Hilton Head council OKs revised arts plan after ‘polarizing’ debate over diversity training
A fiery debate over critical race theory, racial equity and diversity training ended quietly on Hilton Head Island late Tuesday.
The Town Council unanimously approved a revised version of the Office of Cultural Affairs’ strategic plan, a general guide for the government’s relationship with arts and cultural organizations on the island.
The plan had become one of the council’s most contentious issues this fall, even though the elected body does not set or enforce policies in public schools and typically spends its time discussing taxes, utilities, construction projects and zoning.
Town leaders appeared to be unified in their urge Tuesday to move on from the controversy, which had engulfed several recent meetings and had led to accusations of racism and a “power grab.”
The council in September had voted 6-0-1 in favor of a new strategic plan for the Office of Cultural Affairs, but in a highly unusual move rescinded that prior approval in a 5-2 vote on Oct. 5.
With its 7-0 vote Tuesday, the Town Council greenlit an updated version of the plan different from what was originally passed in September.
The previous version said the Office of Cultural Affairs would offer annual equity, diversity and inclusion training, or EDI, to the island’s arts and cultural leaders “at the request of the community.”
The newly approved plan does not include that section. Instead, the plan now says that the office will publish on its website a list of “external resources” to help arts and cultural organizations find professional development workshops.
The revised version of the plan also differs from the original document in more subtle ways.
The plan passed in September, for example, in one section stated that: “Fully grasping the Vision of Our Plan entails addressing socioeconomic trends of present day Hilton Head Island that could be more sustainable and equitable.”
The version of the plan that was approved Tuesday, though, does not include the words “and equitable” in that sentence.
What happened before Tuesday?
Ward 5 representative Tom Lennox, in an interview after the Town Council’s Oct. 5 vote, said that Tamara Becker, the Ward 4 council member, had requested additional information about the cultural affairs plan and had not received it. “So we thought the best way to deal with it would be (to) bring the plan back to council, get the information, review it, discuss it and then reconsider the plan.”
Becker at a committee meeting on Oct. 25 said she had received a video recording of a three-hour cultural affairs training that was “nothing more than critical race theory.”
The video shows an EDI training that the office held for Hilton Head arts and cultural professionals in March.
The March training, Becker said, included a discussion on systemic racism and white supremacy, during which people used “horrendous language to suggest that the white population in this town and across the country ... is unworthy and must be broken down.”
(At one point during the cultural affairs’ EDI training, a participant challenged facilitator Jorge Zeballos’ description of slavery as “legalized racial discrimination,” arguing that it was worse than that and actually was “legalized dehumanization.” “You’re all kind of pushing me to bring my more ‘radical self’ into this process,” Zeballos said in response, agreeing that “those were systems of white supremacy.”)
Arts and cultural leaders who signed an Oct. 17 letter had a different take from Becker’s.
“Diversity training is often challenging and uncomfortable,” the letter reads. “It’s purposeful and meant to grow the understanding of your bias and how you serve your employees, people and organization.”
The letter was signed by Jeffrey Reeves, president and CEO of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina; Jane Joseph, chair of the island’s Arts Council; Ahmad Ward, executive director of the Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park; and Alan Jordan, president and CEO of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, among others.
The conservative HHI Patriots group later encouraged its supporters to email Town Council members about EDI training and critical race theory, or CRT, which is a “collection of ideas about systemic bias and privilege” that Republican lawmakers in several states, including South Carolina, have worked to ban in schools, according to PolitiFact and The Brookings Institution.
“Are you familiar with Equity, Diversity and Inclusion training? I believe it’s divisive, destructive and toxic,” read a Nov. 15 email from HHI Patriots signed by Cherry Norris, who created the “No Mask Required HHI” website.
The debate came to a head during a Nov. 16 council meeting, with residents criticizing Becker and asking the elected officials to reapprove the strategic plan.
“The clouds of division, dog whistling and grenade throwing are not good for the economy,” said Roselle Wilson of the Native Island Business & Community Affairs Association.
Other speakers, though, sided with Becker.
“This is about indoctrination,” Lisa Laking said. “At the end (of the March EDI training), they concluded they pretty much can’t do anything about us adults, but they can go after the kids.”
The deeply personal conflict mirrored ongoing national conversations about racism and the history of slavery and discrimination in America.
What happened Tuesday?
The council approved the revised cultural affairs plan after a roughly 13-minute discussion about the document. The vote was relatively mundane.
Mayor John McCann had previously confirmed that he and Town Manager Marc Orlando met with council members individually to get their thoughts on the plan.
“I appreciate everyone in this effort,” Becker said Tuesday. “I look forward to where we go from here.”
The town issued a news release soon after the vote in which Director of Cultural Affairs Jennifer McEwen wrote that the plan will provide “clear direction and support” for the Office of Cultural Affairs. And Joseph, of the Arts Council, wrote that her group was pleased that the arts plan is now part of the town’s broader strategic plan. (Joseph during the council’s Nov. 16 meeting said she was “saddened to watch decades of work by Town Council, staff and hundreds of volunteers be attacked.” In an email late Thursday, Joseph wrote that she would not make additional statements about the plan “at this time.”)
Before the vote Tuesday, a slew of residents criticized the Office of Cultural Affairs. At least one speaker, Felicia Neczypor, said she was in favor of disbanding the office entirely.
McEwen in a brief phone call Thursday said she believes the plan will help the Hilton Head arts and cultural community grow.
During fiscal year 2018, spending by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, and their audiences, totaled about $39.1 million on Hilton Head, according to the plan, which cites a local study by the Americans for the Arts organization.
‘I just don’t think we would have gotten anywhere’
Only two council members in October voted to not rescind the prior approval of the original cultural affairs plan: Alex Brown, of Ward 1, and Ward 3 representative David Ames.
Why did they support the revised plan Tuesday, even though the EDI section had been cut out?
Ames in a phone call Thursday said his vote was partly based on his hope that the town could move past the divisive arguments that had consumed recent meetings.
The extremes of national politics, he said, had been injected into a local debate.
“I just felt it was so destructive,” Ames said. “It’s polarizing, and it’s unfortunate for our community.”
He added that he has been in favor of the plan from the get-go and continued to support it Tuesday, saying that McEwen is doing a fantastic job.
Brown, meanwhile, in a phone call said he felt it was best to move the plan forward because people clearly were unable to understand each other’s differing views on EDI training.
“I just don’t think we would have gotten anywhere,” Brown said. It was not worth it for town leaders to “hold up progress.”
But the Ward 1 representative stressed that he’s “even more motivated now for us as leaders to have a better understanding of each other’s biases.
“I’m not closing the book by any means,” said Brown, a native islander.
He said he thinks the town needs to continue to promote an inclusive environment.
For example, Brown said Thursday, the current Town Council has no Hispanic representatives, even though The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette reported in August that over the past six years, Hilton Head Elementary School and Hilton Head Middle School have steadily transitioned from majority white student bodies to majority Hispanic ones. The newspapers at the time found that if the trend continues, 2021 might be the first year the same is true for Hilton Head High School.
“That really shows that we have to be intentional about being more inclusive,” Brown said.
This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 1:19 PM.
