Trouble in Palmetto paradise: A pimento cheese giant’s hateful, revealing rant
No South Carolina beach resort is more idyllic, less commercial, more redolent of some mythic seaside summer era than Pawleys Island, the pencil-thin, 4-mile-long sand spit that lies between Myrtle Beach and Charleston.
Embracing its image of “shabby arrogance,” Pawleys is known for its eponymous rope hammocks, a surf that rolls right up to the weathered wooden houses, and the 20-room, un-air-conditioned Sea View Inn, which bills itself as “A Barefoot Paradise Since 1937.”
The Sea View is as southern as fried chicken, served up family-style every Tuesday by a team of local Black waitresses, many of whose water color likenesses hang on the rustic dining room walls. Or as southern as pimento cheese, which its proprietors, Brian and Sassy Henry, sell more of than anyone in America as owners of Palmetto Cheese — “The Pimento Cheese With Soul” — whose packages feature a faded photo of Vertrella Brown, a now-deceased African-American cook at the Sea View.
Brian, who moved to the island with his family 20 years ago from Atlanta’s Buckhead, is also mayor of Pawleys Island and its 100 or so residents, 90% of whom are white.
Now trouble has come to paradise.
It began last week, off island in Georgetown County, when a 23-year-old Black male named Ty Sheem Ha Sheem Waters III allegedly rear-ended the car in front of him and in the road rage that ensued shot and killed 45-year-old Nick Wall and his 21-year-old stepdaughter, Laura Anderson.
Community shock and outrage over such a violent, senseless act seems appropriate. But what followed seemed almost scripted from the divisive race narrative being pushed by President Trump and provocateurs on Fox News and social media.
Mayor Brian Henry joined that chorus on Facebook, linking these shooting deaths to the Black Lives Matter movement and calling on America to “rise up” against this “terror organization.”
His language was as subtle as a flamethrower: “2 innocent people murdered. Not two thugs or people wanted on multiple warrants. 2 white people defenselessly gunned down by a black man. Tell me where is the outrage? When will we begin rioting and burning down businesses in Georgetown? …Why do we stand by and allow BLM to lawlessly destroy great American cities…”
No one wasn’t outraged by the killings, but they clearly triggered Henry’s strong feelings about BLM, which focuses on seeking accountability for police who have killed African-Americans with impunity, and certainly doesn’t condone murder during traffic disputes.
Last summer I went to Pawleys for a friend’s funeral and stayed at the Sea View for the first time. Many of the guests — all white from what I saw — have been coming for generations to stay in the same room year after year. Rituals abound, including that of answering the dinner bell three times a day, strolling into the dining room barefoot, and being served by the staff of Black waitresses with long tenure.
As a lifelong southerner, I can’t say I was offended by this arrangement at the time, or that I was entirely comfortable with it. I had questions which I chose to ignore because I accepted it as something that had long been that way. But seeing it now through the light of the hateful, divisive message Henry shared with the world, I realize that preserving the feel of 1937 is a lot like making America great again, which is another way of saying: Let’s preserve what was good about the “white” world. Let’s don’t let this idea of Black purchase get out of hand.
Others shared my reaction. As mayor, Henry was rebuked by, among others, the president of the Pawleys Island Civic Club, who warned him to “count your days, cause we will not allow hate of any kind to separate our community.” The local NAACP called for his resignation.
On the pimento cheese front, influential Charlotte food editor Kathleen Purvis led the “cancel” charge on Instagram with a post of herself tossing Palmetto Cheese into the garbage, with the caption: “I can make my own - without the racism.” Perhaps the same notion has occurred to Costco, Wegman’s, Harris-Teeter and other major chains that sell Palmetto at more than 9,000 locations in 44 states?
Henry beat a hasty retreat, deleting his Facebook post and apologizing in a Thursday press conference in which he also announced a “rebranding” of Palmetto.
Whatever your thoughts on “cancel culture,” or free speech, life is full of choices, including what pimento cheese you purchase. Partly due to Palmetto’s phenomenal success, plenty of options are now available. As for the Sea View, perhaps it was “paradise” in 1937—but only for some.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 7:19 AM.