Social media users are blasting a white woman as “dumb” and out of touch after she critiqued a South Carolina plantation tour as too heavily focused on slavery.
Carla Schultheis gave the McLeod Plantation Historic Site in Charleston, S.C. two out of five stars in a Google review one month ago.
“My husband and I were extremely disappointed in this tour,”she said in the review. “We didn’t come to hear a lecture on how the white people treated slaves, we came to get this history of a southern plantation and get a tour of the house and grounds.”
Author and former congressional candidate Saira Rao tweeted a screenshot of Schultheis’ review August 7, and that post has since been retweeted more than 25,000 times and liked more than 104,000 times.
“This is how decent white people who tell the truth about slavery on plantations are reviewed by white people,” Rao said.
In the review, Schultheis went on to call her tour guide “radical.” Schultheis said she and her husband felt they were being “lectured and bashed about slavery” when their ancestors, from Sicily and Germany, “never owned slaves.”
“I am by far not a racist or against all Americans having equal rights but this was my vacation and now we are crossing all plantation tours off our list,” she said. “It was just not what we expected.”
Schultheis added that she planned on going back to Louisiana to see “some real plantations that are so much more enjoyable to tour.”
Many Twitter users denounced the woman’s words, and others made fun of her.
“‘I am by far not a racist,’ says pretty much all racists,” Gina Spadafori said.
“They want the gone with the wind front of the plantation tour not the back of the plantation tour… but imagine thinking those are two different tours… how do they think plantations operated… with fairies and hoop skirts,” Twitter user Latifa Jackson said.
“While black people are practically weeping during plantation tours, this woman is looking for an enjoyable plantation tour. Next stop: An enjoyable trip to concentration camps,” Twitter user @Tee36te said.
Although most reviews of the McLeod plantation were positive, not everyone disagreed with Schultheis. Her review was liked eight times.
Doug Harrison, a person who left a Google review four days ago, gave his tour one star and said his tour guide “seemed to have an agenda almost berating the white people of the tour.”
He described the tour as “almost a loud preaching at the whites kind of thing.”
“I will NEVER be back and will tell everyone I know never to put a foot on this biased tourist trap,” he said.
