\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA “whites-only” development in northeast Arkansas called “Return to the Land” is facing a lawsuit from a woman who claims her application to purchase property was rejected due to her race and religion. Co-founder responds to racism criticismEric Orwoll, the president and co-founder of Return to the Land, addressed questions about the community’s stance.When asked, “Do you understand why some people though might see what you’re doing as racism?” Orwoll said, “Sure. Of course. But I also don’t know exactly what racism is. The concept has shifted over the years. If racism is hating other groups of people, I would say we’re not racist. If racism is valuing your racial heritage and wanting to perpetuate it, well then by that definition, yeah, we’re racist.” Plaintiff alleges civil rights violationsThe lawsuit was filed by Michelle Walker, who says she is of Jewish ancestry, is married to a Black man, and has biracial children.Walker accuses Orwoll and Return to the Land of violating various civil rights and fair housing laws. Group eyes expansion into PennsylvaniaOrwoll said he is aware of the lawsuit but has not been served at this time. The organization is actively exploring plans to establish similar communities in Pennsylvania, specifically in the Appalachian region, according to its website. Pennsylvania lawmakers move to block similar communitiesIn response, legislation was proposed and passed in the Pennsylvania House to modify the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prevent communities like Return to the Land from being established in the state.However, the legislation was amended with language that Republicans say allows transgender girls to participate in women’s sports unilaterally, shifting the debate. The measure is now under review in a Senate committee.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A “whites-only” development in northeast Arkansas called “Return to the Land” is facing a lawsuit from a woman who claims her application to purchase property was rejected due to her race and religion. <\/p>\n
Co-founder responds to racism criticism<\/p>\n
Eric Orwoll, the president and co-founder of Return to the Land, addressed questions about the community’s stance.<\/p>\n
When asked, “Do you understand why some people though might see what you’re doing as racism?” Orwoll said, “Sure. Of course. But I also don’t know exactly what racism is. The concept has shifted over the years. If racism is hating other groups of people, I would say we’re not racist. If racism is valuing your racial heritage and wanting to perpetuate it, well then by that definition, yeah, we’re racist.” <\/p>\n
Plaintiff alleges civil rights violations<\/p>\n
The lawsuit was filed by Michelle Walker, who says she is of Jewish ancestry, is married to a Black man, and has biracial children.<\/p>\n
Walker accuses Orwoll and Return to the Land of violating various civil rights and fair housing laws. <\/p>\n
Group eyes expansion into Pennsylvania<\/p>\n
Orwoll said he is aware of the lawsuit but has not been served at this time. <\/p>\n
The organization is actively exploring plans to establish similar communities in Pennsylvania, specifically in the Appalachian region, according to its website. <\/p>\n
Pennsylvania lawmakers move to block similar communities<\/p>\n
In response, legislation was proposed and passed in the Pennsylvania House to modify the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prevent communities like Return to the Land from being established in the state.<\/p>\n
However, the legislation was amended with language that Republicans say allows transgender girls to participate in women’s sports unilaterally, shifting the debate. <\/p>\n
The measure is now under review in a Senate committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A “whites-only” development in northeast Arkansas called “Return to the Land” is facing a lawsuit from a woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[89630,12710,89636,4685,524,89635,7985,89633,89638,89631,2481,89634,393,89637,79809,28,30,9116,79803,29,2939,9398,89632,2184],"class_list":["post-202967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-whites-only-development","tag-arkansas","tag-civil-right","tag-co-founder","tag-community","tag-criticismeric-orwoll","tag-development","tag-discrimination-lawsuit","tag-fair-housing-law","tag-jewish-ancestry","tag-land","tag-lawsuit-was-filed-by-michelle-walker","tag-legislation","tag-michelle-walker","tag-northeast-arkansas","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-house","tag-pennsylvania-human-relations-act","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-racism","tag-return","tag-return-to-the-land","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}