Semantic Stalemate in Berkeley

Tainted as it is by prez number three's slave-trading ways, parents and teachers want to change the name of Jefferson Elementary. Parents in Berkeley (a city named after proud slave owner George Berkeley) prefer the egalitarian ring of "Sequoia Elementary." The problem, as the New York Sun frames it:

Some community members have pointed out that under Chief Sequoia's leadership in the early 19th century, the Cherokee nation owned more than 1,500 black slaves.

Not to worry, say administrators:

A spokesman for the Berkeley Unified School District, Mark Coplan, acknowledged that Chief Sequoia "presumably owned slaves and was rather barbaric," but he emphasized that the proposed new name would honor the sequoia tree, not the Cherokee leader.

Along those lines, can't the school just declare itself a monument to George Jefferson?

Comments

[joe]

Shouldn't they be trying to get the tree renamed?

[thoreau]

If they banned the name "Sequioa", it would give new meaning to the phrase "Indian Outlaw."

[dhex]

wait until one of them trees falls on someone...just you wait...

[kmw]

So, are they going to refuse to use nickels as well?

And boycott Mount Rushmore?

Only in Berkeley. Too bad you can't run around buck nekid throughout the city any more.

[Vanya]

What about Caesar salads? Shouldn't we rename them?

[Danimal]

Damn, TJ just can't catch a break these days.

[Steve]

As James Taranto already said, aren't Indian names offensive?

[Bigbigslacker]

And what was the tree named after - the Chief Sequoia who didn't own slaves? Better rename the tree and the school. I think something like, "Master Jefferson Elementary", for the school...

[bigbigslacker]

...and "Slave Holding Savage Wood" for the tree

[Cap'n Obvious]

As a recent escapee, I mean graduate of Cal, I felt the need to confirm that foolishness like this runs rampant there. Thank your luck stars that the San Andreas fault runs right beneath that town. Hopefully one day it will open up and swallow all the bums, lunies, and political-activist-wannabes who reside there and ruin otherwise prime real estate with thier presence and insistence on being silly; effectively contaminating the reputation of everyone else who schooled there as being little more than leftist wackos!

[Cap'n Obvious]

As a recent escapee, I mean graduate of Cal, I felt the need to confirm that foolishness like this still runs rampant there. Thank your lucky stars that the San Andreas fault runs right beneath that town. Hopefully one day it will open up and swallow all the bums, lunies, and political-activist-wannabes who reside there and ruin otherwise prime real estate with thier presence and insistence on being silly; effectively contaminating the reputation of everyone else who schooled there as being little more than leftist wackos! Long live Tommy J!

[Cap'n Obvious]

Sorry for the double-post.

[kevrob]

Are there any schools in the S.F. Bay area named for Emperor Norton?

Kevin

[sourav]

As a resident of Berkeley, I have only one thing to say: boo-yeah

[biologist]

how about squaw and brave elementary?

[Geo. Jefferson]

Weezy!! Get in here!! See what Leonard is doing now!

[SPD]

I'm not sure, don't quote me on this, but technically every other monument not built in honor of Lincoln would have to be renamed.

[Xboy]

Whatchoo mean, only in Berkeley? Here in New Orleans all the public schools named after slave-owners were re-named several years ago.

[The Real Bill]

Berkeley was a great place to score some doses back in the eighties. It was also a good place to score bunk weed.

[joe]

"Here in New Orleans all the public schools named after slave-owners were re-named several years ago."

And yet the statue of the founder of the Ku Klux Klan remains sacrosanct. That's just weird.

[Ron]

Thank your lucky stars that the San Andreas fault runs right beneath that town.

I've learned that, unfortunately, the San Andreas fault is merely causing the coast to move northward. LA is supposed to be next door to Sacramento in a few tens of thousands of years.

Of course, there could be consequences to moving half of Berkeley northward...

[JD]

Ah, Berserkely. I knew I was in a whole different kind of place when I visited and on the street I saw parking meters which said that parking was free on holidays X, Y, and Z, including "Indigenous Peoples Day". In very small print the sign explained that that meant Christopher Columbus Day.

[ChrisO]

I remember Berkeley as being kind of a shithole slum with a university grafted onto it. Perhaps they should name the schools there after the teachers' union mob bosses that actual run the places.