White supremacist allegations follow market farmers; petition seeks to ban Nashville owners from Bloomington event

(HSPA) — The owners of Schooner Creek Farm are facing renewed allegations of white supremacist beliefs a week after being forced out of the Nashville farmers market. A petition outlining why the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market should also cut ties is gaining traction.

Bloomington resident Abby Ang sent a letter to the city’s market advisory council June 4 alleging that Nashvillebased Schooner Creek Farm owners Sarah Dye and Doug Mackey are members of a neo-nazi and white supremacist hate group.

Ang and nearly 250 other signers point to testimony given in a recent hate crime case in Carmel where Jewish synagogue vandal Nathan Brewer told FBI agents that he’d met a “Sarah and Douglas” of Identity Evropa at a restaurant in Morgan County. The letter alleges Dye posted white supremacist ideologies to a chat room under the name “Volkmom.”

“It’s my understanding that the city is restricted by the Constitution from discriminating against a person because of their belief system. We can only intercede if a person’s belief system intercedes with a person’s actions or violates the safety and rights of another’s,” said Marcia Veldman, the city’s market coordinator. “The city — while of course it abhors white supremacy and what it stands for — it has to protect people’s rights.”

Dye and Mackey declined to answer questions when a reporter went to their Brown County property, directing him to their lawyer, whom they would not identify.

Bloomington incidents

Schooner Creek Farm formed in 2011 and has contracted with the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market since 2012. Though Veldman and Ang both said they’re not aware of Schooner Creek’s owners disseminating white supremacist ideologies at the Bloomington market, that doesn’t mean their business has operated without incident.

According to the minutes of a May 2018 Farmers’ Market Advisory Council meeting, there have been complaints about Schooner Creek Farm relating to “their alleged views and affiliations” as far back as 2016, Veldman said. In the fall of 2017, three incidents were reported to the market staff that included people approaching the farm’s booth and harassing the vendor, prompting at least two calls to police.

After that, policies within the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market Handbook were expanded to include commitments to the city’s values and the market’s mission. It says

the city considers diversity a strength that adds to Bloomington’s character. It identifies the market as a place “where all can feel welcome and safe regardless of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, housing status or familial status.”

Vendors must maintain that environment and conduct themselves in a professional manner in line with those principles. Veldman said vendor contracts with the city are contingent upon that language. “The vendor in question has been selling at the market for a long time, and to our knowledge, has treated people with respect,” she said.

On May 12 of last year, protesters approached Schooner Creek Farm’s booth. One with a baseball bat asked the vendor about his beliefs and willingness to sell to him, according to minutes from the meeting. As the conversation escalated and more people got involved, both sides started filming the incident.

Protester Joseph Cast reportedly knocked a market vendor’s phone from his hand, picked it up and tried to walk away before the phone owner tackled him. During the ensuing struggle, someone called 911 and an employee overseeing the market broke up the fight. Cast ran away, was later arrested and now faces charges of misdemeanor theft and criminal mischief.

Forced out of Nashville

Dye helped establish Nashville’s farmers market as a nonprofit in 2017. She served as board president until June 1 of this year, when a majority of the board voted to remove her. Kara Hammes is the new president.

She said the board was aware of the incidents and allegations surrounding Schooner Creek Farm’s owners. After the May 2018 fight in Bloomington, Hammes said a market manager talked to Dye and decided to evaluate their next steps. Schooner Creek Farm was welcomed back at both markets. But claims that Dye and her husband were white supremacists kept coming up, though Dye denied them, Hammes said.

The board received materials supporting the allegations and heard “unpleasant rumors” this past spring, Hammes said. But the board didn’t feel it had enough evidence until the members reviewed copies of social media posts, FBI depositions, online conversations and a white supremacist Youtube video posted under the name Volkmom with “what we could all clearly identify as her (Dye’s) voice.”

The board then took action. “We did feel like it wasn’t just hearsay,” Hammes said.

Even though no one complained that Schooner Creek Farm was spreading white supremacist ideology at the Nashville market, the board had to keep the best interests of the greater market in mind, Hammes said. As a non-governmental organization conducting business on private property, Hammes said the Nashville market was able to remove Dye from the board and rescind all contracts with her farm without having to consider things the government-run Bloomington market must.

“We do believe individuals have the right to believe what they want to believe, but when you’re the member of a board, those beliefs don’t just reflect on you, they reflect on the organization as a whole,” Hammes said. “We made the choice we felt was best.”

Traveling allegations

Around the time Schooner Creek Farm was banned from the Nashville market, Ang found out about the allegations through Facebook. A friend sent her a Buzzfeed article linked to Brewer’s FBI testimony, where he identified members of Identity Evropa.

Ang said her goal is to remove Schooner Creek Farm from the market, but she is unclear about how the city might ban them without violating the First Amendment. She said another way to achieve that goal is to have market patrons boycott their stand.

“They seem like such nice people. How can such nice, kind people have such terrible ideas about other people?” Ang asked. “Really nice people can be violently racist. They can be at the farmers’ market selling vegetables and you don’t know until something comes out.”

Ang said a group of protesters stood outside last Saturday’s farmers market in Bloomington distributing flyers and buttons that read: “Don’t buy veggies from Nazis.” The flyers and buttons also were available at the market’s Democracy for Monroe County table in Information Alley.

Information Alley is a section of the market near the B-line Trail identified in the vendor’s handbook as a place for the open communication of ideas, separated from the rest of the market so that it doesn’t disrupt other activities.

“Overall, we are working and committed to providing a safe place at the market. It is, at times, a challenging balance to adhere to these Constitutionally guaranteed rights, and at the same time, ensure that the market functions as a public space,” Veldman said.

Local farmer William Ford, a neighbor of Schooner Creek Farms and also a Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market vendor, said protesters haven’t kept to that area. Veldman confirmed that to say there were four individuals passing out flyers outside of Information Alley Saturday. When instructed to move, three left and one continued to pass out material outside of the designated zone.

Ford said they’ve stood in front of booths and interrupted vendors’ businesses by spouting profanities and hurling accusations at sellers and customers alike.

“We have what I believe are extremists coming into our rental spaces to harass and intimidate our customers, vendors, families and futures,” Ford said.

Vendors and patrons are scared, he said, and allowing demonstrations like this to continue will harm vendors’ livelihood and the market altogether.

“As a vendor at the market, I have never heard or seen another vendor push their religion or political values on any patrons,” Ford said. “Who is the next vendor that is going to be defamed, with all of their personal information on a flier given out to the public so that they can be harassed? Now, it’s about the rest of us.”

Looking ahead

Bloomington United, a group dedicated to promoting equal values and responding to hate, met with city officials and other community members Wednesday to discuss facts, opinions and strategies on how to address the tension between Schooner Creek Farm and protesters.

“Maybe it’s no small thing to create the opportunity for dialogue at the market, where tensions are high,” said Doug Bauder, co-chair of Bloomington United. “A quiet presence for the next few weeks could be valuable.”

After volunteering his time at the upcoming market, Bauder said others in Bloomington United might consider accompanying those who feel threatened on either side to file complaints with the police or the mayor’s office. He passed around a sign-up sheet for members to volunteer their time by spending a two-hour shift in Information Alley.

Until then, city Human Rights Commission Director Barbara Mckinney offered a statement on the allegations against Schooner Creek Farm.

“As there have been no known violations of the contract market vendors enter into, the city does not intend to remove this vendor from the market. As a government entity, we abide by the constitutional protections of the First Amendment, which restrict us from discriminating against someone because of their belief system. This obligation extends to vendors, customers and passersby,” Mckinney wrote in an email.

The Bloomington Farmers’ Market Advisory Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. Monday in the council chambers of City Hall to discuss Schooner Creek Farm and the protests.