After Discovery, State Quietly Moves to Purge N-word From Official Documents

[Jonathan Lighter]

Consider the plight of the poor yap who has to refer to these places
publicly. Unless he or she is a complete boor, I should think that would be
a creepy experience.

"N-Word Road" or "N-Word Town" would be no improvement.

I don't suppose many people would go for "Negro Road," either. (Not that
they should. "Germantown" Pa. is OK, but how about *"Jew Road"?)

My feeling is that "Nigger Road" would have been less offensive to all
concerned when it was named in, say, 1825, than it does today. But we need
to change it today because it seems to reflect a revolting attitude of
1825. Which we know still exists, or else we wouldn't think we needed to
change it, because it's more revolting today than it was in 1825. By 1825
standards, I mean.

Of course, one doesn't wish to be sucked into the fallacy that says the
works of man have to make sense.

JL
On Sat, Jul 30, 2011 at 1:24 AM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: After Discovery, State Quietly Moves to Purge N-word From
>              Official Documents
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Nothing less than rewriting history.
>
> Jesus-fucking-Christ!
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 9:05 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> > Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Â  Â  Â  Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Â  Â  Â After Discovery, State Quietly Moves to Purge N-word
> From
> > Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â  Â Official Documents
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903554904576460483180662902.html?mod=djemAmsterdam_h
> >
> > NEW YORK
> > JULY 22, 2011
> > Offensive Environment
> > After Discovery, State Quietly Moves to Purge N-word From Official
> Documents
> >
> > By JACOB GERSHMAN
> >
> > In the remote meadows and forests of upstate New York, state
> > environmental scientists have made a disturbing discovery: a road, a
> > stream and a lake all bearing names using the most offensive racial
> > word in the English language.
> >
> > A vestige of a long-ago past, the n-word—fully spelled out—still
> > lingers in environmental conservation laws classifying bodies of
> > water.
> >
> > "It was a shock to us. The term is very offensive," said Scott Stoner,
> > a research scientist for the state Department of Environmental
> > Conservation. "These are not regulations that get looked at often, but
> > somebody discovered it."
> >
> > Mr. Stoner said a regional researcher alerted the agency about the
> > racial epithet two years ago. Officials, he said, then did a computer
> > search and found three other examples buried in regulatory indexes and
> > a map.
> >
> > This week, the state quietly moved to correct the problem. While it
> > can't rename local roads and water bodies, the agency is finally
> > scrubbing the n-word from its regulations.
> >
> > Since it's technically a rule change, the deletions can't happen
> > instantaneously but must first be proposed. The result is one of the
> > more unusual rule changes announced in the official state register,
> > the latest edition of which carries the headline: "Removing a Racially
> > Offensive Term That Appears in the Regulations."
> >
> >
> > The agency proposed it as a "consensus rule," obviating the need for
> > any public hearings. "DEC has determined that no person is likely to
> > object to the adoption of the rule as written," the register states.
> >
> > In the meantime, DEC zapped the word from regulations posted on its
> > website. One of those instances, a little, narrow lake in the wooded
> > wilderness of Hamilton County, is now referred to as "unnamed lake."
> >
> > The required public-comment period still stands, which means the
> > regulations won't officially be amended for another month and a half.
> >
> > Since few people outside the agency ever noticed the slur, it never
> > generated public outrage. That wasn't the case across the coast in
> > northern California, where a cemetery containing several dozen
> > headstones labeled with the racial term turned into a major
> > controversy.
> >
> > Despite the effort to purge the n-word from New York's official
> > documents, the epithet showed up in a recent management plan report by
> > the agency's division of lands and forests.
> >
> > An offensively named road in the town of Danby in Tompkins County is
> > cited in a report posted online in February. The agency was unaware of
> > that until a reporter brought it to its attention on Thursday.
> >
> > "The Department will take action to move forward in removing any
> > offensive term from the Lands and Forests map in terms of how it is
> > referenced," said Lori Severino, a spokeswoman for the agency, in a
> > statement.
> >
> > "DEC cannot and does not have the authority to rename roads, water
> > bodies, or any other natural resources in the state," said Ms.
> > Severino. "These are historical records and sometimes date back
> > hundreds of years. We can, however, change or remove how they are
> > referenced under DEC regulations and to strive to be proactive in
> > those measures whenever possible."
> >
> > The precise origin of the names is a mystery to even the most rooted
> locals.
> >
> > "I'd like to say, 'Talk to one of the old folks around here,' but the
> > trouble with that is I'm 83." said Tom Bissell, a local historian from
> > Hamilton County.
> >
> > The federal government began to strip the n-word from its topographic
> > maps in the early 1960s. But within the more obscure reaches of
> > cartographic bureaucracy, the n-word occasionally endures.
> >
> > "You would expect to find almost all of them in the deep South, but
> > there were a surprising number of them in places like upstate New York
> > and Maine," said Mark Monmonier, a professor of geography at the
> > Maxwell School of Syracuse University and author of the 2006 book,
> > "From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim and
> > Inflame."
> >
> > Write to Jacob Gershman at jacob.gershman at wsj.com
> >
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> >
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