Debate over Hilton Head arts plan intensifies as nation’s culture wars reach island

The culture wars have reached Hilton Head Island.

A mundane Town Council vote in September and a diversity training held for the island’s arts and cultural leaders this past spring have recently sparked a fiery debate over racial equity and critical race theory on Hilton Head, even though the Town Council does not create or enforce policies in public schools and typically spends its time discussing taxes, utilities, construction projects and zoning.

The deeply personal conflict has spilled over into several town meetings, with the wide-ranging discourse mirroring national conversations about racism and the history of slavery and discrimination in America.

The strife likely will reach a fever pitch next week when the Town Council discusses the matter during its Tuesday meeting.

Mayor John McCann has publicly called on residents and fellow council members to “tone back the rhetoric.” And dozens of people have spoken out about the controversy in emotional testimonials to the Town Council.

“I have experienced racism all of my life — sometimes subtle and sometimes blatant,” said Luana Graves Sellars, founder of the Lowcountry Gullah nonprofit, during a Nov. 16 council meeting. “Ignoring or wishing racism away just allows it to grow, fester and return in a same or greater form.

“I thought that Hilton Head was better than this — that this is a place where divisive behavior and polarization are issues for other areas of the country where ignorance exists.”

What’s going on?

The council in September voted 6-0-1 in favor of a new strategic plan for the town’s Office of Cultural Affairs, but in a highly unusual move rescinded that prior approval in a 5-2 vote on Oct. 5. The plan is a general guide for the town’s relationship with arts and cultural organizations.

Ward 5 representative Tom Lennox in a previous interview said that Tamara Becker, the Ward 4 council member, had requested additional information about the plan and had not received it, “so we thought the best way to deal with it would be (to) bring the plan back to council, get the information, review it, discuss it and then reconsider the plan.”

Becker at a later committee meeting on Oct. 25 said she had received a video recording of a three-hour Office of Cultural Affairs training that was “nothing more than critical race theory.”

The video shows an equity, diversity and inclusion training that the office held for Hilton Head arts and cultural professionals in March. (The Office of Cultural Affairs’ strategic plan says it will offer to host diversity training sessions for arts and cultural organizations.)

The March training, Becker said, included a discussion on systemic racism and white supremacy, during which people used “horrendous language to suggest that the white population in this town and across the country ... is unworthy and must be broken down.”

Arts and cultural leaders who signed an Oct. 17 letter had a different take.

“Diversity training is often challenging and uncomfortable,” the letter reads. “It’s purposeful and meant to grow the understanding of your bias and how you serve your employees, people and organization.”

The letter was signed by Jeffrey Reeves, president and CEO of the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina; Jane Joseph, chair of the island’s Arts Council; Ahmad Ward, executive director of the Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park; and Alan Jordan, president and CEO of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, among others.

The leaders wrote that they were disappointed in the Town Council’s Oct. 5 vote to rescind the prior approval of the strategic plan until the document’s “educational curriculum” is fully identified and reviewed by the council. Many funding organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, the letter says, require that grant applicants provide a statement on equity, diversion and inclusion training, or EDI.

“Our Island arts and cultural organizations (previously) requested EDI training to help us to build our own plans around EDI and therefore be candidates for grants which are crucial to our viability,” the letter says.

“We believe that removing the EDI mission actions from the (Office of Cultural Affairs’) strategic plan would put our arts and cultural organizations as well as our community at a great disadvantage.”

The conservative HHI Patriots group later encouraged its supporters to email Town Council members about EDI training and critical race theory, or CRT, which is a “collection of ideas about systemic bias and privilege” that Republican lawmakers in several states, including South Carolina, have worked to ban in schools, according to PolitiFact and The Brookings Institution.

(A proviso in the South Carolina state budget that was passed earlier this year prohibits K-12 school districts from using appropriated funds to teach children that “an individual, by virtue of his race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”)

“Are you familiar with Equity, Diversity and Inclusion training? I believe it’s divisive, destructive and toxic,” read a Nov. 15 email from HHI Patriots, which was signed by Cherry Norris, who created the “No Mask Required HHI” website after meeting with other people who opposed COVID-19 mask mandates. “If you’re white, you’re a supremist (sic) and should be ashamed for a past you have no control over. If you’re black, you’re a victim and should be pitied.”

The debate came to a head during a Nov. 16 council meeting, with residents criticizing Becker and asking the elected officials to reapprove the strategic plan. Becker did not respond to a phone message Thursday.

“The clouds of division, dog whistling and grenade throwing are not good for the economy,” said Roselle Wilson of the Native Island Business & Community Affairs Association.

A few speakers, though, sided with Becker, including Lisa Laking, who said she had watched the video recording of the diversity training held in March.

“This is about indoctrination,” Laking said. “At the end, they concluded they pretty much can’t do anything about us adults, but they can go after the kids.”

What’s actually in the diversity training video?

The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette recently obtained the three-hour video via a public records request.

The training session was held virtually, and at least 40 people were on the call, including Director of Cultural Affairs Jennifer McEwen.

Jorge Zeballos, a self-employed equity and inclusion consultant, according to LinkedIn, was the training facilitator. The town government spent $3,000 to hire Zeballos for the training, spokesperson Carolyn Grant confirmed Friday.

(Zeballos previously was the chief equity and inclusion officer at Kellogg Community College in Michigan. His position was eliminated in early 2020, according to the Battle Creek Enquirer. Zeballos had been criticized by conservative news media for a Facebook post that showed him holding a sign “featuring expletives” at a protest against Donald Trump in December 2019, the Battle Creek Enquirer reported. A college spokesperson told the newspaper that the decision to eliminate Zeballos’ position was not related to the sign.)

During the town’s training, Zeballos discussed slavery and racist Jim Crow laws, provided data on a lack of diversity among arts administrators and encouraged people to figure out how they could better promote inclusion.

At one point, a participant challenged Zeballos’ description of slavery as “legalized racial discrimination,” arguing that it was worse than that and actually was “legalized dehumanization.”

“You’re all kind of pushing me to bring my more ‘radical self’ into this process,” Zeballos said in response, agreeing that “those were systems of white supremacy.”

(This 90-second exchange is seemingly part of what Becker referenced at the Oct. 25 committee meeting.)

A significant portion of the diversity training, meanwhile, was focused on breakout groups, during which people talked about their thoughts on racism.

In one group that was discussing white privilege, McEwen said, “I think honestly we have to start teaching institutional racism in an honest way beginning at elementary school.” Another participant said, “There’s just too much apathy in the world with my generation.” (This seems to be what Laking referenced at the Nov. 16 council meeting.)

The participants also discussed how to better support and preserve the island’s Gullah culture. The loss of native land is a major issue on Hilton Head.

“Government policies and the ignorance about the economic dynamics of what’s going on on Hilton Head Island will destroy the Gullah community if people are not aggressive and positive,” said Meldon Hollis, who serves on the Gullah Museum’s board. “At one point, the Gullah people owned 90% of Hilton Head Island. At this point, 70% of (the island) is behind gated communities.”

The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that at least 80% of the island’s current population is white, data show. Roughly 6% of residents are Black, according to federal estimates.

McEwen in July said that Zeballos’ training was “very well received.”

What’s next?

McCann in a phone call confirmed that the strategic plan will be discussed during the Town Council’s 3 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.

The mayor added that he and Town Manager Marc Orlando have met with the other council members individually to get their thoughts on the plan.

A revised version of the plan is expected to be presented Tuesday.