Among all of the local elections that happened last week, one of the most interesting was held in a suburb of Fort Worth. It's in the town of White Settlement, and yes, it's called that for a reason.
The city fathers wanted to change the name of this suburb as its name comes from a time where this town was for Whites Only as they battled the Indians. Some businesses have left or are about to leave this town, and they want to move beyond the problems that people would have living in a town with such a name.
Naturally, the plan failed miserably. Most of the residents seem to think that all that racism is tucked away safely, a century or more in the past. But that couldn't be further from the truth.
As James Loewen explains in his latest book,
Sundown Towns, a lot of towns in this nation have enforced an American brand of ethnic cleansing since Reconstruction was blown up. Black folk were run off any time they settled in towns like this; their land was stolen from them, and they were routinely terrorized. This terrorism lasts to the present day in a lot of towns - a fact that has been totally ignored by the media.
I would bet that most residents of White Settlement would say that I'm exaggerating, that things aren't that bad any more. And for all I know, maybe there isn't a current race problem in that town. But that isn't the point. Black folk in this nation have been conditioned for generations to stay out of places like that. And especially for a town with "White" in its name; a lot of towns (in the Midwest, at least) used "White" for this reason. Given that White Settlement meant exactly that, they're foolish not to understand that the name is an extant barrier to minorities.
By the way, I love this quote from the NY Times article:
Some longtime residents, however, disagree so strongly that they are trying to oust the mayor, James Ouzts, through a recall process because he wanted the change. Marla Fontenot, a leader of the recall effort, said the mayor brought unwanted attention to the town.
"Just the perception of people suggesting that we need to change the name is a negative," said Ms. Fontenot, 34, a credit analyst. "It's so far to the left of what the town wants."
To the left?