Several members of the community protested against white supremacy at the Bloomington Farmers' Market last year. On Monday night, activists say they will boycott the market until Schooner Creek Farm is banned as a vendor.
(Seth Tackett, WTIU/WFIU News)
After posting a controversial statement on Facebook about Black-On-Black crime earlier this month, the Broadening Inclusion Subcommittee of the Bloomington Farmers’ Market was disbanded.
The Farmers’ Market Advisory Council voted in favor of this decision 6-1-2 at its meeting Monday night.
The council oversees the subcommittee under the umbrella of the city’s Parks Department.
"The last thing we wanted to do was to add to the pain so many people in our community have and continue to experience," Parks Department Director Paula DeWitt said in an apology.
The Broadening Inclusion Subcommittee was formed last November to help deal with racial incidents that have occurred in the past at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market.
Last year, controversy erupted after news surfaced that vendor Sarah Dye from Schooner Creek Farm had ties to a white supremacist group.
Black Lives Matter Bloomington member Jada Bee says the council isn’t capable of fairly representing the community’s interests. She says disbanding the subcommittee isn't enough.
“Every single one of you should resign, disband and turn the market over to the vendors, who are more capable of deciding what is happening," Bee says.
Bee believes the city should completely separate itself from the market all together.
Associate Director of the Center for Research on Race and Ethnicity at Indiana University Michelle Moyd weighed in on the conversation.
She says there will be no such thing as inclusion at the farmers’ market as long as there are "white supremacists operating freely."
“No person of color, no black person, no disabled person, no person who is a member of a religious minority can feel safe in that space," Moyd says.
Several community members say they will boycott the market until the city bans Schooner Creek Farm.
"I haven't been going to the farmers' market personally because I feel like it isn't a space for me, and so I get the frustration of fellow individuals who are people of color," activist Maqube Reese says.
Janice Lilly is a member of the Farmers' Market Advisory Council. She says if the council wants to create another subcomittee in the future, members should have to submit applications and undergo an interview process.
The advisory council members who voted to disband the Broadening Inclusion Subcomittee were Janice Lilly, Cortland Carrington, Suzanne Mann, Lynn Schwartzberg, Rebeca Vada and Mara Lea Rosenbarger.
Melanie McQuinn voted no and both Whitney Schlegel and Michael Gleeson were forced to abstain after not responding when the vote was called.
