Austin city report recommends Austin change its name as Steven F Austin owned slaves - Is Washington, DC and state next?

I'm sure the chances of renaming a huge city like Austin are smaller than this, but I wouldn't say it's impossible. The city of Minneapolis recently renamed a very popular lake in the city from "Lake Calhoun" to its original name in Ojibwe (I think it was Objibwe...may have been some other native american language) because Calhoun was a slaveholder. Most people there don't even know the lake was named after a specific person nor do they know anything about him or associate the lake with him. I also don't know any Native Americans there and I grew up there. I'm sure there are some, but the population of them there is very small, so it's not like they were the ones calling for this name change or the ones frequenting the lake. At this point it's just a name. I didn't think this would actually pass, but now we somehow ended up with a lake named "Bdemakaska" or something inpronouncedable like that.

rojo wrote:

I've never understood why we are only obsessed with race. My person take is all of these dudes lived in an era when women couldn't vote. So if you are going to rename stuff, shouldn't we also strip all names of sexist dudes as well?

It's not about race.

I hope you can understand the difference between slavery and women not having the right to vote.

On the one hand, people were ripped from their homes, families torn apart and sold off never to see each other again, women raped by slave owners at will, slaves were starved and beaten, and who knows what else went on.

And on the other hand, women were not allowed to vote. Hmm. I guess that's an equality...

And second off, I highly doubt you are a feminist who marches for women's rights. If you are, post the pictures of you marching in women's rights rallies. Until then, don't pretend women's rights is an important issue to you.

zxcvzxcv wrote:

St. Francis represents love of animals and nature and removal from official church hierarchies.

History needs to be rewritten to be more palatable to snowflakes, minorities and millennials. Throw out all the old history books and burn the libraries so we can start over.

Fixed

notrump wrote:

DC Wonk wrote:

If white people in the US would actually allow the country to address slavery, instead of trying to act like it didn't happen, or is in the past so why talk about it, none of this current stuff would be an issue. In Germany, you can't go 10 miles without seeing some sort of remembrance of Jews and the horrors of the Nazis. Kids learn the facts in schools, discuss it as fact, and the their nation has accepted it.

But in the US, any attempts to deal with the deep and long repercussions of slavery is attacked by whites and Trump cult as irrelevant past. This country is in deep trouble. Many people in the South still support the confederacy.

Slavery was dealt with (in the USA) in the 1860s. Get over it, you weren't one, and I didn't own one. In America, you can't go five seconds without race baiters bringing up slavery.

Banana Bread wrote:

I literally think humanity is going to be extinct if these are literally the problems people think need to be fixed. I can only laugh at society now. How people have unevolved.

I think we are doomed soon anyway. Throughout history, we've struggled to survive. Now that is no longer a big challenge and we are 'worrying' about stuff like this. With nuclear bombs and nuts in charge, isn't a nuclear holocaust inevitable soon?

and

Man. Some of you aren't very bright. I didn't say Slavery wasn't AWFUL and abhorrent and way worse than denying people the vote. But what I'm saying is if you do this then where do you draw the line. Shouldn't we condemn any sexist man from the 1700s as well?

You think I'm racist, can you tell me why? Simply because I fight back against the extremes of SJW culture or is it because my dad worked for George W Bush for 15 years?

My dad is such a bigot there is now an Ethiopian family living in America as a result of him and my mother with a little help from me providing them a rent free home for 9 months (I met them at world xc).

Was Austin Town Lake so offensive they had to rename it Lady Bird Johnson lake?

Why rename something if it already has an existing name? Can someone explain this to me?

SJWHippie wrote:

zxcvzxcv wrote:

St. Francis represents love of animals and nature and removal from official church hierarchies.

History needs to be rewritten to be more palatable to snowflakes, minorities and millennials. Throw out all the old history books and burn the libraries so we can start over.

This entire thread is a Straw Man argument. Austin, TX is not going to be renamed and no one wants to rewrite history. I'm liberal, but I don't give a crap about debates regarding renaming things like parks, buildings and streets.

The reaction regarding Austin is similar to when the retired Supreme Court Justice talked about repealing the 2nd Amendmant. Contrary to what Trump accuses Democrats of, not a single congressman or senator has proposed repealing the 2nd Ammendment.

umm...he JUST explained why and yet you double down on it. It's almost like you aren't very bright.

You could use the "but, but....where do we draw the line argument" for anything, and it usually sounds just as stupid.

We could legalize abortion...but where do we draw the line. Shouldn't we legalize the right to kill ANY human then?

We could implement the death penalty for murder, ....but where do we draw the line? Shouldn't we kill jaywalkers then?

By equating a man who was actively fighting for the expansion of slavery at a time when much of the world had already outlawed it, including Mexico, with a sexist man from the 1700's IS saying that you don't think slavery was awful and abhorrent.

Trying to make those things equivalent is like trying to saying changing the name of the city of Austin today is the same is when they changed it from 'Waterloo' to 'Austin'. It's obviously a bigger deal now.

But it is interesting that people feel like everything is precious and must be frozen in time and not allowed to evolve. If a place is named after a disreputable figure then why shouldn't they be able to change it.

I'm not saying that they need to change the name, just that it is reasonable to consider it.

Establishing America in general came with appropriating the lands of the Natives and using forced labor to jumpstart the economy during the formidable years of our nations history. So... lets be honest. USA was a European venture with a lot of awful things along the way. Can't go back now though.

I think changing the name has some positive effect on moving forward, but it's not necasary. The real focus should be on creating the best race relations possible for our multi-heritage country. This isn't Europe, you came to lands that have native people. You brought over people forcibly. You probably should just play nice now and get along with everyone here. Racism needs to die now because if anyone gave the ultimate sacrifice for creating America, it was the black people.