NC Water Fight: Black Counties Targeted. Data Centers Blamed. Gullah Geechee Land Fight
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Quick Read
Summary
Takeaways
- ❖North Carolina's Senate Bill 214, Section 5, would allow Franklin County (70% white) to seize water and property from Halifax, Warren, and Vance counties (Black-majority) without local consent, primarily to support water-intensive data centers.
- ❖Data centers can consume up to 2.5 million gallons of water daily, exacerbating drought concerns and driving legislative efforts to reallocate resources from Black communities.
- ❖The Gullah Geechee community is demanding the return of 7,000 acres of plantation land in South Carolina, citing the historical reversal of '40 acres and a mule' and the continued profiting from sites of enslaved labor.
- ❖Activists are calling for a ban on 'plantation weddings,' likening these venues to 'crime scenes' that romanticize slavery and generate millions for descendant families.
- ❖The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) faces an 11-count federal indictment, which panelists argue is a politically motivated attack by a 'white nationalist' Justice Department, part of a broader effort to dismantle civil rights organizations.
- ❖Preventing intimate partner violence in Black communities requires acknowledging and healing historical traumas like lynching and the commodification of Black bodies, which contribute to unhealthy relationship dynamics.
- ❖The Sasha Center in Detroit promotes 'healthy masculinity' over 'toxic masculinity' to engage Black men in conversations about violence prevention, creating safe spaces for vulnerability and addressing societal training.
- ❖Educators are urged to believe Black girls when they report abuse, challenge adultification bias, and teach consent and healthy relationship dynamics, as young people often learn problematic behaviors from societal influences and unaddressed trauma.
Insights
1North Carolina Water Rights Bill Targets Black-Majority Counties for Data Centers
North Carolina is experiencing a severe drought, leading to increased demand for water, particularly from new data centers that consume up to 2.5 million gallons daily. A proposed state bill, Senate Bill 214, Section 5, would grant predominantly white Franklin County the authority to condemn water and other property from three Black-majority counties—Halifax, Warren, and Vance—without their local elected officials' consent. Mayor Mandelle Robinson of Infield, NC (in Halifax County), frames this as a civil rights issue, arguing it's a historical pattern of white communities taking resources from Black communities and sets a dangerous precedent.
Mayor Mandelle Robinson stated, 'The bill that we're talking about has made its way to the General Assembly of North Carolina. It is Senate Bill 214 and particularly section five which basically strips the right of North Carolina majority black three of North Carolina majority black counties. Halifax, which is the county where Infield rest, 56% black, Warren, and also Vance County, and this white county, Franklin County, which is 70% white, is now saying through their Senate legislation, uh, representation that they should have the right to any property, not just water.' He added that the governor cannot veto such local bills passed at the state level.
2Gullah Geechee Community Demands Return of Ancestral Plantation Land
The Gullah Geechee community in South Carolina is demanding the return of over 7,000 acres of land from three former slave plantations, including Middleton Plantation. This demand is rooted in the historical injustice of land theft and the reversal of Special Field Order No. 15 ('40 acres and a mule') after the Civil War. Activists highlight that these plantations continue to profit millions from 'plantation weddings' and tourism, romanticizing a history built on enslaved labor, which they describe as 'getting married at a crime scene.'
Akua Paige, co-founder of the Charleston Reparations Task Force, explained, 'It's not really like we're asking we're asking for our reparations. is really what we're as demanding that Davis return what was what was already rightfully ours and what was stolen from us.' Marcus McDonald of Black Lives Matter Charleston noted, 'Middleton Plantation specifically made over 9 million um in 2021 after the racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd.' The community has issued a 40-day deadline (June 8th) for negotiations to begin on the land transfer.
3Addressing Intimate Partner Violence Requires Healing Historical Trauma and Challenging Gender Norms
The discussion on preventing intimate partner violence (IPV) emphasizes that it's not merely an individual issue but deeply rooted in historical trauma and societal structures, particularly within the Black community. Speakers highlight the need to unpack the trauma of lynching, the historical commodification of Black women's bodies, and the impact of systemic policies that have disrupted Black families. They advocate for fostering 'healthy masculinity' by creating safe spaces for Black men to be vulnerable and challenging rigid gender roles and misogynistic narratives prevalent in media and online 'red pill' cultures.
Jeff Johnson stated, 'For generations, policies and systems in this country have disrupted black families, separated us, criminalized us, and and weakened the relationship between black men and women. And that didn't just disappear. Some of that damage we're now carrying.' Kale Lema from the Sasha Center added, 'In black community we have not had a chance to unpack the trauma of lynching in this country and the trauma of women not even having an opportunity and girls to navigate and have autonomy of their bodies.' Omari Barksdale explained their approach, 'We tend to lean more in the direction of focusing on building and modeling healthy masculinity... instead of talking about and putting down the brothers that are dealing with some things, some issues, some societal training, we focus more on giving them things that they can use as tools.'
Lessons
- Contact North Carolina state senators to voice opposition to Senate Bill 214, Section 5, which threatens Black-majority counties' water and property rights. Attend the protest at the Raleigh Capital on April 28th at 4:00 PM.
- Support the Gullah Geechee community's demand for land reparations by issuing solidarity statements through your business, organization, or family. Follow 'Charleston for Reparations' on Instagram and attend their public meetings, such as the one on May 15th at the Avery Research Center.
- Parents and educators should initiate open, culturally sensitive conversations with young people about healthy relationships, consent, and bodily autonomy. Teach proper names for body parts, challenge rigid gender roles, and encourage critical media literacy to counter misogynistic influences.
- Black men are encouraged to seek out and participate in safe spaces, like those offered by the Sasha Center, Black Men Heal, Therapy for Black Men, or Beam, to address unhealed trauma, emotional isolation, and to learn and model healthy masculinity.
- Advocate for systemic changes that dismantle patriarchy and misogyny within Black communities, including challenging the adultification bias against Black girls and ensuring that reports of intimate partner violence are believed and urgently addressed by institutions.
Quotes
"This is tragic and it's also as American as apple pie."
"America has a high tolerance for black suffering. So, I think the justification is just that America has a history, 400 plus year history of making sure white people are comfortable even if it's at the expense of black lives."
"Unhealed men are dangerous. Not just to ourselves, but to the people who love and surround us most. And too often that's black women and our children."
"Violence against women, as we know, is not a woman's issue. It's a man's issue that primarily impacts women."
Q&A
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