Sunrise Over the Philippines-ISS/ NASA
Racism springs from ignorance. Mario Balotelli
Sewanee: The University of the South, is commonly called Sewanee. According to Wikipedia:
(It) is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church and its School of Theology is an official seminary of the church. The university’s School of Letters offers graduate degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing. The campus (officially called “The Domain” or, affectionately, “The Mountain”) consists of 13,000 acres of scenic mountain property atop the Cumberland Plateau, with the developed portion occupying about 1,000 acres.
I had the opportunity to tour this beautiful school a few years back. It is almost idyllic, with students running around in academic black robes if they are doing well in their studies. The school is quite isolated given its location.
Views on racism
From Wikipedia:
n September 2020, the board released a statement acknowledging for the first time that the University “was long entangled with, and played a role in, slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy”. It added that the university “categorically rejects its past veneration of the Confederacy and of the “Lost Cause” and wholeheartedly commits itself to an urgent process of institutional reckoning …”.The university announced that it will utilize the findings of its Roberson Project on Slavery, Race, and Reconciliation (which began in 2017) to guide their current discussions and path forward
Reuben E. Brigety II: The first black President of Sewanee who was appointed in June 2020.
From Wikipedia:
American diplomat and academic and currently Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee.
Previously Brigety served as the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University. Prior to that, Brigety has served as United States Ambassador to the African Union, as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and as Permanent Representative to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
Brigety has attempted to deal with the drug and alcohol crisis on the campus. When I visited the school with my daughter, I became concerned about the evident drinking problem on the campus. They actually have a bus that roams the streets on the weekend to pick up the drunk students and return them to their dorms. I realized that the students are essentially stuck on a beautiful mountain campus. This insulation was one of the reasons she did not apply.
Racially based attack at President Brigety’s home on the campus.
On March 16,20201 The Washington Post wrote: ‘We are not leaving’: Sewanee’s first Black leader helps propel a racial reckoning at university. According to Brigety:
“Chen Hall, our home, has been repeatedly vandalized by phantoms who came at night,” Brigety told the university in remarks recorded on video. “They have trashed our lawn with beer cans and liquor bottles. They have left threatening messages on pilfered signs near our back door. And they have taken measures to ensure my family and I saw the indecent insults that they left behind.”
Brigety had had enough. On February 7, 2021, he delivered a speech to the university body titled “Growing in Grace” which can be heard at this link. According to the Washington Post:
Brigety declared that he would forgive the phantoms but not give in to them. “The sanctity, the security and the dignity of my family are inviolate, and we are not leaving,” he said. And then Brigety summoned the university community — faculty, staff, students and alumni — to hold a dialogue about its values. “It is up to you to decide who we are, what we will tolerate and how we will live together,” he said.
Racial slurs at a lacrosse game
At a recent lacrosse game, racial epithets were used by a few Sewanee students and were aimed at the Emmanuel College athletes which included a number of racial groups. Sewanee is composed mostly of all white students. According to the Washington Post:
On Sunday night, Brigety disclosed that a few Sewanee students attending a weekend lacrosse match had shouted the n-word and other racist epithets at a visiting team from Emmanuel College in Georgia. The visiting squad included African American, Asian American, Native American, White and Latino men, Brigety wrote. The Sewanee roster appears to be mostly White.
“So pronounced were the shouted slurs in the third quarter that the game officials on the field ordered that Sewanee fans be cleared before play could continue,” Brigety wrote in an email to the campus community. He and the athletic director apologized to the visitors after the match and pledged to investigate. Exactly how many students were implicated in the use of epithets was unknown. Hundreds walked out of class Monday, Brigety said, to demonstrate against racism.
According to the Washington Post:
The University was the only institution of higher education designed from the start to represent, protect, and promote the South’s civilization of bondage; and launched expressly for the slaveholding society of the South,” Sewanee history professors Woody Register and the Rev. Benjamin King wrote in a research summary last year for the Roberson Project.
After the Civil War, Register and King wrote, Sewanee’s “identity as ‘a child of the Confederacy’ emerged in many ways: Those who held key leadership roles typically had been slave owners, defenders of slavery and secession, and Confederate military leaders; and some of the most consequential donors had been the owners or beneficiaries of some of the largest slavery-based plantations in the antebellum South.”
In September, the university’s board of regents finally admitted to the homage of its Confederate past.
the university’s board of regents issued a landmark statement acknowledging that Sewanee “was long entangled with, and played a role in, slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy.” The board also declared: “The University of the South categorically rejects its past veneration of the Confederacy and of the ‘Lost Cause.’ ”
An uncomfortable, racially insensitive statement from the Episcopal Church bishops of the Sewanee Province
Folks, this an example of how clueless we can be when it comes to racial matters. This obvious mistake is something worth discussing. The Bishops of Sewanee Province stepped in to condemn racism. Episcopal Cafe posted Province of Sewanee bishops condemn racist incidents. Here is their statement with the insensitive remark highlighted.
As Bishops of Province IV of The Episcopal Church (also known as The Province of Sewanee) who share in the oversight of the University of the South, we in no uncertain terms condemn the harassment of the Vice Chancellor of the University last month by, as of now, unknown vandals and the more recent racial epithets hurled at scholar athletes from a visiting college by young people in the crowd during a lacrosse game. We hope and pray those engaging in such despicable behavior are not students at the University. In our minds, any racist behavior is intolerable, does not represent the virtues of our faith, and we denounce it emphatically. We trust the Vice Chancellor and the University Regents will together address these hateful acts with all deliberate speed.
My good friend at The Anglican Watch pointed out the embarrassing error to me. He wrote about it in Episcopal Church Invokes Language of Segregation in its Condemnation of Racism.
In a letter from the bishops of the Sewanee province condemning recurring incidents of racism at Sewanee, an Episcopal college in the south, the bishops stated emphatically that the oppose racism. So far, so good.
But the closing sentence is one that will make many African-Americans and others concerned about racism cringe:
We trust the Vice Chancellor and the University Regents will together address these hateful acts with all deliberate speed.
Why is that so offensive?
It’s because these are the weasel words from the Supreme Court’s 1955 decision in Brown v. Board of Education II, which followed a previous case that held separate but equal inherently unequal. Thus, it was this very language, calculatedly elusive, that led to the massive resistance campaigns in the south, Freedom Summer, the so-called “private schools” of the Deep South, and years of defiance, before the Court again waded in the mess in 1978. As one author put it, this language was “a palliative to those opposed to Brown’s directive.”
Was the slap at African-Americans intentional? I think not. But the fact that the church is so clueless as to invoke a wolf whistle from the segregation years is shocking and appalling, and shows that the church doesn’t even know what questions to ask.
Moreover, most of these dioceses have chancellors, as well as lawyers who are members. The fact that no one appears to have waded in and said, “What the hell?,” is alarming and appalling. Could the Episcopal Church get any more clueless?
I think my head is about to explode.
I just finished reading a bunch of articles on this phrase “With All Deliberate Speed.” Google it. Many articles show up. The best short description of this was found at the Smithsonian Museum of National History.
With All Deliberate Speed”
The Brown decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. But the Court ordered only that the states end segregation with “all deliberate speed.” This vagueness about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance.
Although many whites welcomed the Brown decision, a large number considered it an assault on their way of life. Segregationists played on the fears and prejudices of their communities and launched a militant campaign of defiance and resistance.
There was even a book written about this phrase: With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education
Closing Thoughts
Can I be honest? I didn’t know about this phrase and how it might bring back pain for African Americans. This taught me a hard lesson on racism. How little I know about the pain of the past! I don’t believe the bishops knew about this phrase either. It was an inadvertent mistake but it was a mistake that could hurt some people. This is proof we all have a long way to go when it comes to racism. At least I know that I do.
“I didn’t know about this phrase”
This entire post is excellent, in particular, the last paragraph. Thx. Regarding this information, I, too, had no idea.
“We” – everyone – don’t know anything, beyond our own experiences of life, listening, reading, exposure.
Communication, pushback, & humility are key (for everyone of all cultures), always. Uncomfortable, honest, and civil discourse, like this blog, are part of the process. Insular doesn’t work.
We can be humbled and learn, without being shamed & degraded. And move forward for better community for everyone.
Dee, I respect your giving the Board the benefit of the doubt on this, and as a point of discussion, it is sound that your post should not accuse the Board of purposefully blow the dog whistle.
However, it is my experience that University officials, and their boards, are masters of writing allot without saying much.. and to use lots of “phrased”, in purposeful manner. Further, it is my experience that ALLOT of time is spend crafting these “statements”.
I DO NOT believe that the Board is innocent on this..
I also not that in their previous statement that they, in the same phrase list ” slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy” They are correct, and they Da#$ well know that these three concepts, along with the “Lost Cause” BS is an abomination to the United States. While slavery as been around since beginning of mankind, the level of depravity of joining “slavery, racial segregation, and white supremacy” together, is a level of depravity that is unmatched in human history. This is even more disgusting when you throw in the “Curse of HAm” which was widely taught in churches…
As far as I am concerned, the phrase “all deliberate speed” was a code word/phrase for the white supremacist among their supporters..
Excellent post, Dee. I did not know about this phrase. In fact, I went back and read over your lines twice, and then I went online:
Thurgood Marshall
These three critical words would indeed turn out to be of great consequence, in that they ignore the urgency on which the Brown lawyers insisted. When asked to explain his view of “all deliberate speed,” Thurgood Marshall frequently told anyone who would listen that the term meant S-L-O-W.
Dee, the Anglican Watch blog link does not work for me. I also tried getting onto the blog from my browser, and kept getting a full-screen error message (not from my own computer security setup).
Ruth Tucker,
Code. Chalmers mentioned this, too. Code.
Racist behavior does happen on some campuses, often fueled by alcohol intake. Typically it does not happen in a stadium, though, because administrators and security folks are supposed to observe and keep order. And, no matter what we hear about college life, students have been expelled for less than this incident.
The pandemic caused Sewanee’s conference, the Southern Athletic Association, to bar spectators for months. Only on March 2 did Sewanee let students resume attending games, just in outdoor venues, in limited numbers, with masks and social distancing. Under the circumstances, responsible professionals should have been present to thwart bad behavior in the stands.
The university’s website gives a response from the campus (much better than the language from the bishops). It says in part,
“The University is taking actions to help prevent similar incidents in the future, including updating game protocols and changes in the positioning of Sewanee staff and security at athletic events.”
https://new.sewanee.edu/news/campus-responds-to-hate-speech-incident/
Your headline is truly disingenuous and misleading – you make it sound like the missive came from the bishops of the entire Episcopal church (whose Presiding Bishop is Black). The statement came from a *small enclave of bishops only of the Sewanee province,* not the Episcopal church. Have you seen the stained-glass windows in the narthex of the Sewanee Chapel? I hope you will correct the headline.
the narthex windows. i was appalled when i saw them on a visit. https://thesewaneepurple.org/2018/02/26/sewanee-slavery-project-holds-fourth-public-forum-on-art-and-commemoration-of-the-university/
“Racist Christian” is an oxymoron. In Christ, there are to be no distinctions in race, class or gender. Yet, 2000 years later we still have all three in certain pockets of the “church.” It took SBC 150 years to finally repent of its racial roots at a national conference in 1995. Southern Baptist founders were slave-holders prior to the Civil War. Yet, there is still a thread of racism that runs through the SBC garment, as well as the fabric of other church groups. Old sins die hard.
The “small enclave” consists of 23 bishops in nine states, covering most of the southeastern US. There is plenty of information about all 23 bishops. Two appear to be African American. Bishop Robert C. Wright is a graduate of Morehouse and married to a graduate of Spellman (both of these colleges are HBCUs, historically black colleges and universities). Bishop Phoebe A. Roaf’s biography describes her as the former rector of “St. Philip’s, the oldest African-American church in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.”
It would be intriguing to know who wrote the statement, and whether all 23 bishops discussed the language as it was being developed. There are no excuses, but reasons can be interesting.
The small enclave should promptly release a correction with an apology for insensitive language. Maybe some African Americans in the church hierarchy can pay close attention to the wording this time.
I suspect that the authors of that item had heard of the phrase “all deliberate speed”. It’s a strange phrase, since the adjectives are kind of mutually contradictory.
I think the most charitable interpretation is that they had heard of the phrase but did not realize its significance.
Exactly. A deep south enclave. It is not remotely representative of the entire community of bishops of the Episcopal church. They speak only for their province.
As was said of Mel Gibson that one time he made the news:
“Instant A-hole; just add alcohol.”
It DOES sound like a technical term for Lawyers.
As in The Former Confederate States?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URX7vmyPFho
But a lot of the Racists in our history have been Devout Christians.
This is the USA, Max. Race has been the bugaboo of American society since 1619.
Just like Class has been the bugaboo of English society.
The Episcopal Church split in 1861, after states began to secede, and reunited within months of the end of the Civil War.
Although this schism was briefer than many (ahem, SBC), it hangs over the Episcopal Church today. A lot of parish buildings predate the short-lived and destructive Confederate period. Many are in towns that were occupied by Union troops who enforced martial law, trampling on freedom of worship. The United States Army shut down many churches, including some Episcopal properties, for Confederate sympathy and activism. These churches reopened as the war drew to a close.
In the ensuing century, Confederate heritage groups and monied individuals went to extraordinary lengths to honor their Confederate forebears: everything from alleys to schools and interstate highways was named or renamed. Countless statues went up (sigh). Special laws were crafted to make these efforts hard to undo. And yes, individuals and Confederate heritage groups donated stained glass windows that contain Confederate imagery.
The narthex windows at Sewanee were created during the Civil Rights era.
It has taken time and a certain boldness for many churches to face an assiduously curated Confederate past that literally paves parts of the United States. The work is far from over.
Yes, we should challenge the lack of diversity and acceptance in many parts of the Episcopal Church. It is also appropriate to note that Episcopalians are typically criticized for being too diverse and too accepting.
Code. Until explaining, it’s stealth in a sinister way.
Another example of code in recent events & discourse: massage. Massage and chiropractors can relieve pain. But then RZ was exposed, & Atlanta happened this week, and the code was cracked.
Personally, I had no idea. This 2018 NYT article popped up with more explaining & more death (another Asian woman):
“opaqueness adds to the confusion” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/11/nyregion/sex-workers-massage-parlor.html
Transparency breaks the code. Jesus was transparent. Religion is often not.
Our city’s newspapers and radio and TV stations always referred to police vans as paddy wagons.
I had no idea this expression was anti-Irish until I happened to use it while overseas and talking to two actual Irishmen. Fortunately they burst out laughing, and wanted to know whether the Paddies were driving the wagon, or locked up in the back.
Dee,
“We Have a Long Way to Go!”
Yes, we most certainly do!! I hope your title’s intention is to hold that mirror up to each and every one of us, and the institutions and churches we support and belong.
As an Episcopalian, I too am disgusted at the behavior of blatant racists on the Sewanee campus. I am deeply disappointed in the lack of leadership in the Trustees and Regents.
I would like to point out to those who are not familiar with the Episcopal Church that it has history of bringing women and people of color into leadership positions within the Church. The ECUSA has, at great cost, also opened its doors to welcome LGBTQ folks to worship and leadership. I’m sure you are aware that the presiding bishop of the ECUSA, Michael Curry is a black man. The Bishop of the Diocese of Colorado (my diocese) is a black woman married to a white man. I only mention this to bring a little context, not to excuse the reprehensible behavior at the University of the South.
I trust you keeping an equally sharp eye on your own LCMS leadership.
Ava Aaronson,
Amen to this…. one could argue that some of Christ’s parables were “opaque”; however, the parables usually called into question the current powers that be and their thinking..
As an Episcopalian for a little more than two years now, I’ve seen both the good and the disappointing and I see this as an example of style over substance…of trying to sound high-minded, eloquent, and erudite…but ultimately demonstrating a shallow understanding and weak commitment to right wrongs. This doesn’t discount those Episcopalians who’ve acted courageously to push the TEC forward on issues of race. But both groups can co-exist.
To which Jesus may very well say “I never knew you.” On Judgment Day, it will matter not how “devout” we were. Good “religious” people are enlarging Hell’s population every day. A real-deal Christian with the heart of Jesus will not be racist … racism is a heart issue … if you are racist, you are not a new creation in Christ – the old man has not passed away (in my humble, but accurate opinion).
Side note from your comment:
Perhaps insight into why the Cal Clubbers seem to ghost Jesus, as sometimes noted by Max. Wondered about this, like, Why? What’s not to like about Jesus?
Back in the day, a local pastor/teacher ONLY preached on the parables. A successful businessman, his ministry was on his own dime. He was also a bleeding heart liberal offering the homeless training & jobs at his business.
(This CEO shook his head after offering a Methodist pastor’s son living outdoors a job & the young man responded: “A job? I tried that once; didn’t work for me.”)
Jeffrey J Chalmers,
Interesting. Thanks for your thoughts on this. As usual, I admit I could be wrong.
Uh oh. Let me figure it out.
Friend,
It is working fne for me. You may need to reboot.
d4v1d,
I did as you asked. Thank you.
Friend,
So, do you think they will? Maybe I’ll send them my post.
dee,
If this objection about the statement were brought to the attention of the 23 bishops or the staff of Province IV, I think they would act.
Communication is different because of the pandemic diaspora. Isolation is causing random and unpredictable things to happen. (Every organization I belong to has been struggling to carry out its work, to communicate, and even to remember the duties and abilities of different members.)
So, this is a fascinating post… I like to think of myself as a amateur historian specializing in US Military history.. emphasize amateur..
Anyway, this post has been bouncing around in my head, and the I looked up at David’s link and it “Dawned in me” … this is “Bishop” Polk school!!! Polk us probably only second to “Stonewall Jackson” with respect to famous (infamous) pious Southern generals… there is ALLOT of “under the surface “stuff” going on here”……
What official History Courses don’t teach. When Academia misses the mark. IOW, controlling the narrative.
Ava Aaronson,
Definitely true in some parts of the south.. the whole “lost cost” was a HUGE “alternative narrative”
The north had some infamous generals as well. Sherman comes to mind.
Ken P.,
The thread is about the lingering and noxious problem of Confederate sympathy. The Confederacy does not hold the moral high ground here.
You’re an American, I believe. Can the Americans on the thread agree that it is a good thing the United States still exists?
Ken P.,
Sherman was a “prophet” w/r to the next centuries war’s…. right or wrong, Sherman held that the general population is just as “guilty” in supporting a war..as the soldiers that die/suffer from it.. and there was a HUG amount of suffering by the soldiers in the US Civil War… I still can not comprehend what they went through….
The stories are frightening….
There is much written about both the North and South’s leaders and Generals with respect to “guilt” and the US Civil War…
Once you start looking, you will never, ever run out of examples. Do you recall the film “Remember the Titans,” about the first African American coach at T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia?
The school was named for its long-term superintendent, Thomas Chambliss Williams. This seems straightforward, except that Williams fought tooth and nail to prevent the integration of the schools. He also made sure that students of color had inferior study materials and facilities. So when people ask, “Why do we have to rename all these things?” it pays to investigate when, why, and after whom they were named to begin with.
Following a full discussion, student essays, and voting, the school will be renamed Alexandria High School. (I’d post links, but this is on Wikipedia and many news sites.)
BTW, an earlier commenter discussed the Episcopal church’s split over slavery. That’s an excellent point, as there are an increasing number of well-meaning but clueless Episcopalians who say that the church did not split over slavery, which is nothing but the church’s own version of lost Causism.
The Rev. Tom Ferguson, aka Crusty old Dean, has an excellent article on this revisionist history, which he’s posted at https://crustyoldean.blogspot.com/2020/09/the-episcopal-churchs-lost-causism.html
For what it’s worth, I posted about the Sewanee faux pas over at Episcopal Cafe, only to have my comment yanked. And I wrote to the Sewanee bishops, only to get the big brush off.
So it’s probably fair to say that accountability is not high on the list for the Episcopal Church, when taken as a whole.
I thought it was about racism.
Ken P.,
Yes, in the context of retrograde behavior at Sewanee, an institution that has not overcome its Confederate past.
A great article, thanks for recommending.
During most of my life, the topics of race and slavery were just too too delicate to discuss in polite company. The past decade has brought a gust of fresh air. Many institutions are facing their Confederate and slave-holding legacies. Georgetown University has done a brave and thoughtful job. Princeton has tackled the subject. In the UK, the Bristol Museums have revealed a lot about British involvement in the trade of human beings. An earlier Episcopal example is the research into slave galleries in St. Augustine’s in New York City.
People can transcend the past through thoughtful, calm, and steady research, and open discussion. It looks like the vast majority of students at the University of the South oppose racism. They probably have what it takes to finish the discussion about the narthex windows and other deliberately created objects of homage to the Lost Cause.
Friend,
I agree: expose, confront, admit, discuss and figure out a way to go forward..
What I can not stand are the deniers, the “ how good it use to be” while burying/covering up the past type people
Humans are humans… each generation had its evils
Q. Has our distinguished melting pot become a complacent caldron of evil?
Reuben Brigedy Sr. M.D.
*
First black graduate of University of Florida Medical School
There is nothing sorrier in church than an arrogant, authoritarian, unChristlike, Bible-distorter, woman-oppressor, racist … in the pulpit!
OK.
However, the subtle code of stealth stoking of hate & violence & degrading of others or superiority of some as well as apathy, is not absent from polite church history. From Luther to Hitler, etc., human nature needs 180 degree deliberate change for Love God, Love neighbor as self to succeed.
Jesus was able to read right through the code of the religious leaders of his time to discern the evil in their hearts. It’s possible these leaders then stoked the mob anger that chose Barabbas, while giving Jesus a sentence.
Arrogant hearts in polite leadership threatened by the authority of Jesus, stealth stoking of the masses’ to anger, for the demise of the innocent. Down through the ages.
In rereading the Washington Post article that Dee linked, I think it’s likely that Reuben Brigety’s presence and other efforts against Lost Cause iconography created a backlash.
Eric Bonetti,
Wow… That article is quite a read!
Speaking of the Titans, one of the proposals is to name the school after coach Herman Boone. As the debate is going on, some including former players have questioned whether that would be a good idea, including noting how his tenure ended:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1979/06/02/boone-axed-at-williams/dfb9ba46-620a-49c5-8957-a28f166509ac/
(Capitalization theirs) “BOONE HAS COME UNDER FIRE RECENTLY FOR ALLEGEDLY ABUSING HIS PLAYERS ORALLY AND PHYSICALLY, CHARGES HE HAS DENIED IN THE PAST, AND DENIED AGAIN YESTERDAY.”
In a later report prompted by persistent allegations of abusive behavior, there are additional reports such as:
“July 1978 clip from the (defunct) Washington Star headlined ‘Three Aides Resign over Coach’s Methods at T.C. Williams’; it contains several accusations that Boone verbally and mentally abused his players and quotes one of the departing assistants as saying he left the team because Boone’s conduct was ‘detrimental to the kids involved.’ Another story, from the Alexandria Port Packet in June 1979, after Boone had been fired, quotes a player who’d quit the team as saying a coaching change ‘had to happen’ because of the turmoil the coach had created in the football program”:
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/303328/coach-baggage/
The writer was able to interview Boone: “Boone says he makes “no apologies” for and has “no regrets” about his comportment during his run as T.C.’s coach. He agrees that the 1977 player uprising was the beginning of the end for him at the school. But he says his undoing was inevitable once his brand of discipline fell out of vogue in schools and coaching.
“I was very tough,” says Boone, calling from San Antonio and getting more fired up with every recollection. “I believe in discipline and respect. And one or two [players] who I jacked up, who I chastised, those one or two people…wanted things to go their way, instead of my way. My way was being challenged. A lot of people don’t like this, but the day they joined that team, I said, ‘This football team is not a democracy! It’s a dictatorship! And I’m the dictator! If you don’t like it, go find yourself a soccer team!’
“You got one or two people who sit back and say they don’t want to play under a strict disciplinarian system and infiltrate the team with that hippie mentality. But it was at that time that teachers and coaches allowed students and players to call them by their first names, to walk into their classroom 15 minutes late with their pants hanging out….Herman Boone stood against that, and I became the bad guy. That was the times. Well, the hell with the times.””
Should be interesting to see how consistent the renaming priorities writ large are going forward, because if they’re not, it could be largely an exercise in futility and likely another opportunity for fighting and division.
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/identityproject
As I interpret the information on the school system website, Boone did not make the list of three finalists. The school will be renamed Alexandria High School.
Such discussions tend to be quite thorough. This one was open and thoughtful too, from what I have read.
The thoroughness might not have captured after whom the town was name, which was a prominent landowner in the slaveholding state, which means this may well come up once again.
Yes, and it’s across the river from another such town. People have a right to talk about the names of their institutions and to change them. Renaming a school is quite a mild and civil activity. If people can’t even discuss that, I’m not sure what would be permissible.
I want to thank the folks here for engaging me with intelligent rebuttal, repartee, references, and respect. We all learn this way – as I have here in this conversation.
d4v1d,
Welcome & mutually thankful, as you have well-described.
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d4v1d,
Your gracious comment has caused me to pause and think several times. I’ve been a bit more strident than usual on this thread, and I apologize.
There are so many young adults in my life right now, and I am proud of them for battling racism in their own generation and surroundings. Generations X, Y, Z, and Alpha did not invent racism; they learned it from older folks. We need to help them recognize and combat it, even in forms that are seemingly bland or hard to understand.
@Friend, what a lovely, kind, and insightful comment. Much appreciated.
And the two ain’t linked?
This may well be part of the reason Dr. Brigety’s acceptance was problematic.
https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/gage-cohen/george-washington-university-dean-trump-americas-first-nazi-chief