In Our View: Sensitivity on Names is Noble

In addition to noble-sounding places such as Mount Rainier and the Columbia River and the Olympic Peninsula, Washington is home to 19 Squaws, six Coons, five Negros, and three Jim Crows. For example, there is Coon Creek in King County, Negro Spring in Douglas County, Jim Crow Hill in Wahkiakum County, and even Squaw Island in Clark County.

These less-than-regal names are relics from an era when racial sensitivity was not a concern. An era that, state Sen. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, correctly says should be relegated to the dust bin of history. “No injustice should be below our notice, so while some of these creeks or lakes may be in remote places, they stand as a constant reminder of times when women, Native Americans, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and others were thought of and treated as less than a whole and autonomous person,” Jayapal said. “It is pretty incredible that in 2016 we still have dozens of racist and offensive place names on record in our state.”

Incredible? Maybe not, considering that many place names became entrenched at a time when racial epithets were second nature for many. But Jayapal is on the right side of history in working with the state Department of Natural Resources to correct these injustices. Her efforts began last year with a successful endeavor to have Coon Lake in the North Cascades renamed Howard Lake, in honor of an African-American prospector who lived in the area during the 1890s. Those efforts have expanded with the identification of at least 36 other names throughout the state that are offensive by today’s standards.

As Vocativ.com wrote last year: “The United States is literally covered in racial slurs from Dead Negro Hollow, Tennessee, to Wetback Tank, New Mexico, to Dead Injun Creek, Oregon. At least 1,441 federally recognized places across the nation include slurs in their official name.” Merriam-Webster tells us that a “slur” is “an insulting or disparaging remark or innuendo.” While there likely are few people who would defend the use of “Wetback Tank” as a place name, the fact is that “squaw” and “coon” once were not considered disparaging — at least by those who got to name the creeks or islands by dint of being part of the majority.

In addition to correcting names that are now viewed as insults, Jayapal has opened an important discussion that weighs the institutional racism of the past against a desire to rewrite or ignore that history. Consider a ruling this week from Princeton University in New Jersey, where leaders declined to change the name of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs. Wilson, who served as the university’s president before becoming president of the United States, was an avowed segregationist. Because of that, it is worth reconsidering his legacy.

But the importance of these discussions it to recognize that people, even those of great accomplishments, are complex and imperfect. Naming something after a human who is inherently flawed is different from naming a geographical feature in a manner that can only be interpreted as a pejorative.

With that in mind, Jayapal’s efforts should be encouraged. Squaw Island, along the edge of the Columbia River near the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, could one day better reflect the history of the region. As Jayapal said: “Instead of clinging to relics of an intolerant past, let’s rename these places so they celebrate the people and cultures that made Washington into the wonderful place it is today.”