Raya Deussen/Pioneer Log
Naming: a concept so powerful that it has been crucial to the formation of this very country and its story afterwards. When the founding fathers first gained control over this land, the first thing they did was rename it from the 13 colonies to the United States of America. When Malcolm X first began consciously reforming his identity, the first thing he did was reject his surname, Little, that was originally given by slave owners. Although he is known as Malcolm X, he renamed himself El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Names and the process of naming are extremely vital parts of our society. When we name places of worship after holy people, it represents our hope to emulate their behavior. When we name community centers after civil rights leaders and various activists, we encourage attendees to be inspired by them. So what are we telling students across the U.S. to do when they attend schools named after questionable, yet powerful, men of history?
I rejoined the Portland Public School district my freshman year of high school after leaving for elementary and middle school. There were nine functioning high schools in my district, and eight were named after U.S. presidents. At face value, this may not seem like a big issue, but in essence it was. I attended Woodrow Wilson High School, a majority white high school that did not have the adequate administration to deal with racial issues. I was one of the small minority of black students that attended, and one of the handful of Muslim students. There was always this tension bubbling under the surface and threatening to explode every moment. Yet, our administration would often embolden the instigators by branding them as innocent teens who had not yet matured, whilst denying black kids this privilege for less incriminating behavior. And when the issue of who our school was named after came up, the administration and most of the population dismissed it as too much of a hassle. So every morning, students of color would get ready to attend a school named after a man who resegregated the federal government in the post reconstruction era, was an avid supporter of the Klu Klux Klan and truly believed in the false theory of white supremacy; this was all led by an enabling administration.
Yet, this issue was prevalent all across my district. Black kids in Northeast Portland were the predominant group at Thomas Jefferson High School, named after a notorious slaveholder who cried for freedom, yet denied it to other human beings. James Madison High School is one of the most diverse high schools in the district, yet it is named after a slaveholder who drafted the bill that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. And these are just a few of the minor examples. All across the rest of the U.S., students are forced to attend schools named after Confederate War generals such as Robert E. Lee. And since many of these schools are predominantly black, it is incredibly ironic and inappropriate that their places of growth and education are named after men who wanted to keep them enslaved. It also continues to reinforce the idea that this country does not want them here and does not have their best interests in mind.
As a nation, we should want what is best for our future generations. Schools should be named after scientists, doctors, philosophers, teachers and great thinkers of history. We should be naming schools after great women like Katherine Johnson, a black engineer whose work was incredibly vital to NASA in 1969. We should be naming schools after the Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Muhammed Rumi, whose soul-touching work continues to inspire the masses several hundred years after his death. We should be naming schools after Harriet Tubman, the most important conductor of the underground railroad who led thousands of slaves to freedom and was a leader in the Civil War. There are people like Nikola Tesla, George Washington Carver, Sequoyah, Tecumseh, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg and so many more. A school is not just a place to learn math and English, it is where students form their identity and grow their minds. Let us show them that they should strive to be changemakers in this world, rather than by restricted by those who hold most of the power.
History is chock-full of people who have actually contributed positively to the whole of society, not just benefitted the most powerful group. Let us teach our future generations to be inspired by the greatness that came before them, let them see themselves in the past so that they can strive to change their future for the better. Forget the powerful men of history who exploited people to gain status, and let us focus on the ones who truly made the world a better place against all odds.
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