White Settlement, Texas, debating a name change

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-white17.html

WHITE SETTLEMENT, Texas -- City leaders are asking voters to consider taking the ''White'' out of White Settlement.

''When people see the name, the question of race comes to mind. They ask, 'What is that all about? Why is that name there?''' Mayor James Ouzts said. snip

Bill Fairley, a history columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, said changing the name ignores the city's origins.

''It just means that there was a group of whites who were daring enough to come West and settle in the midst of the Indians,'' Fairley said.

[Bluebear]

1. Just guessing: the measure will fail. nt

[Castilleja]

2. I have always wondered about that.

Oner mystery solved for me! Thanks!

I'm interested to see what the result will be for that, I am guessing no one will want to change it.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

3. Y'know, I could've supported

keeping the name, if the place had been named after a family named "White." :evilgrin:

Heaven knows the whole land is dotted with places named after their Founder.

Josiah Springfield comes to mind.

[benburch]

8. We change inconvenient names...

Like "Whorehouse Meadows", PA...

[noonwitch]

12. I thought it was Jebadiah Springfield

He had a silver tongue and wrestled buffalo.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

18. You're right

Jebadiah. He also turned into a zombie at one point.

[CatWoman]

31. hahahahahahahahahahaha

:rofl:

[Yupster]

15. Iraan Texas

Named after Ira and Ann Yates, discoverers of the Yates oil field.

[pop goes the weasel]

4. Doesn't sound objectionable to me

At least, it doesn't sound any more objectionable than some other town names. After all, it's just a name saying that whites moved there; it isn't a name that extolls killing a certain group of people, like, oh, Matamoros. I think it is best to keep names like that, since they provoke conversations about history.

[zbdent]

5. Yeah, the want a nicer, friendlier image

Like KKK Korners . . . ;)

[ComerPerro]

6. Daring. LOL. Brave enough to settle among savages, eh?

Or, as Limbaugh says, "injuns"

Jeeze.

:eyes:

[HereSince1628]

7. Maybe Pueblo Blanco would be more acceptable.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

9. Or maybe go really "uptown"

with "Estancia Blanco." That almost sounds like some sort of gravy.

Or was it a Slim Whitman song?

:crazy:

[zanne]

10. ROFLMAO!

Well, at least the founders made it obvious!

[RepublicanElephant]

11. Well...

they could change it to "republican settlement".

[Bridget Burke]

13. White Settlement is not some little town on the prairie.

It's just west of Fort Worth. In fact, it was founded when Fort Worth was actually a Fort, instead of the more charming of the twin cities up north.

www.ci.white-settlement.tx.us/

The town wants to attract business, which is NOT lily white--even in Texas. I'd assumed the place was named for Founder Jebediah White. Since that's NOT the story, changing the town's name sounds like a good idea.

[NNN0LHI]

16. Thank you for the background info. I appreciate it n/t

[tx_dem41]

19. "more charming of the twin cities up north".

So, exactly what are you trying to say Bridget? :)

[Bridget Burke]

22. I know some fine people in Dallas but enjoy Fort Worth more.

As a resident of Houston, I know something about "uncharming" cities. It's a fine place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here.

[tx_dem41]

24. I agree with you on FW...I was just having fun with you.

BTW, I lived in Houston for 6 years when I went to Rice U.

[Bridget Burke]

27. I thought that was the case.

I've noticed that Texans from the Metroplex or Greater Houston don't vacation in each other's cities.

If we must vacation in the State, San Antonio or Austin are good bets. Those cities are growing, but are not yet Megalopoli.

[CatWoman]

32. Jeez

was everyone back then named "Jebediah"???

[Bridget Burke]

33. Jebediah was just a random guess.

My favorite Old Texan Name belonged to Erastus Smith--known as "Deaf" Smith because of his deafness. "Deaf" is, of course, pronounced "Deef."

www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/fsm10.html

As far as Modern Texas Names go, it's hard to beat the only daughter of Texas's first "native born" governor, Jim Hogg. Miss Ima Hogg was a great philanthropist who did much to civilize Houston in the early 20th century. She lived 93 years & never married.

www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/HH/fho16.html

While checking out the Handbook of Texas, I found a few interesting details about the founding of White Settlement.

In the later part of the 1850s an organized community named White Settlement gradually developed around the homesteads of three brothers from Tennessee—Elijah, David, and Joseph Farmer. The Farmers were joined by Kentuckian Paul Isbell, who moved to the area with his slaves. In 1860 Isbell played a prominent role in the hanging of two men that he believed were responsible for organizing a slave insurrection.

www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/WW/hew6.html

[booksenkatz]

14. I grew up in Ft. Worth and it never occurred to me

that "White Settlement" had something to do with race; I figured it was named after a family surname.

But I think if we're going to change names of places, could we perhaps start with all of the "Lick" places in Kentucky? Please?

[meganmonkey]

17. Or the 'Kills' in the Northeast

Pennsylvania and New York. Especially "Fishkill". It's just creepy :shrug:

[booksenkatz]

23. First thing's first, meganmonkey

Big Bone Lick and Knob Lick have GOT TO GO!
:7

[meganmonkey]

25. Eeewww!!!

Okay, you win. We have to have our priorities straight :D

[SoCalDem]

38. French Lick, Indiana too

and there used to be a place called Nellies Nipples, Nevada (I think it was nevada)

[gkhouston]

29. LOL, it's not that sort of kill

it's taken from another language, Dutch (I think), and means "creek" or "river". I was visiting someone in the Northeast at the time and we were crossing the Schuylkill River and they told me it was like calling it "river river river". Funny, the things that stick in your head...

[meganmonkey]

30. I know, I know

I used to live outside of Philly, but it was one of those things that always cracked me up :)

[sweetheart]

20. changing the name is a lie

They should tell the truth and not run away from the history of racism,
but face up to it, that it is REAL, not something that we can erase by
changing the names.

Why not put the real history on a plaque at the center of town, and at
the signs at the city limits. Then racism can be discussed out in
the open, rather than swept under another carpet; into another closet
to be hidden with PC gestures.

[Bridget Burke]

26. So, racism only exists--or ever existed--in this one Texas town?

Surely, the errors of the past need to be taught in History courses. But the town is trying to rise above the past by changing its name.

Please, let us now what perfect part of the world you inhabit?

[sweetheart]

37. hmm

well, where i live, i can't take you driving by slums of poor black
people like i could in texas. The presumption is that racism is over,
when all the acts achieve is window dressing.

When i went to university in texas, i found the racism breathtaking there,
not that it is any different from CA, PA or NY, but the worst racial
divides outside of central los angeles i've seen in that deep south.
And it is not fixed. So lets' change the names.

The part of the world i live, has a local history they call the
"highland clearances", when the british landlords achieved a massive
social engineering project against the peaasants, driving them off
the land, and so many became the mass of british immigrants to the US.
Because they were disenfranchised from their rights by a patriarchal
theocratic regime, their houses burned.

These persons became "planters" in northern ireland and formed plantations
in the american south where they pursued slavery as the only means they
felt of achieving success in the then modern world, as much as their
own slavemasters of the british aristocracy whipped them out of their
rights to property, they followed in the tradition.

And hundreds years later, 150 years after slavery was abolished in a
civil war, blacks are the poorest of the poor all across the united
states, worst of all in the southern rural ghettos, most likely to
be in prison; most likely to be poor; most likely disenfranchised
from their right to vote. And we're all responsible, the world has
all played its roll in this slavery, not an external threat but one
caused by "internal" politics.

So my point is that changing the names is a poor way to set about
another failed programme of faux-equality for blacks, still today
unrepresented, disenfranchised. Still the same for indian american
peoples, native american or whatever... and until the history
is fixed by equality, it should be remembered lest ignorance
strike america, a much larger storm than katrina, and much more
devastating.

[HamdenRice]

21. All across South Africa there are ranches and towns called "Kaffirkraal"

Africans tended to live in big villages and towns, surrounded by their vast pastures and fields. When Dutch settlers came, and marked out new names for these areas, they often called these farms on which Africans were already living, "Kaffirkraal", which roughly translated is Ni***r's Town or Corral.

I imagine that in the post apartheid era, a lot these names are being changed.

[porphyrian]

28. How about "Crackertown?"

Maybe "Honkeyvania?" I like that one.

I'm just joking. Who gives a crap that it's called "White Settlement?" I guess I don't really care if they change it, either. My inclination would be to keep it for its historical roots, though.

[johnfunk]

36. LOL - you partially beat me to it

I come up with a more complete version, but you get credit for being first.

It sure sounds like Crackertown -- and without the Cheez Whiz, if you know what I mean.

[porphyrian]

39. Yeah, but I didn't beat the "Peckerwood Usurpers' Community." - n/t

:toast:

[Marymarg]

34. Least of its problems

I live just across Loop 820 from White Settlement, in Fort Worth but in White Settlement School District.

White Settlement has lots of problems and businesses are abandoning it like a sinking ship. I think the city fathers (and mothers?) are grasping at straws to try to make it more appealing.

Incidentally, Lockheed-Martin is located in White Settlement and is the only industry there.

[johnfunk]

35. I think "Cracker-ass Peckerwood Usurpers' Community" has a nice ring to it

... and it's historically authentic!