Jim, what if you decided to take all your blog earnings and buy 400 acres of Fauquier County open space so that you could build a “Bacon’s Rebellion Resort.” While I know you have exceptional sales skills, don’t you think that some folks in proximity to your proposed development might oppose it, no matter what you had planned for the property? Don’t you think some of these opponents might be well-heeled, having the wherewithal to get bumper stickers printed saying, “Crush the Rebellion?” Would you characterize these opponents as anti-development zealots or anti-Wahoo bigots?
Last night Sheila Crump Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television (later sold for $3 billion)spoke at a Richmond conference. Jeffrey Kelly of the Richmond Times-Dispatch described her remarks this way:
But she said it is her latest venture, Salamander Hospitality in Middleburg, that has opened her eyes to the discrimination that can accompany a minority business.
Days after she announced the 400-acre resort and spa in Northern Virginia, she told the banquet audience of roughly 800 last night, she began seeing “Don’t BET Middleburg” bumper stickers and receiving various forms of hate mail.
“I didn’t think it was going to hit that hard,” she said. Johnson now has round-the-clock security and said she has received death threats against her and her two children.
Obviously, hate mail and threats are in a class of repulsive behavior all their own. We have no way of knowing if these were a few isolated crackpots or a more systematic effort. No matter what, they certainly shattered the myth of Middleburg gentility.
But the bumper stickers? Can’t anti-development forces use a shorthand to identify the project they oppose? It’s a catchy message, packing more information than “Stop Salamander.” BET is an internationally known acronym. I haven’t spent all that much time around Middleburg lately, but I suspect a lot of developments in the area have been vigorously opposed.
The folks who worked at Disney in the 90’s might be able to tell Ms. Johnson something about anti-development bumper stickers and hate mail received when they tried to locate in nearby Prince William County.
Not everything is discrimination.
