Posted on 04/30/2003 6:49:24 AM PDT by berserker
Racially charged place names dot the map of North Carolina. A bill would require counties to find replacements
The names are jarring: Niggerskull Mountain, Nigger Head, Nigger Spring.
An effort is under way in the General Assembly to wipe from North Carolina's map those names and others using the racial epithet. "We want to get these off the record," said Rep. Alma Adams, a Greensboro Democrat. A bill Adams sponsored would require county commissioners to devise replacements by July 1 and send them to Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Marshall would work with registrars of deeds, tax officials and planning officials to change the names.
The bill is headed for a vote of the full House after its unanimous endorsement from the House State Government Committee on Tuesday.
"I'm surprised, really, that this wasn't done before -- that this would still exist in our state," said Rep. Joni Bowie, a Greensboro Republican.
Six of the seven places listed in the bill with names containing the racial epithet are in Western North Carolina. All are listed in "The North Carolina Gazetteer," a definitive list of places and geographic features. Included in the bill are names for mountains in Haywood, Jackson and Clay counties, a spring in Haywood County, creeks in Union and Jackson counties and a bay in Currituck County.
Richard Starnes, an assistant professor of history at Western Carolina University who grew up in Asheville, said he has heard a mountain near his hometown called by its objectionable name as long as he can remember. Such names are probably found most often in western counties because the black population in there is small, he said.
"We have the lowest per capita amount of black folks in this part of the world," he said. "There was less pressure. To have something like that in Durham would be a lot different in terms of social and political names."
Public officials should move to change those names, he said, although the new monikers might not stick, at first.
"It's one of these difficult kinds of things to change from the top down," he said. "But I think for public officials to allow those kinds of place names to remain, then they're culpable in continuing the cycle of using derogatory labels for groups and citizens."
The move to change the North Carolina names comes as American Indians in the Western United States are pushing to rename mountains and creeks called "squaw." Squaw is a derogatory term for a woman in some Native American languages.
A high school in Buncombe County stopped calling women's sports teams the Squaws a few years ago, as a result of American Indians' objections. The athletes are now Lady Warriors.
Rep. Phil Haire, a Democrat who represents Haywood, Jackson and several other mountain counties, said he had not heard that people were offended by the names. "It's just what it's always been," he said. "I don't know that people consider it offensive or not offensive."
Even though some of the names are so established that they appear on maps, others may have fallen out of use. Rep. Rex Baker said he saw a map of Mount Jefferson State Park with one of the mountain names covered.
Bill D. Noland, the Haywood County commissioners' chairman, said he had never heard of an offensively named spring that is supposed to be in Haywood. And S. Paul O'Neal, commissioners' chairman in Currituck, said he had never heard of a similarly named bay in his county.
"I've never heard of it, and I live right on the sound," he said. "But if there are places with names such as that, then they certainly should not continue with that name. I would hope that we've moved beyond that."
Hello! Someone sensible on this thread. Of course, to many here, the word "nigger" isn't anymore offensive that the following words:
Black
Brown
White
Ball
Teton
Dildo
Virgin
and the whole idea of removing a perfectly useful (for them) word from these placenames is ridiculous. I DON'T AGREE.
I hear ya. "Nigger" in a placename only offends niggers. Those niggers are too sensitive. (/sarcasm)
Are you in the right forum?
Never heard ghetto talk?
Or gangsta rap?
Why Honkyville of course.
It is certainly crude and probably a result of laziness in speech. On the other hand I constantly hear people using the term "redneck", and "cracker". Are Black Americans more important than other people? I can think of no other reason for the distinction.
I personally think any of them are somewhat offensive and don't use them. On the other hand, I don't think they justify murder or the forgiveness of murder either.
A 1993 incident at Central Michigan University was particularly illustrative. As Kennedy describes it, Keith Dambrot, the men's varsity basketball coach, in an attempt "to focus and inspire his team, asked his players for permission to use with them a term that they often used with one another: the 'N-word.'"They agreed, and he went on to give a speech in which he exhorted them to play tougher, stating, "We need to have more niggers on the team." He later explained that he meant the word "in the sense in which it is used by my African-American players to connote a person who is fearless, mentally strong, and tough."
Word spread on the CMU campus about Coach Dambrot's speech, and he was reprimanded for his use of the word and told he would be fired if he used the word again. Kennedy argues that the incident should have ended there, since the coach's intentions weren't racist or malicious. The situation escalated, however, after a university official suspended Dambrot and recruited a sensitivity trainer for his players, sparking protesters. Ultimately, Dambrot was fired.
Chris Rock, comedian and actor:
No, white people can't say "nigger," but you can sing all the rap songs.
My problem was, the jokes are the same ones that are told after an unwarranted PC move. That this is a rare warranted PC move, I would think, would make the same jokes seem out of place. Making fun of the move to change the word 'nigger' isn't cute or funny.
Or gangsta rap?
Yes. What is your point?
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