Mad Hatter
SILVER
SF is making changes to the names of various schools. Up to 44 or so. The things people worry about.
San Francisco Unified may rename 44 schools, including Washington (slave owner), Lincoln (suppressed Native American uprising) and Edison (euthanized animals).
San Francisco’s Abraham Lincoln High may be renamed because of the Great Emancipator’s treatment of Native Americans.
A committee also recommended changing the name of Dianne Feinstein Elementary because, as mayor in 1986, she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that was flying at City Hall.
The committee was set up in 2018 by the Board of Education to oversee a formal process to consider the relevance and appropriateness of school names and make recommendations for further action.
The committee isn’t sure which president Roosevelt Middle School is named after, but both Theodore and Franklin are being flagged.
Theodore Roosevelt is cited for his opposition to civil rights and suffrage for Blacks. Franklin Roosevelt is on shaky ground for his refusal to support an anti-lynching bill proposed by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and for his support of limiting immigration based on race.
Others on the list include:
Junipero Serra: “colonizer and slave owner”
Paul Revere: “settler-colonial history”
Francis Scott Key: “slave owner and wrote pro-slavery verse in national anthem”
Herbert Hoover: “accepting of white supremacy”
James Madison: “slave owner — worked at colonizing Native Americans”
James Monroe: “slave owner”
Daniel Webster: “wrote stringent fugitive slave laws”
Commodore John Sloat: “stole California from Mexico, colonizer”
John Muir: The naturalist, whose name is on a Hayes Valley elementary school, may be revered as the “Father of the National Parks” and cofounder of the Sierra Club, but, according to the committee worksheet, and more recently the Sierra Club itself, he was also a racist. The sheet also says Muir was “responsible for theft of native lands.”
And it’s not just people.
Mission High School is on the list because it’s named for Spain’s California missions, and “all California missions are sites of slavery and colonization.”
Alamo Elementary is being eyed as well. For while “alamo” means “cottonwood” tree in Spanish, it is best known as part of the Texas war of independence. “Remember the Alamo,” was a call for vengeance against Mexicans.
Now the mayor has issued a statement. She isn't against the name changes, but thinks perhaps schools should figure out how to open instead of worrying about changing names at this time.
Breed wrote.
www.sfchronicle.com
San Francisco Unified may rename 44 schools, including Washington (slave owner), Lincoln (suppressed Native American uprising) and Edison (euthanized animals).
San Francisco’s Abraham Lincoln High may be renamed because of the Great Emancipator’s treatment of Native Americans.
A committee also recommended changing the name of Dianne Feinstein Elementary because, as mayor in 1986, she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that was flying at City Hall.
The committee was set up in 2018 by the Board of Education to oversee a formal process to consider the relevance and appropriateness of school names and make recommendations for further action.
The committee isn’t sure which president Roosevelt Middle School is named after, but both Theodore and Franklin are being flagged.
Theodore Roosevelt is cited for his opposition to civil rights and suffrage for Blacks. Franklin Roosevelt is on shaky ground for his refusal to support an anti-lynching bill proposed by his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and for his support of limiting immigration based on race.
Others on the list include:
Junipero Serra: “colonizer and slave owner”
Paul Revere: “settler-colonial history”
Francis Scott Key: “slave owner and wrote pro-slavery verse in national anthem”
Herbert Hoover: “accepting of white supremacy”
James Madison: “slave owner — worked at colonizing Native Americans”
James Monroe: “slave owner”
Daniel Webster: “wrote stringent fugitive slave laws”
Commodore John Sloat: “stole California from Mexico, colonizer”
John Muir: The naturalist, whose name is on a Hayes Valley elementary school, may be revered as the “Father of the National Parks” and cofounder of the Sierra Club, but, according to the committee worksheet, and more recently the Sierra Club itself, he was also a racist. The sheet also says Muir was “responsible for theft of native lands.”
And it’s not just people.
Mission High School is on the list because it’s named for Spain’s California missions, and “all California missions are sites of slavery and colonization.”
Alamo Elementary is being eyed as well. For while “alamo” means “cottonwood” tree in Spanish, it is best known as part of the Texas war of independence. “Remember the Alamo,” was a call for vengeance against Mexicans.
Now the mayor has issued a statement. She isn't against the name changes, but thinks perhaps schools should figure out how to open instead of worrying about changing names at this time.
Breed wrote.
In the San Francisco Chronicle, a parent named Jonathan Alloy observed, “We’re not actually helping disadvantaged children by changing the name of the school they can’t attend.”
SF may erase presidents’ names from schools: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR could all go
The names of Washington and Jefferson may come off San Francisco schools — and even...
www.sfchronicle.com