I just read an article about a place called Negro Mountain, a ridge in the Alleghenies in Pennsylvania near the borders of Maryland and West Virginia. A lawmaker, Rosita Youngblood (D., PA) wants the name to be changed, but more on that later.
Names of things can cause difficulties in the wrong context, so I can see how the name of this mountain might cause a raised eyebrow or two in today’s anti-racism culture. On the other hand, the mountain has had the name since the 1700s to recognize the sacrifice of a man who defended the cause during the French & Indian War. The article does mention that the original moniker was another “n word” which nobody uses in civilized society, so somebody apparently did make an effort to be more polite by changing it once already.
In Spanish countries, negro is the term for the color black, so using the current name gives it a distinction from the Black Hills we all know. Nobody that I know has ever had an issue with the color black, though dictionaries refer to the term black as being dark in nature or attitude, or even diabolic (think of the “black arts” or black souls). Some hills and mountains are indeed diabolic, as you can find out from anybody who has tried to scale them.
But we digress. A Spanish person would find nothing wrong with negro/black mountain. Our issue is over our understanding of who a negro is to us and why a place should be named for what one is rather than who.
So somebody back in the 18th century dedicated a mountain to a person by referring to him by his race, probably because he was a rarity in a world still dealing with the subject of a person’s place when in forced servitude: this person fought alongside others for the common cause, apparently because he wanted to. In a world where we’re trying to decide how to refer to people without offense, we have to be clear on things that help with identification, and avoid being demeaning.
However, when we look at words like black, and realize they refer to a person of color during a controversial time in our history, does Youngblood really want to rename the mountain for the person’s name, which itself defines a contrarian, unfriendly relationship between people?
The hero’s name is Nemesis.
Susan's Scribblings the Blog 