Berkeley to be renamed Ramseyville

Parents, staff, and students at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Berkeley, CA recently voted to change the name of their school to... Sequoia Elementary School. The name change still needs to be approved by the school board:

The drive to change the name of Jefferson Elementary School was launched more than two years ago by Marguerite Talley-Hughes, an African-American teacher, and two other teachers who felt the name was offensive because the nation's third president was a slave owner.

Talley-Hughes did not return calls for comment Wednesday but said in an earlier interview, "I think it's difficult to ask people to accept someone as a hero who enslaved their ancestors..."

Other candidates for the name change included:

Ohlone, Rose, Peace;... farm worker organizer Cesar Chavez; Ralph Bunche, a United Nations diplomat; Sojourner Truth, a leader in the abolitionist movement; and Florence McDonald, a former Berkeley City Council member...

What's slightly funny here is that the city of Berkeley was named after Bishop George Berkeley. And - surprise! - he was a slave owner. More on that here. Perhaps they could rename the whole city after Ramsey Clark. Or - even closer to home - how about Susanmedeabenjaminton?

What's not funny about this is that - whether intended or not - it's part of a general trend of trashing America's past towards anti-American ends. See "Gramscian Methods Broadly Defined!" for more.

MultiCultiCult · Thu, 06/02/2005 - 15:36 · Importance: 1