Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinbottawa
I'm Black and I'm not offended by names like Gladstone, but I'm probably the minority on this issue. If you were to rename everything that had ties to slavery or any other dark part of our history, you'd have to rename almost everything and dedicate unnecessary resources to those renamings. Most people have no idea who certain streets were originally named after. Some street names have become iconic within their cities, like Dundas Street in Toronto which some are calling to be renamed. Can you imagine Toronto without a Dundas Street? We all just need to admit that there were bright and dark aspects to our history and learn from it. I'm more upset with current instances of racism than historical ones. But again, I'm probably one of the few Black people that feel this way.
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Well said. I think the context is important. We should absolutely change confederate names who were by definition about racism and treasonous at the time.
Mixed legacies are a lot more complicated. For example Queens University is changing the name of McDonald Hall. I think when we try and eliminate our history we are saying we are essentially saying we would be better off if Canada hadn't been created. This is actually a fairly widespread view but if that is the case we should walk the walk and give back the land not just speak in platitudes.