Leroy N. Soetoro
2016-09-15 00:03:48 UTC
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/09/no-slave-
owners-s-f-school-board-chief-threatened-after-call-to-rename-george-
washington-h-s/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na
Matt Haney, the president of the San Francisco Unified School District
Board of Education, was discussing Maya Angelou with friends on a lazy
Sunday afternoon when he decided to tweet an idea he had been mulling
over.
We should rename Washington High School after San Francisco native, poet
and author Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou High School. No schools named after
slave owners, Haney wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times. (His
account has since been set to private.)
Haney, a white male, knew full well how this might be taken, but he says
he only wanted to spark a debate. But he didnt expect the outpouring of
anger on social media.
Nor did he expect, after an appearance Wednesday on The OReilly Factor
to receive a call from the San Francisco Police Department warning him of
a threat against him.
In response, Haney made his Twitter and Facebook accounts private, but he
spoke to The Washington Post early Friday morning about his intentions in
sending the tweet, the fallout from it and his feelings about George
Washington.
I knew it would be provocative and start a debate, he said, before
pausing. I should say, start a conversation.
The tweet was a call to rename George Washington High School, which is one
of San Franciscos largest high schools, with a 2016 student enrollment of
1,998. According to the latest profile posted on the schools website, its
racial composition in 2010 included 6.2 percent African American students,
49.8 percent Chinese American students and 17.3 percent other non-white
students.
In the school is a mural depicting Washington with slaves. This mural in
particular draws Haneys ire.
Numerous students have told me that theyre disturbed by the mural, he
said. Students have told me that they walk in and its disturbing, its
painful.
Haney suggested instead naming the school after one of its former
students, Maya Angelou. She dropped out at 14 to become the citys first
black female cable car conductor.
The response to his tweet was swift. Some offered support; some seemed
offended.
Arrest him for treason, tweeted one user.
L.J. Kid @eljaykid
@MattHaneySF We have failing schools in the City, many going private
school, and your worried about the name on the school? #Priorities
2:41 AM - 7 Sep 2016
Retweets 6 6 likes
Cinthia Flores @cinthianflores
I got so much love for @MattHaneySF, it's ridiculous
7:45 PM - 7 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 8 8 likes
John Carroll @nativeappsvc
@MattHaneySF Do you research, Jefferson was opposed to the slavery concept
and so was was Washington. Your a slave to political correctness.
5:56 PM - 8 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 5 5 likes
JAMMO Publishing @JAMMO_1
@MattHaneySF You, sir, are an idiot. Would you also advocate shaving his
image off Mount Rushmore? Or changing the name of the City / State?
9:37 PM - 6 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 8 8 likes
He doesnt regret sending the tweet.
I maybe wish I had been clearer that Im not intending to change the
school names without the support of the community, he said, before
adding. We need to be able to have an adult conversation.
SF Official Calls For Renaming Of Schools Named After Slaveholders, read
one headline. SF school board head calls for renaming slaveowner branded
schools, read another.
These headlines arent unfair he did tweet No more slave owners.
And he did tell the San Francisco Chronicle, We need to have a
conversation about this. Especially at George Washington High School. We
have school names in San Francisco that are not relevant or meaningful or
inspire pride.
But he told The Washington Post, I think a lot of people have
misinterpreted what I was trying to do by putting it out there, which is
suggest an idea, start a conversation and let the community take it from
it there. It wasnt a formal proposal or something I was going to force on
anybody.
Im calling for introspection, some conversation, he said. The most
important thing for me is that our school communities have names theyre
proud of, and that they know their school board is open to a conversation
about that.
The conversation he wanted to ignite was bigger than just the name of a
high school.
We dont talk about slavery much in this country. We dont think much
about what it meant, Haney said.
Added Haney, We never talk about it, which is kind of weird.
To that end, hes pleased with his comments.
Its forcing us to have that conversation [about slavery], he said.
Haney says hes a newcomer to the debate over the names of public
institutions. I have not really spent time or thought about this issue
much until a week ago, he said. But its an ongoing one in America.
In 1997, Orleans Parish, La., following a policy of not honoring slave
owners, swapped George Washingtons name on an elementary school for
Charles Richard Drew, a black surgeon who lived from 1904 to 1950.
And ever since Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel AME Church in the heart of
Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2015, and authorities say killed nine
unarmed black worshipers, the debate surrounding the names of public
institutions and subjects of public monuments has filled headlines.
[As Derby approaches, Kentucky lawmakers battle over removal of
Confederate monument]
The Confederate battle flag was removed from South Carolinas statehouse
on July 10, 2015, after flying for 54 years. An Austin school recently
launched a crowdsourcing campaign to rename its Robert E. Lee Elementary,
Mashable reported. A Confederate monument in Louisville, was moved from
its prominent location near the University of Louisville. A battle has
raged in New Orleans surrounding the planned removal of several
Confederate monuments, the Associated Press reported.
The difference in the case of George Washington is his revered status and
the prevalence of things named after him. Thousands of schools, streets
and towns are named for the first president. His likeness appears on the
dollar and the quarter. A state is named for him, as is the nations
capital and by dint of its location, this very newspaper.
Haney knows this.
It doesnt have to be all or none, he told The Post. You can keep
honoring George Washington while also having a couple schools here and
there change to somebody that the community feels represents who they are
and what they care about.
Comments:
RsGoat
9:37 AM PDT
If it is the painting that is offensive get a differing one and that makes
more sense!
The truth was slavery existed world wide at the time we separated from
England and it would be decades before they ended their connection too. In
order for our 13 Colonies to defeat the British we needed all of our
colonies in the battle. Our Constitution put the words in place to force
the eventual end to slavery and tools to repair the some damage. By that I
mean we were able to create amendments such as the Civil Rights Act after
the first attempts to allow equal treatment at the end of the Civil War
were subjugated from years of legal tom foolery forced on citizens by
bigoted political leaders holding pseudo doctors or social scientist in
front of them to prove points today we know are untrue promoting separate
but equal or other Jim Crow laws robbing Americans of rights.
It Hit home during the Olympics when they said their country ended the
practice in 1888 to our 1865. I became curious and discovered Mauritania
ended their's in 1983! That blew my mind since it was in Africa and
Apartheid at the other end had ended in 1976, seven years earlier? I never
heard anything in the news about Mauritania but Apartheid was ever where.
Even Hollywood movies tossed in bits about their prejudice and major
segregation. Along with that also comes the obvious injustice but no
mention of slavery! Apparently the slavery of Mauritania was not news
worthy at the time?
I don't get it myself but I'm not going to hold it against a historical
figure who was part of the system at the time. We know better today
because of our past which they were part of and wer working to change. A
person can only change so much at a time in society.
I wonder if they had the chance to do things different looking back would
they but then If we could learn to have after though before hand this
would be a country of true genius, that is not happening any time soon.
LikeReplyShare
Johnny Web
9/13/2016 3:59 AM PDT
Lets rename it The Margret Sanger School of Progressive Thought.
LikeReplyShare
Dexter Wilson
9/12/2016 8:30 PM PDT
Mr. Matt Haney has a little problem with our true history. Our history was
rewritten between 1875 and 1925. George Washington prior to the
Revolutionary War tried to free his slaves but the British Empire would
not let those in the colonies release their slaves. As you may not know,
George Washington released his slaves after the war. If you are going to
remove names of schools if you still have any with that of Andrew Jackson,
you might want to start with him. He owned hundreds of slaves, and he
slept with some of them. He also was the father of the Democratic Party.
You might want to check out wallbuilders.com and many of the materials and
books they provide about our true history. Its founder, David Barton has
thousands of documents, periodicals, newspapers and original books of that
time period. I am really excited about Ms. Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson
on the twenty. She was a gun packing Republican Afro-American Christian
who helped slaves escape the slave South. As you probably know, no
Republican ever owned slaves. Yes, Mr. Ulysses S. Grant prior to the Civil
War owned slaves but at that time before the war he was not a Republican.
LikeReplyShare
fab feringhee
9/12/2016 5:07 PM PDT
Muhammad owned slaves and he started the religion of peace, whats wrong
with owning slaves?
LikeReplyShare
Johnny Web
9/13/2016 3:44 AM PDT
And his "followers" would still do so if allowed.
LikeReply
Steak Farmer
9/10/2016 5:18 PM PDT
Oddly enough I'm reading this in a newspaper named after this very same
slave owner. And this newspaper is considered to be the beacon of truth by
the very same liberals that want to un-name all the things related to the
south and slave owners.
LikeReplyShare
JeromeBarry1
9/10/2016 6:31 AM PDT
It's San Francisco. Maya Angelou was a dropout. It makes perfect sense.
LikeReplyShare2
Zos
9/10/2016 5:56 AM PDT
It's always amusing to read about the next absurd event coming out of
California.
LikeReplyShare2
Thomas Busse
9/9/2016 7:44 PM PDT [Edited]
He wants an adult conversation on Twitter?
Oh, Lincoln fought in the Indian wars.
Washington HS isn't very good (not as bad as Balboa or Mission though), so
it's appropriate to name it for a dropout. Good students go to Lowell.
LikeReplyShare
--
His Omnipotence Barack Hussein Obama, declared himself "Pooptator" of all
mentally ill homosexuals and crossdressers, while declaring where they
will defecate.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the seven
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.
Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---
owners-s-f-school-board-chief-threatened-after-call-to-rename-george-
washington-h-s/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_2_na
Matt Haney, the president of the San Francisco Unified School District
Board of Education, was discussing Maya Angelou with friends on a lazy
Sunday afternoon when he decided to tweet an idea he had been mulling
over.
We should rename Washington High School after San Francisco native, poet
and author Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou High School. No schools named after
slave owners, Haney wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times. (His
account has since been set to private.)
Haney, a white male, knew full well how this might be taken, but he says
he only wanted to spark a debate. But he didnt expect the outpouring of
anger on social media.
Nor did he expect, after an appearance Wednesday on The OReilly Factor
to receive a call from the San Francisco Police Department warning him of
a threat against him.
In response, Haney made his Twitter and Facebook accounts private, but he
spoke to The Washington Post early Friday morning about his intentions in
sending the tweet, the fallout from it and his feelings about George
Washington.
I knew it would be provocative and start a debate, he said, before
pausing. I should say, start a conversation.
The tweet was a call to rename George Washington High School, which is one
of San Franciscos largest high schools, with a 2016 student enrollment of
1,998. According to the latest profile posted on the schools website, its
racial composition in 2010 included 6.2 percent African American students,
49.8 percent Chinese American students and 17.3 percent other non-white
students.
In the school is a mural depicting Washington with slaves. This mural in
particular draws Haneys ire.
Numerous students have told me that theyre disturbed by the mural, he
said. Students have told me that they walk in and its disturbing, its
painful.
Haney suggested instead naming the school after one of its former
students, Maya Angelou. She dropped out at 14 to become the citys first
black female cable car conductor.
The response to his tweet was swift. Some offered support; some seemed
offended.
Arrest him for treason, tweeted one user.
L.J. Kid @eljaykid
@MattHaneySF We have failing schools in the City, many going private
school, and your worried about the name on the school? #Priorities
2:41 AM - 7 Sep 2016
Retweets 6 6 likes
Cinthia Flores @cinthianflores
I got so much love for @MattHaneySF, it's ridiculous
7:45 PM - 7 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 8 8 likes
John Carroll @nativeappsvc
@MattHaneySF Do you research, Jefferson was opposed to the slavery concept
and so was was Washington. Your a slave to political correctness.
5:56 PM - 8 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 5 5 likes
JAMMO Publishing @JAMMO_1
@MattHaneySF You, sir, are an idiot. Would you also advocate shaving his
image off Mount Rushmore? Or changing the name of the City / State?
9:37 PM - 6 Sep 2016
1 1 Retweet 8 8 likes
He doesnt regret sending the tweet.
I maybe wish I had been clearer that Im not intending to change the
school names without the support of the community, he said, before
adding. We need to be able to have an adult conversation.
SF Official Calls For Renaming Of Schools Named After Slaveholders, read
one headline. SF school board head calls for renaming slaveowner branded
schools, read another.
These headlines arent unfair he did tweet No more slave owners.
And he did tell the San Francisco Chronicle, We need to have a
conversation about this. Especially at George Washington High School. We
have school names in San Francisco that are not relevant or meaningful or
inspire pride.
But he told The Washington Post, I think a lot of people have
misinterpreted what I was trying to do by putting it out there, which is
suggest an idea, start a conversation and let the community take it from
it there. It wasnt a formal proposal or something I was going to force on
anybody.
Im calling for introspection, some conversation, he said. The most
important thing for me is that our school communities have names theyre
proud of, and that they know their school board is open to a conversation
about that.
The conversation he wanted to ignite was bigger than just the name of a
high school.
We dont talk about slavery much in this country. We dont think much
about what it meant, Haney said.
Added Haney, We never talk about it, which is kind of weird.
To that end, hes pleased with his comments.
Its forcing us to have that conversation [about slavery], he said.
Haney says hes a newcomer to the debate over the names of public
institutions. I have not really spent time or thought about this issue
much until a week ago, he said. But its an ongoing one in America.
In 1997, Orleans Parish, La., following a policy of not honoring slave
owners, swapped George Washingtons name on an elementary school for
Charles Richard Drew, a black surgeon who lived from 1904 to 1950.
And ever since Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel AME Church in the heart of
Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2015, and authorities say killed nine
unarmed black worshipers, the debate surrounding the names of public
institutions and subjects of public monuments has filled headlines.
[As Derby approaches, Kentucky lawmakers battle over removal of
Confederate monument]
The Confederate battle flag was removed from South Carolinas statehouse
on July 10, 2015, after flying for 54 years. An Austin school recently
launched a crowdsourcing campaign to rename its Robert E. Lee Elementary,
Mashable reported. A Confederate monument in Louisville, was moved from
its prominent location near the University of Louisville. A battle has
raged in New Orleans surrounding the planned removal of several
Confederate monuments, the Associated Press reported.
The difference in the case of George Washington is his revered status and
the prevalence of things named after him. Thousands of schools, streets
and towns are named for the first president. His likeness appears on the
dollar and the quarter. A state is named for him, as is the nations
capital and by dint of its location, this very newspaper.
Haney knows this.
It doesnt have to be all or none, he told The Post. You can keep
honoring George Washington while also having a couple schools here and
there change to somebody that the community feels represents who they are
and what they care about.
Comments:
RsGoat
9:37 AM PDT
If it is the painting that is offensive get a differing one and that makes
more sense!
The truth was slavery existed world wide at the time we separated from
England and it would be decades before they ended their connection too. In
order for our 13 Colonies to defeat the British we needed all of our
colonies in the battle. Our Constitution put the words in place to force
the eventual end to slavery and tools to repair the some damage. By that I
mean we were able to create amendments such as the Civil Rights Act after
the first attempts to allow equal treatment at the end of the Civil War
were subjugated from years of legal tom foolery forced on citizens by
bigoted political leaders holding pseudo doctors or social scientist in
front of them to prove points today we know are untrue promoting separate
but equal or other Jim Crow laws robbing Americans of rights.
It Hit home during the Olympics when they said their country ended the
practice in 1888 to our 1865. I became curious and discovered Mauritania
ended their's in 1983! That blew my mind since it was in Africa and
Apartheid at the other end had ended in 1976, seven years earlier? I never
heard anything in the news about Mauritania but Apartheid was ever where.
Even Hollywood movies tossed in bits about their prejudice and major
segregation. Along with that also comes the obvious injustice but no
mention of slavery! Apparently the slavery of Mauritania was not news
worthy at the time?
I don't get it myself but I'm not going to hold it against a historical
figure who was part of the system at the time. We know better today
because of our past which they were part of and wer working to change. A
person can only change so much at a time in society.
I wonder if they had the chance to do things different looking back would
they but then If we could learn to have after though before hand this
would be a country of true genius, that is not happening any time soon.
LikeReplyShare
Johnny Web
9/13/2016 3:59 AM PDT
Lets rename it The Margret Sanger School of Progressive Thought.
LikeReplyShare
Dexter Wilson
9/12/2016 8:30 PM PDT
Mr. Matt Haney has a little problem with our true history. Our history was
rewritten between 1875 and 1925. George Washington prior to the
Revolutionary War tried to free his slaves but the British Empire would
not let those in the colonies release their slaves. As you may not know,
George Washington released his slaves after the war. If you are going to
remove names of schools if you still have any with that of Andrew Jackson,
you might want to start with him. He owned hundreds of slaves, and he
slept with some of them. He also was the father of the Democratic Party.
You might want to check out wallbuilders.com and many of the materials and
books they provide about our true history. Its founder, David Barton has
thousands of documents, periodicals, newspapers and original books of that
time period. I am really excited about Ms. Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson
on the twenty. She was a gun packing Republican Afro-American Christian
who helped slaves escape the slave South. As you probably know, no
Republican ever owned slaves. Yes, Mr. Ulysses S. Grant prior to the Civil
War owned slaves but at that time before the war he was not a Republican.
LikeReplyShare
fab feringhee
9/12/2016 5:07 PM PDT
Muhammad owned slaves and he started the religion of peace, whats wrong
with owning slaves?
LikeReplyShare
Johnny Web
9/13/2016 3:44 AM PDT
And his "followers" would still do so if allowed.
LikeReply
Steak Farmer
9/10/2016 5:18 PM PDT
Oddly enough I'm reading this in a newspaper named after this very same
slave owner. And this newspaper is considered to be the beacon of truth by
the very same liberals that want to un-name all the things related to the
south and slave owners.
LikeReplyShare
JeromeBarry1
9/10/2016 6:31 AM PDT
It's San Francisco. Maya Angelou was a dropout. It makes perfect sense.
LikeReplyShare2
Zos
9/10/2016 5:56 AM PDT
It's always amusing to read about the next absurd event coming out of
California.
LikeReplyShare2
Thomas Busse
9/9/2016 7:44 PM PDT [Edited]
He wants an adult conversation on Twitter?
Oh, Lincoln fought in the Indian wars.
Washington HS isn't very good (not as bad as Balboa or Mission though), so
it's appropriate to name it for a dropout. Good students go to Lowell.
LikeReplyShare
--
His Omnipotence Barack Hussein Obama, declared himself "Pooptator" of all
mentally ill homosexuals and crossdressers, while declaring where they
will defecate.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $19 trillion in the seven
years he has been in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.
Barack Obama, reelected by the dumbest voters in the history of the United
States of America. The only American president to deliberately import a
lethal infectious disease from Africa, Ebola.
Loretta Fuddy, killed after she "verified" Obama's phony birth
certificate.
Obama ignored the brutal killing of an American diplomat in Benghazi, then
relieved American military officers who attempted to prevent said murder
in order to cover up his own ineptitude.
Obama continues his muslim goal of disarming America while ObamaCare
increases insurance premiums 300% and leaves millions without health care.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ***@netfront.net ---