'Jap Road' to Be Renamed 'Boondocks Road' for Setanta :)

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HOUSTON, Texas (Reuters) - Texans living on "Jap Road" decided the best way to remove the racial slur from the country lane would be to rename it "Boondocks Road" after a defunct catfish restaurant, officials say.

The residents chose the name because the restaurant had been a popular spot in southeastern Texas and its name was easier to pronounce than that of the Japanese family who settled the road in the early 1900s.

The new name must be approved by the Jefferson County Commissioners.

The four-mile road has been around about 100 years and was said to be named in honor of Yoshio Mayumi and his family, who introduced rice farming to the region.

Japanese Americans and others tried to change the name for a decade because "Jap Road" is viewed as a racial slur. Some said they were unhappy with the choice, which they said belied the residents' earlier insistence that "Jap Road" should remain because of its long history.

The push to change the name picked up steam after a discrimination complaint last year asking that federal funds to Jefferson County be cut off. Commissioners voted this month that the name had to go.

The 170 Jap Road residents voted on a list of names that included "Mayumi Road," but "Boondocks" won as a write-in.

Wayne Wright, among those assigned to come up with the new name, said many residents could not pronounce "Mayumi" but could easily recall the name of the fried catfish shack, which closed about 10 years ago.

"Everyone in this area, even newcomers that haven't even been to the Boondocks, have heard of the Boondocks," he said.

John Tateishi, executive director of the Japanese American Citizens League, said Boondocks was not a happy choice.

"I'm very disappointed that they have chosen not to recommend a name that will reflect what they were saying all along about wanting to honor this family that lived there on that road. It's unfortunate," he said.

Wright was unapologetic.

"They (Japanese Americans) pounded on us for 11 years. I hope they learned something from it. There's no winners in this," he said Wednesday.

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There is a small city in Illinios, just east of Peoria, named Pekin. Originally it was Peking, and was named for the Chinese railroad workers families who had briefly settled there during the building of railroads in the 1840's and -50's. The name was changed to Pekin, but the local high school sports teams were known as the "The Chinks," until the 1970's. Then there were huge protests by outsiders about the name. It turned out that there were no Chinese families living in Pekin, and in fact, none within any of the towns in their athletic conference. However, i couldn't develop sufficient interest to learn if they ever changed the name.

The Cleveland professional baseball team is called the Cleveland Indians. Over the last few years, AIM (American Indian Movement) activists have complained about the team name, but in particular, the team mascot, "Chief Wahoo" as well as the team logo, which shows an Indian with his mouth wide open as though shouting. The front office management managed to shred the arguments pretty quickly though. The logo was a portrait of a member of the team before the First World War, who was in fact an Indian. It was alleged (i don't know if this is true, and am doubtful) that this player had played at the University of Virginia, where the unofficial name long was "Wahoos," because of the shouts of fans at sporting events--and has to do with a "southernism" rather than a slur against Indians. It is true the UVa fans and team are informally known as "Hoos" to this day for that very reason.

There has been a movement in recent years to remove words such as n!gger, ch!nk, squaw, etc. from place names. It runs into problems though, in examples such as Squaw Valley, a very popular ski resort. Isn't political rectitude a wonderful thing? How long before those folks decide that Refugee Road in Columbus, Ohio trivializes the suffering of those who flee their homelands? So it goes . . .

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well i was just thinking of boondocks when i thought of you Wink

dont you think its going a bit too far when words like jap and squaw and wahoo are considered racist?
i mean everyone call japenese japs... it isnt racist surely?
anyway the boondocks bit made me think of you Smile

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thanks for the info as well Smile

i always like to hear things like that Smile

its amazing what happens on this planet Very Happy

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I'm uncertain as to why you would associate the word boondocks with me, but i'll take a positive attitude about it. I think that there are valid complaints to be made, such as the recent move to change a place name which has been for centuries "N!ggerhead." But i also agree that many of these objections are silly, and carry political rectitude too far.

Indeed, this is an amazing little bit of rock we float around on . . .

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Dooo-oh ! ! !

I just realized why you associate "boondocks" with me . . . i'm a little slow today . . .

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hehe

erm while we are here can you please tell me what boondocks are? please?

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The boondocks means the remotest of the remote. People who live in sparsely populated areas refer to even more sparsely populated areas as "the boondocks." There was a popular (well, sort of popular) song in the 1960's entitled Down in the Boondocks, in which it was referred to as "the part of town i was born in." The song writer displayed monumental ignorance, and the singer as well. It didn't seem to appeal much to country boys, one of which i then was.

The boondocks might be defined as the very furthest edge of human habitation . . .

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Best explained in a song, Col: Very Happy

Down in the boondocks
Down in the boondocks
People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her and she loves me
But I don't fit her society
Lord have mercy on a boy from down in the boondocks

Every night I will watch the light from the house upon the hill
I love a little girl that lives up there, I guess I always will
But I don't dare knock on her door
Her daddy is my boss man
So I'll just have to be content
To see her whenever I can

Down in the boondocks, down in the boondocks
People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her and she loves me
But I don't fit her society
Lord have mercy, on a boy from down in the boondocks (harmony)

Down in the boondocks, down in the boondocks

One fine day I'll find a way to move from this old shack
I'll hold my head up like a king - I never, never will look back
Until that morning I'll work and slave
And I'll save every dime
But tonight she'll have to steal away
To see me one more time

Down in the boondocks
Down in the boondocks
People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her and she loves me
But I don't fit her society
Lord have mercy on a boy from down in the boondocks
Lord have mercy on a boy from down in the boondocks
Lord have mercy on a boy from down in the boondocks

And Wahoo is stilled used, methinks, at UVA. One of my colleagues used to wear a big badge that said "WhaWhoo?" She, of course, was from Va. Tech. I'll find the song from UVA momentarily.

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Them techies, from the Fan in Richmond, is known to be complete rubes . . . no one takes any stock of what they say.

Col, there is a relativistic attitude in the use of "boondocks," it is often simply used as exaggeration. To someone in the city, a small town resident lives in the "boonies," to the townsman, someone living on a farm road is "out in the boondocks" (down is the wrong preposition), to the farmer, the woodsman is from the boonies. To the woodsman, though, anyone whom they consider a resident of the bookdocks is really out there.

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cool

thank you very much setanta Very Happy

and thanks 2u2 letty Smile

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Well, Set. My husband went to Va. Tech and I went to UVA. Just funny stuff between the rivals:

How may one tell when the funeral procession is for someone from Va. Tech? The head tractor has its lights on. (groan)

Now for the unofficial school song:

The Good Old Song
Unofficial alma mater
Words by Edward A. Craighill, 1895

That Good Old Song of Wahoowa,
We'll sing it o'er and o'er.
It cheers our hears and warms the blood
To hear them shout and roar.
We come from old Virginia,
Where all is bright and gay.
Let's all join hands and give a yell
For dear old UVa.

What though the tide of years may roll
And drift us far apart,
For Alma Mater still there'll be
A place in ev'ry heart.
In college days we'll sing her praise,
And so, when far away,
In memory we still shall be
At the dear old UVa.

(chant)
WAHOOWA, WAHOOWA
UNI-V, VIR-GIN-I-A
HOO-RAH-RAY, HOO-RAH-RAY
RAY! RAY! U-V-A!

Then there's an alternate one--From Rugby Road to Vinegar Hill we're gonna get drunk tonight. Razz

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It never ceases to amaze me when people don't understand why things like "Jap" Road or "Squaw" Trail or "Niggerhead" Lane would be offensive. I can appreciate the fact that you have nothing in your own lives to compare it to, no "Honky" Boulevard or "Redneck" Road but could you all be that lacking in compassion? If a group finds a name racist and offensive, removal must be considered if not done outright regardless of whether you understand why they find it offensive or not.

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Now, Col. You must tell us something of the institutions of higher learning in Leeds.

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Thanks Letty, i had doubted that the term Wahoo was used as early as 1911 when "Chief Wahoo" had his portrait done, but it appears that it was in use at that time.

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So when are they changing the name of Church Street in Toronto to Lou Sass Boulevard?

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hmm im not sure there is such a thing as higher learning in leeds Wink

i can see why niggerhead would be offensive but as for squaw trail or valley or whatever then i dont get it because as i thought squaw was the name for the female in the indian tribe i thought it meant wife so how can it be offensive?
and as for jap road so what man if these people are so identified with being whatever they think they are then they deserve the suffering Razz

its not about compassion here its about nitpicking i think some people are just too sensitive and are ready to take offense at anything
i couldnt care less if there was honky boulevard or redneck road
it wouldnt offend me
to get back to the institutions of higher learning in leeds.. well theres the university which is pretty cosmopolitan you get students from all over the world coming to leeds
im not sure they learn higher things as such
theres a tai chi school that teaches cosmic energy stuff thats pretty higher as far as im concerned and there is a forth way school which teaches about spiritual energy too
hmm i go to a tibetan buddhist monastery in scotland they teach higher things there Wink

but what exactly did you mean by higher? Wink

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My earlier remarks, for however one chooses to construe them, were directed at the matter of degree. As a pragmatic matter, Squaw Valley is not likely to undergo a name change anytime soon--there's too much money in the name recognition. In the case of the Pekin Chinks, people had to go out of their way to be offended. Purely anecdotal, but a woman i knew in the Chinese community in Peoria told me none of the Chinese there cared, and considered it a foolish campaign being waged against a small city which couldn't afford the litigation.

So, i suppose i have every right to insist that no one ever use the term paddy wagon, that Notre Dame University drop the name and the logo for the Fighting Irish, that the Boston Basketball team has no right to use the name Celtics . . .

There are times when this sort of thing can be reasonably held to be deeply offensive, and to demand redress. There are other times when it is just plain silly.

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Letty, the word in Charlottesville is, that in order to find Tech, one goes east until one smells it, and then heads south until one steps in it . . .

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i agree

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'Jap Road' to Be Renamed 'Boondocks Road' for Setanta :)

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