Why Greens are calling for new suburb name to be scrapped

[Gilbert Syndrome]

Wait. A guy named Lynch was the mayor of a place called Blacktown? WTF!?!?! I just spit coffee on the CPU from laughing. It shouldn't be funny, but it kinda is.

What I don't get is why "Lynch" is somehow bad, but "Blacktown" is somehow okay, lol. I know countless people with the Lynch surname, I don't see a problem unless their first name is Homo or Negro.

 

[Noztradamus]

Why? Because its title is "Lynching and Racial Violence in the United States and Australia"??!

Well, perhaps you should have read further into the actual artical

 

[dann]

I did, but apparently you didn't. Otherwise, you might have discovered the whole book.

 

[phiwum]

But you know that it does in America, right?

Only in recent decades. Back when I was growing up, lynching was associated with Wild West (in)justice, in which someone was accused of cattle or horse rustling and strung up without a trial. Blame television and radio shows for that emphasis.

These days, of course, we recognize that the principle victims of lynching were not unfortunate cowboys, but black folk. And so I don't deny your main point, but merely suggest that the notion of lynching and racism wasn't always connected in the American psyche.

Citation: Dozens of movies in which the hero prevents a lynching of a white man accused of a crime he didn't commit. There are nearly no movies of a black man facing a lynching for a crime he didn't commit, far as I can recall. At least not until relatively recently.

 

[phiwum]

Sure, but you are aware that as the largest and richest English-speaking country, America exports its culture and values across the entirity of the English-speaking world, right?

I can't see how anybody who grows up in an English-speaking country can fail to understand the racial connotations to the word. "Oh, that's not how we use the word here" fails to be relevant the first time an American tourist happens to visit the place.

Really?

I can understand about the sensitivity regarding the name "Lynch" being associated with "Blacktown", but surely one doesn't want to pander to us poor, ignorant Americans, no? Let the few tourists who venture to Blacktown deal with their own cognitive dissonance rather than pander to them.

Mind, I'm not an Australian and this is your issue, not mine, but I'd think that offending a small number of tourists isn't really a good reason to decide whether or not a man named Lynch is worth remembering.

 

[phiwum]

Funnily enough both Britain and Australia have our own culture and history of speaking English (here in England we've been doing it for some time. We almost speak it like natives).

Like hell you do.

Guess what, even when we know how Americans interpret something, we don't always care. And you might find this hard to believe, but we don't base every decision on the opinion of hypothetical American tourists.

Good for you. Your nation is your nation. Mere tourists shouldn't determine who you honor or how.

ETA. I didn't mean that last bit sarcastically. I meant it sincerely.

 

[Elagabalus]

And the name does have the kind of history I thought it might:

A few years later in 1823, the Native Institution (a school for Aboriginal children) was moved from Parramatta to the site where Richmond Road meets Rooty Hill Road North ...[/url]

Why should we be so attached to the name of some small-town mayor? It is not easy to see why some think change might be a good idea. This kind of thing does seem to draw a lot of “PC gone mad” and “very angry” freak outs.​

Rooty Hill Road North? Does that also include a swim to Tasmania? Now you're just messing with us.​

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Only in recent decades. Back when I was growing up, lynching was associated with Wild West (in)justice, in which someone was accused of cattle or horse rustling and strung up without a trial. Blame television and radio shows for that emphasis.

Indeed, in fact for me the first thing that sprung to mind (other than the director David) was the opening scene of "Hang Em High".

 

[The Atheist]

The Greens are behaving stupidly yet again.

That goes so well with your sig line.

 

[The Atheist]

I can't see how anybody who grows up in an English-speaking country can fail to understand the racial connotations to the word.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that of 100 people who visit "Lynch Park" in Aussie, 100 of them wouldn't have any connotation to lynching occur to them and all 100 would presume it was named after a famous person named Lynch.

99 if you're one of the 100, I guess.

It's easy to manufacture outrage when you try.

 

[Sideroxylon]

Like getting outraged over a name change from some white guy from the past you hardly know anything about?

 

[The Atheist]

Like getting outraged over a name change from some white guy from the past you hardly know anything about?

That doesn't bother me at all - we've had dozens of places names changed and most of them from white bloke's names to the Maori one.

Usually sounds better, too. Ayres Rock/Uluru.