Rants & Raves: Why use name plantation?

Readers react to a letter to the editor that called for re-considering the use of "plantation" in the names of area communities.

This is getting out of hand. The more this is put in the news and "discussed," the larger the wedge becomes between our community. People are being reactive in nature and it's dumbing the population. Holding today's white people accountable for slavery is ridiculous. You want to talk about sins of ancestors? Slavery is still going on in Africa today. Africans captured and gave other Africans to the white traders ... You see? It's not helping anything to (delve) into the past. We need to build upon the fact that there is no "black community" or "white community." We are South Carolinians. Americans. Humans. Chris Broome

I am a Northerner and I'm not embarrassed by the term "plantation." I am, however, embarrassed by (the letter writer), who chose to move to a part of the country and now seeks to erase its history because it embarrasses her. This gives a bad name to us Northerners moving South for a slower pace, a culture where the people are as warm as the weather, and refuse to pledge allegiance to the white flag of political correctness. Was it some sort of secret that South Carolina had a history of slavery? Up here in the North, you'll find neighborhoods and housing developments named after mills, and nobody seems to have a problem with that, despite the fact that textile mills were extremely dangerous and had horrible working conditions for the women, children and immigrants who were exploited for their cheap or unpaid labor. Quick, grab your torches and pitchforks! Oh wait, you're too busy lying on the beach in March. Interstate 95 goes both ways if you'd like to come back North where everything with any history behind it gets torn down to make $2 million-a-pop condos and artisanal cupcake shops.

Hilary McMurray

You cannot rewrite history! Plantations have always been on the island, and if you take the signs away, people will still call them plantations ... including me! If you associate plantations with something negative, then that's on you! When I hear it, I think of Hilton Head Island and happiness. Vanessa Webster

I think the writer is exactly right. I am a Georgia native who has always cringed at the moniker "plantation" and think the removal of this is very appropriate. Wish I had written this letter. Jeanne Harrison

Very interesting. The definition of the word does refer to farms worked by slaves (and commercial tree farms -- not the mere existence of trees). There is great power in words to represent and shape culture over time. No one is suggesting "wiping out" or in any way censoring history with any changes that have been proposed or implemented as of late; society -- and especially governmental and organizational bodies -- just needs to stop honoring legacies of oppression. Lauren A.R. Koslow

I am at a loss with this country and its unnecessary censorship. The past has already occurred. We cannot erase what our founding fathers did to both African and Native Americans. It has already happened and been put into writing. Removing icons like the rebel flag and words like "plantation" serve no purpose to amend the wrongs. We as Americans need to just learn to accept the wrongdoing of our past, make a promise not to continue it in the present, and realistically find a way to face the future with all of the past left just there, in the past.

Zoie M. Conrad

Talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill! The writer even states that she didn't know about the "plantation" before moving here. People are now sitting around trying to create problems that just don't exist. I have said many times how proud I am of this beautiful state and the people of it for how they have handled such a horrible tragedy, but all this nonsense is letting the monster in Charleston win. This is what he wanted.

Sunshine Nicholson

How many times do I have to say it? Stop fearing the past. Learn from it to make the future better. It starts with educating the next generation to love and know truth with a big helping of logic and reason.

Michelle Strickland

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This story was originally published July 20, 2015 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Rants & Raves: Why use name plantation?."