Anyone who's been reading Blown Fuse for a while knows that I rarely discuss politics. Occasionally, some things occur that make me want to throw my clogs right at someone's dumb forehead. For example, this news item that I've been following for the past few months kind of sets my rage a'boilin'. I can't stand pandering.
Granted, Chapel Hill has had its share of roads and edifices named after some really bigoted people: North Campus at UNC as an example. Not only have black students tolerated these icons there for fifty or so years, however most accepted the fact that true, "I live in a dorm named after a racist asshole. However, racist asshole or not, he did contribute an obscene amount of money to make the University what it is. I chose to attend this school." Those racist assholes would be turning in their graves to see how liberal the school has become. Not liberal enough for my taste, but whaddayagonnado?
I'm not saying it's okay for racist assholes (subsequently referenced as RAs) to forever live in infamy, however it's not doing anyone any good by purging history and changing names and places. What happened still occurred. We need to talk about that as much as what Dr. King did. The road name that would be affected is Airport Road, which is named after a municipal airport that used to be active down there. As far as I know, there's nothing contentious about the airport that would require a renaming of the street it's on.
Another issue in this that particuarly bothers me is that there are already at least two throughfares in the Durham-Chapel Hill area that are named after Dr. King. One, unfortunately, is a short street in a residential area populated by minorities. That obviously falls into the stereotype that "only black people live on streets named after Martin Luther King," and under most circumstances should be reconciled by an effort of everyone concerned.
HOWEVER, not only does Durham have one long and parkway named after King, I'm sure many other surrounding counties do as well. The county seat in Chowan, where I'm from, as one of the oldest towns in colonial America has always had a pair of parallel roads named Queen and King street. Quite obviously, they were named that because of the pre-Revolutionary War history of the area. So tell me what asshole decided that by re-naming King Street Martin Luther King Street a few years ago? I drove down 17S one day and saw that the name had been changed and was uncomfortably pissed off at the idea. Edenton has had it's share of race riots in the high school, but Jesus Christ, you can't slap a BandAid on it thirty years later.
Dr. King isn't the only black person that comes to mind that did something for race relations. Odd that you never hear big hoo-ha made about roads named after white Freedom Riders. The fact that Dr. King wasn't from Orange County further detracts from any arguments for the situation. As far as I know, he's never even been near here. Do correct me if I'm wrong.
Nobody owes the black community anything. That's the same thing the black community will be saying regarding the Latino community now that they've become the minority of choice. "They have to pay their dues," they'll say. No white person is going to run and hug every black person they see just because another road has been named after King. In fact, those that live on Airport Road will probably shun discussion of it at all.
The NAACP's scare tactics just don't do it for me. There have to be better ways to get people to discuss their thoughts than rubberstamping Martin Luther King's namesake on every county in the country.
People need to stop being so concerned with retribution and use that energy finding ways to move on.
Posted by Tiffany at December 7, 2004 07:34 AM