A sign outside a Centreville, Virginia farm has gone viral! Cox Farms, the family-owned business, posted a photo on their social media pages, which reads “WHITE SUPREMACY IS TERRORISM” on one side and “RACISM KILLS” on the other.
"Roadside PSA from your local farm," the farm wrote on their Instagram caption. That post has reached over 1,000 likes and their Facebook post has reached hed over 10,000 likes and over 1,000 comments and shares.
The road sign has gotten both praise and scrutiny in the comments under the social media post.
"Thank you for always being bold enough to challenge hate," one Instagram user said.
"Why I will never step foot at Cox Farms again. Spreading lies, division and hate," a Facebook user said.
Farm owners tell 7News they posted this message in wake of the recent shooting in Buffalo, New York.
"This is not the first time we have put those messages on our signs," they said. "We changed the signs to display these messages on Sunday, in the aftermath of the recent shooting in Buffalo. While it is accurately being described as a “racially-motivated hate crime,” we believe it is important to call it out --- this was an act of domestic terrorism committed by a white supremacist targeting Black people."
Authorities said 18-year-old Payton Gendron carried out a mass shooting at a New York grocery store. He is accused of fatally shooting 10 people in what law enforcement has called a racially motivated attack. Thirteen people in total were shot; 11 of them are people of color.
Gendron has been charged with first-degree murder.
For years now, the farm has been using its signs to take stands on causes they believe in. In 2018, they called out Trump Administration's immigration policy and got attention for a Black Lives Matter sign that hung from one of the farm owners' homes. Farm owners added that they will continue to speak "out about oppression and injustice" despite the criticism they receive.
"We’ve been 'speaking truth to traffic' with our road signs for a long time now. At this point, no one in our community is surprised, and customers who are really offended have already taken their business elsewhere. Most of the online criticism is coming from people outside our community who’ve never even heard of our farm. That said, when it comes to speaking out about oppression and injustice, we won’t opt for comfortable silence over [an] uncomfortable truth. We believe it is important to use our position of privilege and visibility in this way because naming injustice is a way to show support and solidarity with marginalized groups who may not always feel safe and welcome. Hopefully, it also initiates some tough conversations among folks with enough privilege to otherwise avoid or selectively engage[in] such discussions. And ultimately, if all it does is piss off the racist bigots so they boycott us forever, that works, too."