'Resist White Supremacy' Sign In NoVa Causes Huge Uproar

CENTREVILLE, VA -- If you think that coming out against white supremacy is an easy, popular opinion to express -- even in a region like Northern Virginia -- a recent post by Cox Farms in Centreville suggests otherwise.

The popular farm, which is famous for its fall festival, recently posted a photo of its sign -- normally used to advertise produce or post interesting or amusing sayings -- which stated, "Resist White Supremacy."

The post exploded on Facebook, and as of Monday morning it had been shared more than 12,000 times and attracted nearly 5,000 comments.

While most were appreciative of the sentiment, many other local commenters had a problem with it.

"So black supremacy is okay then?" wrote Lise Lewis, who did not have a listed location, in response to the post. "This is not a message of love, this is a message out to divide people even more. I would never ever visit your farm because you try to force your views on your customers. That is WRONG no matter what you say."

Many of the commenters were from out of state, but not everyone.

"Resist white supremacy is not an inclusive message," wrote Patty Weston Meizlish of Louisa, Va., about an hour and a half from Centreville. "When you single out a group of people you exclude them. This is a sad message."

Amanda White Pagon of nearby Haymarket said she would attempt to get her school to ban field trips to Cox Farms.

"Your original sign said 'Rise and Resist.' There is absolutely NOTHING 'inclusive' about this; instead it was very polarizing," she wrote. "Due to your need to politicize things at your place of business, which should just be a place where families of all walks of life (if they can afford your ever-increasing prices) can come and play and enjoy themselves, I will be sure to let the principal of our PWC elementary school (who sent my child here last year) know the agenda of this business and petition her to not allow field trips to this location anymore."

Burke resident John N Kim Berlin swore to never return to Cox Farms.

"You have the right to shout your political opinions from your signs. You will lose customers," he wrote. "I always enjoyed taking our young children to your farm, but I don't appreciate having to explain politics to young children on a day when we just wanted to play on slides and pick out a pumpkin. Not appropriate at a place that targets young families as their clientele."

Farm owners said on in their post that they were "concerned" about the current climate.

"Last week, some of our customers and neighbors asked us to clarify the sentiment behind our sign that said 'Rise & Resist,'" they said on their Facebook page. "So, we changed it to read 'Rise Up Against Injustice' and 'Resist White Supremacy.' We sincerely believe that fighting injustice and white supremacy is a responsibility that can- and should- unite us all. We struggle to see how anyone other than self-identified white supremacists would take this as a personal attack.

"We’re not seeking to alienate folks who have different perspectives on tax reform or infrastructure spending," it goes on to state. "But when it comes to speaking out against systems of oppression and injustice, we see it as our moral responsibility to use our position of privilege and power, along with the tools of our trade and the platforms available to us, to engage visibly and actively in the fight for justice. Our roadside sign messages are one small way we do this."