Race and the farmers' market

[from Petworth email group]

From: "J. Grandy" [email protected]
Subject: racism at petworth farmers market

I heard a rumor about the Petworth farmers market that ran last year across from the metro station. They said that the people running the fruit stand were trying to drive the black farmer out of business.

Now I went to the farmers market almost every week and I have to say this is one of the dumbest rumors I ever heard. First of all, the fruit stand was just some volunteers from the area. Sure, they were mostly new white residents, but they were doing a great job (even if they usually just had only apples, grapes, and bananas). I mean, the real farmer at the market was great and a real good guy. He had nice vegetables but he didn't sell any fruit. I just don't know how such dumb rumors get started. I can only remember one or two times when the fruit stand had maybe one type of the same produce as the black farmer.

I hate to say it, but it just seems to me that some people will tear down anything good that other people do. So what if the volunteers we saw every week at the market are new residents who are not black! They were doing great things for our community. We never had a farmers market before last year. So let's stop tearing it down!

And one last thing. There's a lot of real racism that our community faces in the world. It makes the real racism seem less serious if we complain about racism when there isn't any, like this dumb rumor at the farmers market.

J.