Posted on 05/18/2009 9:51:43 AM PDT by SmithL
AUBURN – A rare gift of 28 acres of wild forest just north of the city limits has sparked charges of racism and has pitted environmentalists against social activists.
The land known as Shockley Woods was bequeathed to the Auburn Recreation District with $50,000 for upkeep and one condition: It must be named for a man who believed African Americans are inferior and should be paid not to reproduce.
Before most of the district's board realized Shockley – winner of the Nobel Prize in 1956 for co-inventing the transistor – had another, more troubling side, the board voted 3-2 to accept the gift from Shockley's estate. They also agreed to the name: "Nobel Laureate William B. Shockley And His Wife Emmy L. Shockley Memorial Park."
"I don't go out and Google benefactors," said board member Scott Holbrook, who voted against the gift because it might cost too much to clear dead wood that's become a fire hazard.
Holbrook said that once the board accepted the gift and the name, "they whipped us a check and the deal was consummated."
That was before the Auburn Journal published an article revealing Shockley's views on race.
What makes this conundrum particularly touchy is that the district didn't inherit a park named generations ago after a white supremacist, such as the former Charles M. Goethe Park in Sacramento County.
While 28 acres of open space may be hard to come by, Auburn resident Karen Tajbl said that in 2009, the Shockley name is too high a price to pay, even if it comes with a disclaimer.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Next year: Fairchild Park and National Park.
There are portions of a large park in my area that are named after the benefactors who transferred the land to the County in the 1950’s with a clause in the deed restricting its park use to white people only.
Shockley didn’t deserve 1/3 of that Nobel anyway. Bardeen and Brattain were the co-inventors, Shockley was just their boss.
We are a tolerant people. If we find those who are not tolerant, as we are, we shall expunge their names from history.
I had no idea Shockley was a blatant racist; I shall boycott transistors from now o
I’m surprised they found a black person in Placer County.
The only thing that this shows me is that the govt will accept anything it is offered. I personally would have not taken the “donation with conditions” by simply issuing a “Thank you but no thanks” statement.
Perhaps “Margaret Sanger Park” would be more acceptable? Shockley’s views were not much different from Sanger’s except he was willing to pay for his desired result whereas she thought outright killing was more expedient.
If you were elected to represent the people of the area, what gives you the right to deny them of a park that likely more than 95% of them want?
If some idiot donated a bunch of land to me I would have no problem putting the idiot's name on it.
“The PETA Memorial Hunt Club and Gun Range”
HE invented the integrated circuit - how could he be racist?
Stone Mountain GA was a Klan gathering spot back in the early 1900’s. Samuel Vanable gave them perpetual rights to meet there.
“The PETA Memorial Hunt Club and Gun Range”
LOL and you owe me a new keyboard...... Nice way of words you have.
LOL, the lefties have no problem idolizing avowed racist and queen of genocide, Margaret Sanger.
There are libraries and other public building across the republic with her name on the front.
The Emperor Tiberius once said that “As it changes hands, money loses its stink”, when questioned about his taking bribes from brothels.
This was a very wise observation, and still applies when you consider that money is originally created by government, and otherwise would carry with it that original sin.
How pathetic, judging people of previous eras by contemporary morality is silly. Do they want to rename the Lincoln Memorial?
Further, most of what Shockley said was actually correct if unpalatable.
1. Shockley noted that more educated people have fewer children. This is a fact.
2. Intelligence predicts academic performance and at a macro level economic success. “Relevance of education and intelligence at the national level for the economic welfare of people” Intelligence Volume 36, Issue 2, March-April 2008, Pages 127-142
3. It is significantly hereditary. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126993.300-highspeed-brains-are-in-the-genes.html
4. There are group differences in average. The lead article in the June 2005 issue of Psychology, Public Policy and Law, a journal of the American Psychological Association, examined 10 categories of research evidence from around the world to contrast “a hereditarian model (50% genetic-50% cultural) and a culture-only model (0% genetic-100% cultural).
5. East Asians average above Europeans. At least 7% of the genome has undergone recent selection in the last 10,000 years. For example, you see new versions of SLC6A4, a serotonin transporter, in Europeans and Asians. There’s a new version of a gene (DBA1) that shapes the development of the layers of the cerebral cortex in east Asia. Over time more of this will be understood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.