The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to condemn racism following several incidents in which an “embrace white pride” banner was held on the Vineyard Drive bridge overpass in Templeton. The board also expressed its continued efforts to counter racism present throughout the county.
However, 1st District Supervisor John Peshong, 3rd District Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, and 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold took issue with naming a specific location in the resolution.
“The issue I have is that it calls out Templeton,” Arnold said during the board’s June 6 meeting. “I’d like to take that out, as I don’t think this helps us.”
Arnold wanted to redact “Vineyard Drive” and “Templeton” from the resolution, as well as specific mentions of the white pride banner, words such as “disturbing,” the specific callout of white supremecy, and descriptions of those who came forward to speak out against the banner during public comment at the supervisors’ May 16 meeting. She said it made the resolution redundant and unclear.
“I object to the fact that we are reacting to something divisive with something more divisive,” she said. “Who says what is disturbing and what is not disturbing?”
Supervisor Ortiz-Legg felt that including the name of where the incident took place would be an incorrect representation of Templeton residents.
“I think taking it out makes sense,” she said. “We have a history of acts like this across the county and we do need to work towards the elimination of the speech we have been talking about, but it doesn’t need to be or represent the people from Templeton.”
Although Peshong, Arnold, and Ortiz-Legg initially all voted to pass Arnold’s proposed amendments to the resolution, Ortiz-Legg asked to reconsider her vote later in the meeting. She said that she didn’t realize that her vote had caused more to be redacted from the resolution than she wanted.
“The part I wanted to take out is the Vineyard Drive mention,” she said. “I want to keep the piece that mentioned the public commenters bravely speaking out, and I didn’t realize that was being kept out.”
Second District Supervisor Bruce Gibson and 4th District Supervisor Jimmy Paulding also took issue with the changes—emphasizing that the resolution didn’t blame the banner on Templeton residents. Naming a location, they said, simply recorded the place where the banner was held.
“The changes Arnold makes eviscerate this resolution,” Gibson said. “Recall the compelling testimony. To take out that strips out any sense of care. It simply states a fact.”
Paulding said that removing specific instances of hate lessened the impact that the board’s condemnation could have in bringing about long-term change. He cited the 2011 cross burning in Arroyo Grande and the resulting response as evidence that sometimes specifics need to be used.
“I take concern in not wanting to acknowledge what is a historical instance,” he said. “To not include that information would mean we are otherwise making a statement of values and it will completely remove the factual basis.”
During the second vote on the resolution, Ortiz-Legg, Gibson, and Paulding voted to strike the specific mentions of Vineyard Drive and Templeton, keeping the original resolution intact, including calling out white supremacy. Arnold and Peshong voted against the motion.
Peshong noted his experience as a Templeton resident were not reflected in the banner and that the individuals responsible were from Tulare County.
“The Templeton I know are the people that showed up afterward,” he said. “I do believe that putting Templeton in here is a derogatory statement.”
He emphasized that he had set up meetings between North County residents and state representatives to spur conversations about potential avenues to counter hate. Condemning the issue without naming the incident outright, he said, was a way the county could move on without drawing any more attention to it.
“We would be calling attention to this and driving [the people responsible for the banner] to come back,” he said. “We have activity we know of, and we are acting against it.”
Paulding said that the only way to bring about actual change was to address the incident in question.
“I think it is important that our board specifically condemn white supremacy and by doing that in this resolution, we are taking a step forward,” Paulding said. “Otherwise we are just making a statement of values.” Δ
This article appears in Jun 8-18, 2023.
John Peschong could be the stereotype poster child for what white nationalists look like.