‘Plantation Weddings’ Were A Thing On Pinterest & The Knot, Now They're Facing MAJOR Changes

Pinterest and The Knot have been known to glorify romantic “plantation weddings” on their sites. Change of Color called them out on it and now, they’re changing it up. More inside…

So check it…

There's a whole industry around celebrating marriage and love on a plantation, and visuals from these wedding venues get tons of likes, website clicks and more online. Sites like Pinterest and The Knot Worldwide – two of the biggest online wedding-planning platforms – were a part of this “plantation wedding” circle.

Now, they’re changing their policies to catch up with the times.

According to BuzzFeed, the two sites will no longer promote wedding venues and content that romanticize and glorify former slave plantations. And the change came after social justice organization Color of Change called them out on it.

 

After pressure from COC, @Pinterest + @theknot are changing policies to stop promoting wedding content that romanticize slave plantations. They're “physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen." @jadeyogunnaike https://t.co/3Rmf58qpPx

— ColorOfChange.org (@ColorOfChange) December 4, 2019

 

“The decision to glorify plantations as nostalgic sites of celebration is not an empowering one for the Black women and justice-minded people who use your site,” the COC wrote to the Knot Worldwide executives in a letter received by BuzzFeed News. Pinterest also received a similar letter from the group.

“Plantations are physical reminders of one of the most horrific human rights abuses the world has ever seen," the letter said. "The wedding industry routinely denies the violent conditions Black people faced under chattel slavery by promoting plantations as romantic places to marry."

The companies are now creating guidelines that will ensure vendors aren’t referring to a history that uses language that could be offensive. Plantations will still be able to list themselves as venues, however, the verbiage will have to be updated. The new language guidelines will apply to all wedding venues on The Knot websites, not just plantations.

“We want to make sure we’re serving all our couples and that they don’t feel in any way discriminated against,” The Knot’s chief marketing officer Dhanusha Sivajee said.

"You can imagine there could be former plantations that maybe have changed their names to manors or farms."

The Knot will work with Color of Change to create the new guidelines for the vendors on its platform. The new policy is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Pinterest also addressed plantation weddings on its site:

"Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things," a Pinterest spokesperson wrote in an email. "We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them."

A rep for Pinterest also told Yahoo Lifestyle: 

“Weddings should be a symbol of love and unity. Plantations represent none of those things. We are grateful to Color of Change for bringing attention to this disrespectful practice. We are working to limit the distribution of this content and accounts across our platform, and continue to not accept advertisements for them.”

Plantations have long been the backdrop for weddings as they have been rebranded to serve as “romantic” venues that evoke “the nostalgia of antebellum charm.”

Last year, Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds received backlash for their 2012 wedding at Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina. Ryan put up a post to promote Black Panther and a Twitter user called him out on it:

 

u got married on a plantation https://t.co/b0SJv7EzS4

— lil inherited trauma (@tired_ugly_) February 18, 2018

 

It’s weird that some folks would want to share their love on a venue were hundreds or even thousands of people were beaten, murdered, raped, tortured and worked to death. But, y’all know the deal with that.

Thoughts?

Photo: Shuttershock.com

source: theybf