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Cambridge School Committee Member Forces Danvers Apple Farm To Have Diversity, Inclusion, Equity Training After Sending Mob, Alleging Racial Profiling

 

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This is Manikka Bowman, a member of the Cambridge School Committee.

She posted a blog post on Facebook and Twitter last night, accusing Connors Farm in Danvers of racially profiling her family while they were apple picking, and the post has been shared far and wide.

 

 

You can read the whole post here, but I’ll sum it up for you:

  • A trip to buy some apple cider donuts turned into a traumatic experience
  • They spent more than $100 on all day admission, fruit picking and food and drinks
  • As they were leaving the apple orchard area heading toward the farm store her apple picking bag had 6 more apples than could fit in it, which she planned to purchase if they charged her for it, along with apple cider donuts
  • A security officer stopped them before they got into the farm store for having too many apples that were not in the apple bag they had paid for
  • She was escorted to the farm store by two security guards who then searched her purse for concealed fruit
  • They asked to speak to the manager, who did not identify himself, and demanded to have the owner’s contact information in writing, which the manager refused
  • As she continued to make demands he called police
  • The Danvers cop was “tempered,” but she accused him of not taking her seriously, believing the manager’s narrative, and accusing them of using the race card
  • She suggested in her blog that she was being racially profiled because her family is black
  • The manager told them that it was his job to prevent stealing, which made her 7 year old daughter cry because of the assumption of theft
  • She demands a written apology from the owners, a full refund for money spent and for that money to be redirected to the Essex County Community Foundation “with the specific purpose of supporting their racial equity work,” and a commitment from the farm and the Danvers PD to force employees to undergo diversity, equity, and inclusion training

Here’s my initial thoughts:

  • If this story is true, then it sounds like the security guard was on a power trip and this farm is cheap, which has nothing to do with race. A white woman accusing Connors Farm of being racist, told pretty much the exact same story in the comments, proving that race had nothing to do with it.

  • If she allowed these people to search her purse, that’s on her. Tell them to pound sand and get a warrant instead of crying for attention on Facebook. 
  • The fact that she makes demands that Connors give money for “racial equity work,” and that the police go to diversity, equity, and inclusion training, tells me everything I need to know about this woman and her motives.
  • Why would the Danvers Police Officer accuse her of “playing the race card,” if she hadn’t mentioned race up until that point? This leads me to believe that she was screaming about racism the moment she was questioned, as if white people have never had to deal with an overzealous security guard on a power trip.
  • Another witness said that she was “screaming very loud at a security guard, asking for the manager,” and that the police were not called because they were already there doing a detail. Her daughter was likely crying because her mother was making a scene.

Now, if this happened to me, I’d be pissed. I hate apple picking enough as it is, since apples are the most overrated fruit of all time – vastly inferior to both the plum and the pear. But if I was penny pinched about extra apples overflowing in my bag, I’d give the security guard a piece of my mind and just leave.

What I would’t do, because I’m unable to, is hide behind racism, make demands that the farm donate to my favorite nonprofit, and get a mob riled up enough to destroy the farm.

Obviously I wasn’t there so I can’t confirm or deny that any of this happened, and neither can anyone in the mob. But Manikka knows that as a black woman from Cambridge, the moment she made an allegation of racial profiling there would be an online mob of white women behind her ready to destroy this business, based solely on her word. And they looked exactly how you imagined they would.

Rachel Gooze awaits their action and accountability!

She’s a very important white woman.

These people are all just bullies who build themselves up by putting other people down. If you put them in a different historical era they would do whatever the mob was doing at that time, because they are followers who will do anything to fit in and elevate their own status. If they lived in Germany in the 1930’s they’d be turning in Jews left and right. If they lived in the South during the 1860’s they’d be helping the rebels preserve slavery. They have no moral character, and they only care about joining Internet pile ons like this because it makes them feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. They don’t care who they have to destroy, and whether or not those people are innocent, so long as they are on the winning side.

Look who else chimed in.

Oh fuck off, Dan Kennedy. This guy is a Northeastern journalism professor, a recurring guest on WGBH’s “Beat the Press,” and quite possibly the biggest nerd you will ever see.

Dan likes to act like a hardo on social media and once humiliated himself by tacitly endorsing Bob Murchison as he harassed and targeted WEEI’s advertisers in an attempt to have Kirk Minihane and Gerry Callahan removed from the air.

So it’s not surprising to see this “media watchdog” blindly believing a story about an event he did not witness, and making demands that the Danvers Police apologize for doing nothing wrong.

Connors Farm briefly put up a response to the controversy, stating that they reserve the right to inspect all backpacks, bags, and strollers, which didn’t go over well at all.

The mob isn’t looking for explanations or other sides of the story. The mob is here to collect the money for the racial equity fund, and for the business to no longer exist.

A quick look at Manikka’s Twitter account shows us that this isn’t the first time she’s played the “life is so hard as an upper-middle class black woman” card.

But as annoying as she is about that, she’s even worse when it comes to COVID. Despite being adamantly opposed to discrimination and voter ID laws, she demands that private businesses actively discriminate against and profile people based on their healthcare choices.

She’s really scared of unvaccinated people, unless she’s apple picking or having a dance party to celebrate an election result.

Oh, and she’s a big fan of one of the most perverted sexual deviants who has ever lived, but only because he forced small businesses to close.

Her mob got the Town of Danvers to do exactly what she wanted them to do though – apologize and demand that Connors Farm institute diversity training.

Not surprising since this is the same town that banned fire trucks from having thin blue line flags, to honor police officers killed in the line of duty.

I felt sorry for the farm at first, then they went and did this.

Pathetic. You’re making your employees sit through a seminar on white privilege after a privileged woman of color destroyed your business by accusing you of racism. Instead of defending yourselves you attempted to appease the mob, and shockingly they were not appeased.

At this point I say let the mob have them. We need business owners who aren’t afraid to stand up to these people and don’t throw their employees under the bus.

 

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Hello Turtle Riders. As you know if you follow Turtleboy we are constantly getting censored and banned by Facebook for what are clearly not violations of their terms of service. Twitter has done the same, and trolls mass reported our blog to Google AdSense thousands of times, leading to demonetization. We can get by and survive, but we could really use your help. Please consider donating by hitting the Donation button above if you'd like support free speech and what we do in the face of Silicon Valley censorship. Or just buy our award winning book about the dangers of censorship and rise of Turtleboy:  Qries