Posted on August 26, 2019

The War on ‘White Supremacy’ Invades the Farmer’s Market

Julie Kelly, American Greatness, August 22, 2019

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But the tension at the [Blooomington, Indiana] farmer’s market has nothing to do with Trump or gun control. Schooner Creek Farms, a longtime vendor that sells locally grown produce, is being targeted by left-wing activists — including members of Bloomington Antifa — after one group discovered that anonymous messages posted on a so-called white supremacy chat board had been written by Sarah Dye, one of the farm’s owners.

{snip} Dye’s comments were found on a chat platform associated with Identity Evropa; according to the Anti-Defamation League, IE is a white supremacy group.

After the posts were released, “dozens of IE members [were] doxxed and it was revealed that the group’s membership included a wide range of working professionals, including a medical doctor in Tennessee, a CPA in Ohio, a Virginia police officer, a Brooklyn electrician, a New Orleans contractor, a law student at the John Marshall Law School and several members of the U.S. armed forces,” bragged the ADL. (IE reorganized in March 2019 as the American Identity Movement.)

One of the doxxed posters included Dye, a mother of three boys who also raises sheep and organic vegetables on the central Indiana farm she owns with her husband. By all appearances, Dye seems more like a Bernie Sanders voter than a scary white supremacist: She practices no-till methods on her farm, boasts that their “food is free of harmful GMO’s and synthetic chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, fungicides or fertilizers,” spins her own yarn and donates her time to a number of environmental causes.

Dye’s comments on the Discord message board were largely innocuous: She posted pictures of her farm and her newborn son while asking for advice on breastfeeding, homeschooling, and cryptocurrency. Dye occasionally mentioned politics, including arguments with her Democratic mother-in-law, and offered her admiration for IE. “Identity Evropa is the only organization of the dissident right in the US that actually treats women in a traditional euro-centric way,” she commented on November 1, 2018. She didn’t threaten violence or use any racial slurs.

Ceaseless Harassment

In an interview with a local television station earlier this month, Dye denied being a white supremacist.

“As an identitarian and an American, I am disgusted at the level of lies, misinformation, falsehoods, and intimidation by those who do not know me or my family,” Dye told a local Fox News reporter on August 1. “We absolutely reject supremacy in all of its forms.” {snip}

Dye said she and her family have been harassed by Bloomington Antifa — or “Btown Antifa” — for months. According to the Hoosier Times, the harassment against Schooner Creek began nearly two years ago: {snip} In May, an activist approached Schooner Creek’s booth at the market wielding a baseball bat and asked the owners about their political beliefs.

{snip} Vendors now are being harassed at their homes and Antifa activists are vandalizing public property.

Flyers and buttons distributed at the Bloomington market warn customers not to “buy veggies from Nazis.” Abby Ang, a resident and market vendor, is organizing a campaign to demand that city officials remove Schooner Creek Farms from the venue, claiming their participation violates federal discrimination laws since customers can purchase items with food stamps.

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In June, Dye was removed as president of the board of the Nashville, Indiana farmer’s market, an event she helped establish in 2017. The group is considering its options for banning Schooner Creek permanently. Bloomington officials, for now, are resisting calls to remove the farm from its market but will take steps, including the review of vendor contracts, that could result in their ouster next year.

Minimizing Antifa’s Role

In the meantime, Hamilton and Bloomington police are stoking fears about the pervasive threat of white supremacy while ignoring the legitimate menace — Antifa — that continues to intimidate vendors, market-goers, and residents.

When a resident asked the mayor why he’s downplaying the role of Antifa in stirring the controversy, Hamilton defiantly defended his position.

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When asked on Twitter why he refused to specify B-town Antifa, Healy replied that he used “anti-fascist instead of using the synonymous abbreviation.” Except that B-town Antifa is a specific group associated with a larger group that President Trump might declare a terrorist organization.

Sarah Dye did nothing illegal. {snip} But because she posted comments under an anonymous name on a website that the Left has deemed a racist threat, she and her family are under siege, unlikely ever to restore their reputations or ultimately save their business.

The Left isn’t just determined to destroy American institutions and fuel animus among Americans under the phony guise of anti-fascism or racial equality — they want to poison the small pleasures of American life. Their rampage has no boundaries: Even a summertime tradition of fellowship and community in the Heartland isn’t immune to their hateful scourge. Calls for a war on “white supremacy,” even by many on the Right, will embolden their behavior and ruin more lives.