JEB Stuart HS to Thurgood Marshall HS?

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

I think the naming of high schools is small potatoes and that there are bigger problems facing society; however, I do think changing these names is the decent thing to do and should be done.

White people and black people need to take each other's perspectives equally seriously. Whites should care that blacks are hurt and insulted by the flying of the confederate flag and the naming of high schools after Confederate generals--which (like the Confederate flag) came along in the face of integration, as a display of Southern defiance.

I didn't always think this way. I went to a high school (built in 1961) that had the Confederate flag as its logo (displayed in abundance) and the Rebel as its mascot. The fight song was an adaptation of a Confederate battle song with the lyrics barely changed, and even the band uniforms had little curlicues on the sleeves, lifted from Confederate uniforms. I thought all this was fine at the time. Over the years I've come to a different conclusion--and I'm glad to say, so has the local population, who finally got rid of the flag and the other baloney.

I agree with you, Carlingtonian. Names are only symbols, but sometimes those symbols and the messages they are intended to convey matter.

[car54]

Originally Posted by JEB77

That was the policy in the county before it started naming schools after Confederate generals in the late 50s and it's effectively been the policy over the last few decades, at least for the high schools. I think Robinson was probably the last high school or secondary school named for an individual.

It is easy for white guys who were the BMOCs when they were teenagers to say it's "silly" for minority and other students to care about their school's name. I've read enough posts in recent months from black students talking about how they felt attending Stuart and Lee, knowing both had fought to keep their ancestors enslaved, to conclude this should be taken seriously, and that the current names are an embarrassment to the county in 2015.

Okay, I stand corrected....the name of a school is a hugely important thing with far reaching consequences.

I think that makes my suggestion even more of a no-brainer. Change the name of all schools named after a human being and end the practice for good. Never again name another school after a human being....ANY human being!

[JD984]

Originally Posted by car54

Okay, I stand corrected....the name of a school is a hugely important thing with far reaching consequences.

I think that makes my suggestion even more of a no-brainer. Change the name of all schools named after a human being and end the practice for good. Never again name another school after a human being....ANY human being!

Perhaps it's somewhere in between having far-reaching consequences and having no consequences at all. Two of my kids went to Joyce Kilmer Middle School and I don't think I even knew at the time whether Kilmer was a man or a woman (he was a man). On the other hand, to be a minority student attending a high school named after a Confederate General, and learning that it was so named when Virginia school systems were unhappy with the Supreme Court decision requiring desegregation and resisting integration, might weigh more heavily on one's mind.

Not every micro-aggression requires official action, but not every aggression is a micro-aggression.

[slim04]

Here is the thing about changing a school's name. It doesn't take a lot of effort or cost. It isn't like there is some huge alumni association donating millions that will threaten to cut off funding if the name is changed. The area is very transient and I would guess many alums don't live near the school anymore.

The people who put these confederate names up in the first place (mainly to combat the civil rights movement) are mostly long gone.

Years ago, I made a post explaining why there isn't a big controversy about the large number of confederate names on streets and buildings, especially in Alexandria. I thought it was because the confederate flag debate in South Carolina really wasn't about the flag, it was about the underlying racism, overt or subtle, that was part of life in South Carolina. It was hard to campaign against subtle racism, disparate impact, etc., but the flag was a symbolic way for people to show that racism still existed and was a part of their lives and directly or indirectly backed by the government. But in Alexandria it was different. There is a black mayor, black city council members, and a very progressive voter population. So it wasn't worth fighting a symbolic battle and use their political capital to fight street and building names. The black community fought for other issues and they weren't ignored.

I thought that years ago, but I don't think it is the same anymore and there are legitimate concerns of what it means to be black America and in Northern Virginia. Even if a minority of students and members of the community want a name change, I would support it. There is no need to fulfill an expensive wish list of other items when it is so easy to change the name.