiful venue?
Those who want to make a real difference aren’t picking fights over the word “plantation” on their computers. They are out actively speaking with those who are affected by systemic racism and investing their time, energy, and resources on initiatives that actually make the world a better place for everyone of all races. (And yes, you can do both, but in my experience, those doing the latter are rarely doing the former.)
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At the end of the day what’s more important? A name, or making POC feel welcome, safe and included.
if you pick name, then, you can’t see past your privilege.
The saddest part of this for me is seeing many UL eventers care not about inclusion but rather care more about their insanely elite sport and one event that might not happen again. Get the f over yourselves.
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Have to add my comment about how everyone right now is pushing for Eventing grow and be in the public eye. What TV station is going to broadcast an event called PF right now in the times we are living in. What media is going to want to touch it with a ten foot pole. What audience are we attracting? Imagine a non horse POC seeing a horse show advertised and then reading that the name is PF. They would be like H to the L NO I’m not going to watch that.
If we want Eventing to grow and be popular with the general public we need to be inclusive and also not act like the entitled privileged white people who are completely out of touch with the issues in society today.
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The comments in this thread are really triggering some thoughts & memories …
I live alongside a fair-sized population of locals who are descended from enslaved people who were brought here from Africa to work on plantations in this area. (Plantations that no longer exist. In this day & age, in this area, no one in their right mind uses ‘plantation’ as a name for a farm any more. How the hell they got away with it in Pennsylvania is beyond me. [edited out pejorative slang term for ‘northerners’] )
How do you think the insistence in this thread that “plantation” does not mean “slavery” sounds to me? And to most people in this country who aren’t living in Pennsylvania next to a tree farm?
Are you kidding me ??? Are you aware that there is a world outside of your own bubble ???
If you think that the word ‘plantation’ does not evoke those old terrible images, you must be from The North. You definitely aren’t from around here.
My settler ancestors in the 1800’s lived on a farm. They gave it a name that ended in ‘plantation’, a grandiose gesture that was common at the time in that locale. Subsequent generations broke up the land among heirs, sold some, and turned from planting to cattle ranching. The old name faded into history and out of use, long ago. No one - and I mean no one - thinks that old, original, historic name should come back. Regardless of historical context.
Just something that occurred to me. The popular culture in this area is that the original people brought to this area in slavery were from Angola in Africa. In former times both whites and blacks would sometimes name a street or a neighborhood ‘Angola’ to denote that the residents were black, and likely the descendants of the slaves. In fact, over in Louisiana, that is the origin of the name of the town and the prison known as ‘Angola’. ‘Angola’ meaning ‘descendants of plantation slaves’. That’s who the prison was originally built to house.
What would people think if, in this day & age, we chose ‘Angola Street’ or ‘Angola Subdivision’ as a local name? Would we try to rationalize that it had nothing to do with capturing and forcibly importing people for farm labor, however long ago? That the name is race neutral? What would the larger world say about a rationalization like that?
I ask, because in the Southern U.S., the words ‘plantation’ and ‘Angola’ have similar connotations to a lot of people who aren’t from Pennsylvania.
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So what are everybody’s thoughts on Live Oak International? It’s held at a venue named Live Oak Plantation, which is also a major breeder of Thoroughbred. I wasn’t able to find much about the history (there was a Live Oak Plantation in Lee County that had slaves) but holding an equestrian event at a venue in a Southern state with the word plantation in it seems problematic.
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I think it’s just the name of the event they wanted changed right? Not the entire farm/property?
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Incorrect. My family for many generations is from Petros TN, Montgomery AL and Dora AL. Yet I know the difference between a slave driven plantation and stand of pine trees. They aren’t the same thing.
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