Staff Editorial

Can we please stop naming things after racist figures?

john_calhoun

Photo collage by Josué Díaz

There comes a time during the evolution of cultures when we as a society reflect on our past and make a conscious decision about what sins we have in our history.

Slavery is one of the United States’ worst sins.

Undeniably, the idea of treating a human being as property is almost unfathomable to citizens of the United States today. However, less than 150 years ago we were all killing each other over slavery.

While the institution has been abolished, there are still racist remnants of it left in our culture, especially in the South.

This summer there was a massive uproar wherein people finally questioned why there were still Confederate flags everywhere. Similarly, if you take a good look around, there are still street signs, buildings and even college dormitories given names after historically racist figures.

Running through campus is Calhoun Road, a street named after former Vice President John C. Calhoun who was instrumental in annexing Texas into the United States.

Unfortunately, Calhoun is best known for his vehement assertion that slavery was a “positive good.”

In fact, his reason for wanting to annex Texas in the first place was because he believed that Texas’ annexation was imperative to preserving slavery in America.

The street itself was named by the city in the late 1800’s, so it’s understandable that Texans at the time weren’t privy to sympathy for African-Americans.

Knowing all this, The University of Houston should take the opportunity to reconsider giving Calhoun Lofts a name more suited toward a diverse, Tier One research university.

The name “Calhoun Lofts” was originally only supposed to be a placeholder and literally “became the name because it is located on Calhoun and the fact that they are lofts,” said Teeba Rose, marketing manager for student housing and residential life.

Yale University is also considering renaming one of its colleges that is named after Calhoun. Just a few blocks away, a movement has already started to rename Dowling Street because it is named after Confederate leader Richard Dowling.

In the heat of this Confederate flag backlash, now seems an appropriate time to consider removing this “placeholder” name and leave it to the students to decide. The fact that the newly built Lofts do not have a physical sign installed on the building makes that even more opportune.

People in South Carolina did not remove the confederate flag from their statehouse just because it offended some people; they did so because that flag represents a period in our history when we as a nation were divided over whether African-Americans should be treated as people or not.

Culture and tradition run deep in Texas, and some might disagree and say that we should still honor figures that helped make this state what it is today.

Tradition does not excuse something that carries a dark past with it.

-The Cougar Editorial Board

Should UH consider changing Calhoun Lofts name?

  • No, I don't care. (63%, 5 Votes)
  • Yes, it's offensive. (38%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 8

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15 Comments

  • I feel there is a strong difference between a symbol like the confederate flag and a street named after some guy.

    Symbols gain power because of the people who rally behind them for the cause they believe in or are fighting for. In the case of the confederate flag, it was representative of the rebels who rallied behind slavery and even killed in the name of it. While I believe that hanging a confederate flag falls well within an individual’s 1st amendment rights, I am well within my rights to not associate with that person on the basis of them rallying behind a symbol I find distasteful.

    As far as Calhoun rd. goes, I myself (and many others, I’m sure) didn’t know it was actually named after VP Calhoun. Street names bear so little semblance that I find it hard to rally behind changing them (or the things on the street so aptly named after them) on the basis of the individual’s viewpoints; especially since most old roads in Texas were named after the original land owners, and most of those were undoubtedly slave owners and slavery proponents. The only difference between John Calhoun and any other Joe of the time is that he was a public figure.

    Granted, Calhoun Lofts is a terribly dull name, but it’s not like the
    university is exactly creative with dorm names. That in and of itself is
    a good reason to change half the dorm names on campus.

    • Cougar Village I, Cougar Village II, Cougar Place, Bayou Oaks (because it’s by a bayou), Cullen Oaks (because it’s on Cullen Blvd), Cambridge Oaks (because we needed another “Oaks”) . . .creativity at its finest.

    • Campus dormitories and apartments don’t need ‘creative’ names. Using the mascot or location identifiers are good enough and easier to remember than some ‘creative’ naming. Do you have better names for half the names on campus?

      • Actually, I wasn’t saying that they should change the dorm names. I was merely remarking on the fact that the logic put forth in this article to change the name of Calhoun Lofts is the same logic that could be used to change more than half the dorm names on campus.

        And naming the dorms dumb/redundant names because they’re easy to remember is not sound at all. I think people probably do just fine remembering Moody Towers, The Quad’s respective halls (Bates, Law, Oberholtzer, Settegast, Taub), Cougar Village, etc. There aren’t 50 to know. Where it becomes funny to me is when we have what Randy pointed out which is three living facilities with “Oaks” in their names, and three dorms with “Cougar” in their names. That’s arguably more confusing than each of them having their own unique name.

  • In the poll, where is the “No, it’s not offensive, this article is patently ridiculous, and The Cougar should focus on journalistic integrity and improving content instead of just trolling for attention” option?

  • Dumbest. Article. Ever. Who’s the Editor of this rag?? I gotta agree with the responses thus far……esp. GodHelpUsAll

  • This is a petty and irrelevant discussion. No one walks into that building thinking about the history of the name for god’s sake!

  • It’d be best if institutions didn’t name buildings or property after anybody or entity. Not just to avoid any future controversies, but because they don’t serve a practical purpose. UH Central Library and UH Stadium are quicker, shorter names that make it clear what’s there as opposed to the M.D. Anderson Library and TDECU Stadium. It’s already a problem in that a METRORail stop decided to include “Robertson Stadium” as part of the name (which I believe is due to the UH Alumni Association’s suggestion).

    Statues of select figures are also another waste of money and resources. We should be looking towards the institution’s future, not just the past. Invest the money spent on frivolous statues (and sometimes frivolous art sculptures) into building maintenance, improving lighting/water efficiency, fixing sidewalks, adding bike racks, etc.

    There are many great ways to commemorate an institution’s past and the special individuals that contributed to it that don’t involve naming rights and statues. There can be free exhibits, portraits, videos, books, events, etc.

    • You’re not wrong, but that just doesn’t happen.

      The whole point of sponsoring/donating something from a business perspective is so that you’re immortalized on it somehow.
      Sure, many of the people who helped UH like the Moodys and the Cullens had the well being of the school’s future in mind when they gave UH all the money they did, but I’m also sure they wanted people to know they gave that money somehow.
      Frankly, if I gave the school such an endowment to go towards campus enrichment and all I received to commemorate that was anything you suggested I would be less than likely to donate again in the future.

  • The United States was set up as a racist institution. We need to change it and rearrange it to be more like Zimbabwe. We need to get rid of the Constitution since many of those evil Whites who created it were slave owners or supported slavery. The racism in America has gotten so bad to the point that there are no non-Whites that would like to immigrate to the heavily racist United States. Unfortunately this has been very detrimental to diversity, and we all know that diversity reduces crime and strengthens social cohesion. I also think we should get rid of racist words like “master”. Instead of earning a “Master’s Degree” we need a “Progressive Degree”. We need a government that is more like a big tribe and have Obama as our king. He is the closet thing to the brilliance of Robert Mugabe.

  • Why can’t we just name everything after Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood. The organization which she founded did a lot of good in reducing a menacing racial demographic.

  • lol well well well….look at there. i wonder if the writer of this article has read the most recent news for today. nice job.

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