HALL OF SHAME We hate to be downers, but there are some people walking the streets of Charlotte who really just made a shitty year shittier for everyone. Do better, y’all.
A HOME ON THE HISTORIC LATTA SITE PHOTO BY CAROL HIGHSMITH
Pg. 18 DEC 1 - DEC 14, 2021 - QCNERVE.COM
Worst Event Planning: Latta Plantation
Any event planner will tell you, it’s all in the way you present your function that affects whether the public will show up — or in worst-case scenarios, how they’ll react to screenshots of your plans shared widely around the country on social media. That’s what happened when folks began sharing the description of an event called Kingdom Coming, scheduled for Latta Plantation in Huntersville on Juneteenth weekend. “Come out to Historic Latta Plantation for a one night event,” the description read. “You will hear stories from the massa himself. Federal troops (Yankees) have him on the run and his former bondsmen have occupied his home and are living high on the hog. Hear how they feel about being freedmen.” It went on to promise that white refugees “have a story to tell as well,” and that Confederate soldiers would be expressing their feelings about the downfall of the Confederacy, seemingly centering everyone but the enslaved person on a holiday meant to celebrate their emancipation.
The response was swift, and it quickly expanded past social media. Before the month was over, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners decided not to renew the lease for Historic Latta Place Inc., which for years ran the circa-1800s farm where people were once held as slaves and forced into labor, and operated it as a “living history museum.” Site manager Ian Campbell, a Black man, did release a defensive statement that took shots at the mayor for her statement decrying the scheduled event and blamed the “media corps of yellow journalists” for
stirring the public into a frenzy over the event. In the end, HLP was forced out on July 1, and the county is currently doing community outreach to plan for the reopening of the historic site in an inclusive and respectful way.
identity theft, as management not only had copies of tenants’ drivers’ licenses but Social Security cards as well. Another renter confronted the motel manager about the board and was told the owner is frustrated: “She said, ‘He wants his money, and he wants you all out of here, so this is the last straw.’”
Most Shameful Business: City Inn Worst Faux Outrage: White on Nations Ford Road In January, WSOC reported about City Inn’s Privilege banner at Charlotte dastardly practice of shaming tenants who had Catholic football game fallen behind on rent during the pandemic. Management of the motel, located on Nations Ford Road in southwest Charlotte, put up a display in the lobby depicting the drivers’ licenses and photos of all tenants who had fallen behind on payments in a time when an eviction moratorium had made it illegal to kick such tenants to the streets. The display also listed how much each resident owed, showing totals ranging from $2,000 to more than $7,000, with phrases like, “Shame on you.” This made some renters feel like the motel was trying to shame them into leaving, even though they had nowhere to go. One tenant told WSOC they were worried about
“Sniff sniff. You smell that?” and then “PRIVILEGE” painted in white letters surrounded by dollar signs. This was the banner held up by Butler High School cheerleaders at a football game against Charlotte Catholic in October. In the course of any high school football game, tons of stupid things are said about the opposing team. The banner echoed the kind of harmless jawing we’d all do at a bar if we met someone who went to Charlotte Catholic, a $10,000-peryear private school with an 84% white population. But right-wing media picked up the local story, as outlets like The Blaze, the Daily Mail, and Fox News wrote weird dog-whistle stories about the banner.
THE BUTLER HIGH SCHOOL CHEERLEADING SQUAD CALLS IT LIKE THEY SEE IT.
