When looking for meaning of ‘plantation,’ dictionary is wrong place to start | Opinion
The question put to me last week was simple.
“What does the word ‘plantation’ mean to you?”
It was posed in reaction to our paper’s editorial, “It’s time to scrub ‘plantation’ from our communities, once and for all.”
My response was unrehearsed, and not polished.
I fumbled around for while about “Gone With The Wind,” the Confederacy and my feeling that it is a statement to Black people that white people own them.
Later, of course, I thought of what I should have said.
My response should have been, “You’re asking the wrong guy.”
Here we had this old white man on the phone with another somewhat younger white man — discussing what Black people think.
Hilton Head rally
Labeling housing developments on Hilton Head Island, and throughout Beaufort County, as “plantations,” beginning in the late 1950s, was at the very least insensitive and tone deaf.
Correcting that error has come up from time to time for decades. In the early 1990s, Sea Pines, which started it all, realized it was a mistake and dropped the word. And Sea Pines is doing quite well. Check the property values.
My telephone call, and other conversations, have stirred up a lot of responses on why removing the “plantation” word cannot or should not be done. The old problem came up again last week after a speaker or two at a Hilton Head rally for justice mentioned it.
The uber-peaceful rally here was one of thousands nationwide in response to a stunning moment in American history — the video recording of a police officer with his knee on the neck of a Black man on a Minneapolis street. George Floyd died and the nation erupted upon seeing it.
People are saying we should look up the definition of “plantation,” and we’ll see that it’s fine to use it today in Beaufort County.
But this is not a dictionary issue. It’s one of the heart and mind and soul. It is one of caring for humankind. It ain’t in the dictionary.
Some say removing the word from the places we live would be erasing history.
But the only history it would erase is the 60-year-old history of a gimmick to sell real estate. The gimmick was to paint a notion of grandeur, Southern charm and security.
Mitchelville Freedom Park
At one point in my phone conversation, I said, “It is a shame the way Black people have been written out of history in this county and on this island.”
I was corrected on that. In recent years, Hilton Head Islanders have fought for recognition of the Historic Mitchellville Freedom Park, to celebrate “where freedom began” for America in a Hilton Head village for freedmen during the Civil War.
And the Town of Hilton Head Island in 2018 erected colorful signs (gasp!) marking the island’s historic Gullah neighborhoods: Big Stoney, Little Stoney, Squire Pope, Jarvis, Jonesville, Spanish Wells, Gardner, Marshland, Chaplin, Grassland, Big Hill, Baygall and Mitchelville.
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That is real history. And the signs represent real progress for Hilton Head. They are a result of listening to the voices of the folks who were here before so-called “plantations” filled the landscape.
But I’ve heard too many people express the opinion of if you don’t like the word, you should go back where you came from. But we know better. I know that because when a reporter approached people who had written just that on Facebook for a story on the community’s opinions on this issue, they demurred, refusing to put their names to such nonsense when push came to shove.
Beaufort County history
The true history of Hilton Head, Beaufort and Bluffton is that we have welcomed the visitor, the newcomer, the people from “off.” Perhaps not always graciously, but the in-migration to Beaufort County is the strength of its economy, culture, and history.
The grandest example will take place this week in Sea Pines. The greatest golfers in the world have accepted our invitation to come see us at Harbour Town, even though we can’t watch them play in person this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sea Pines’ “brand” was not hurt by the change. And as someone else said, if “plantation” is Hilton Head’s brand, it’s time to change brands.
Nor do I want to hear about the difficulty or the cost entailed in making the change. And the argument that there aren’t enough people pushing for a change is a weak one, lacking vision and leadership.
I live in Hilton Head Plantation, and I don’t feel that I or my neighbors are bigots.
But that is not really the point.
Yes, it would be easier to stick to the status quo, and most people will dance on the head of a pin to resist change.
But when things get hard, the true, giving spirit of America rises to the occasion.
My hope is that some POA board will step up. The right thing is there to be done. It’s time to seize it.
Because that is who we are.
