Racism Will Always Be Part Of Our Fabric Regardless Of Symbolic Changes
August 6, 2013 | By Kendrick Marshall
Two weeks ago, I was involved in a lengthy debate with a friend in reference to the local governing body in Tulsa, Okla., exploring changing the name of one of its famed downtown streets after several residents complained that the person who bears the name has a racist past.
The late Tate Brady, a revered local businessman in the early 1900s, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and allegedly played a role in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, which ultimately decimated a then-thriving Black Wall Street.
Her argument was that regardless of Brady’s past, the city should not move forward with a name change because history can’t be altered. Changing the name does not improve the lot of those who might have suffered oppression then, nor does it bring us any closer to mending the issues in our own communities, she said.
My counter-argument was simple: Why should a person with a controversial past, one that involved sharing the ideology of a hate group and reportedly obstructing black progress, continue to be honored in such a fashion?
Read the rest - http://negrovoice.com/2013/08/06/ra...of-our-fabric-regardless-of-symbolic-changes/
August 6, 2013 | By Kendrick Marshall
Two weeks ago, I was involved in a lengthy debate with a friend in reference to the local governing body in Tulsa, Okla., exploring changing the name of one of its famed downtown streets after several residents complained that the person who bears the name has a racist past.
The late Tate Brady, a revered local businessman in the early 1900s, was a member of the Ku Klux Klan and allegedly played a role in the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, which ultimately decimated a then-thriving Black Wall Street.
Her argument was that regardless of Brady’s past, the city should not move forward with a name change because history can’t be altered. Changing the name does not improve the lot of those who might have suffered oppression then, nor does it bring us any closer to mending the issues in our own communities, she said.
My counter-argument was simple: Why should a person with a controversial past, one that involved sharing the ideology of a hate group and reportedly obstructing black progress, continue to be honored in such a fashion?
Read the rest - http://negrovoice.com/2013/08/06/ra...of-our-fabric-regardless-of-symbolic-changes/
