‘Hate has no home here’: Woman petitions to remove ‘Plantation’ from neighborhood name

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — A resident of Porters Neck Plantation has started a petition to remove “Plantation” from the neighborhood’s name.

Kathryn Polk says it’s about creating a more inclusive environment and to stop normalizing what she believes is a derogatory word.

“Hate has no home here. There’s just no place for it anymore,” Polk said. “We want to eliminate these names and titles that promote history of a class system and slavery.”

Polk says it’s important to address the obvious and subtle forms of racism in today’s society.

“Our communities really subtly incorporate discriminatory terms like that in ways that we might not always be cognitive of,” she said.

She notes that she loves the area and it’s a wonderful community.

“I’m sure the people that started this neighborhood, hopefully, weren’t intentionally thinking about the meaning and history of the word,” Polk said. “But creating awareness and educating ourselves on how that would make you feel if you were a black person living in this neighborhood or a black person coming to visit someone in this neighborhood. In my opinion, it’s just insensitive.”

She says some people have said changing a name won’t do much.

“Removing these names absolutely builds a more welcoming and more positive community for all people, but especially black lives,” Polk said. “We can’t change the past, but we can pave the way for a more equitable and welcoming society for all lives, but again especially for black lives in our community.”

The petition has people talking, but some aren’t ready to go on camera yet.

A woman tells WWAY the name has always made her uncomfortable, but especially now with current events she thinks it’s time to be more considerate of what the word means to different groups of people.

A Wilmington man says he feels the word is a symbol of dominance, saying it feels like he relives his ancestors’ pain when he sees the word.

Polk compared the word to another tragedy in world history.

“Somebody had said you would never call the neighborhood Porters Neck Concentration Camp,” she said. “I think it’s a really unfortunate parallel that we shouldn’t have to make to help people see that it is an oppressive and a derogatory term.”

Polk says she has suggested the name Porters Neck Point, but believes it should be a conversation that includes all residents.

WWAY reached out to the Porters Neck Plantation Homeowners Association and they said they had not yet seen the petition, but the topic had already been put on their agenda for Monday’s board meeting.