Debating Race through the Tourist Plantation: Analyzing a New York Times Conversation

Abstract

On June 22, 2000 Ginger Thompson's "Reaping what was sown on the old plantation" was published in the New York Times (NYT) as part of a series of articles on race relations in America. That article examined a controversy manifested through two people, one representing the history of the old white establishment and the other representing the history of former slaves at a tourist plantation. With the Critical Race Theory tenet of storytelling as theoretical background, a qualitative content analysis of the feedback from "Reaping what was sown. . ." was completed. From the NYT message posting forum, 419 messages were archived, classified, and interpreted. While there are differences in how blacks and whites view tourist plantations, there is ample commonality, with many nuanced online responses that defy common generalizations. These recorded responses challenge the impression that blacks and whites view tourist plantations entirely differently. In this respect, museums and historical sites related to slavery have an impact on public dialogue and debate well beyond direct visitation. As illustrated here, the very mention of these sites and the range of feelings they evoke serve as an important springboard for a much broader discussion of race and race relations in America.