Personally, I don’t care much about the names of buildings or sports teams. If residents of a city, municipality, or state want to rename a building after Barack Obama, as some in a town in NJ want to do, I’m fine with it so long as it doesn’t cost me any money.
The name change won’t do one thing for black people. They won’t get a better education (see test scores Baltimore Maryland public schools). The high school dropout rate won’t change. Black-on-black violence won’t be diminished. Out of wedlock births will continue. The welfare rolls will be maintained.
Worldview 101: A Biblical View of the World
Utilizing audio, video, and printed material, Worldview 101 will equip the student with the tools necessary to "think God's thoughts" about the world and the created order. It will reveal and redirect the humanistic thought patterns that exist in each of us. The Enlightenment promised freedom, but brought slavery to man's ideas instead. Worldview 101 points the way forward to true freedom of thought in Christ.
Buy NowIf so-called black leaders want to help the black community, they should begin at a more foundational level, that is, working to keep black families intact. The policies of liberals in general have hurt black families and black neighborhoods. There was a time in our nation’s history, even during times of segregation, that intact families for blacks and whites were equal. The War on Poverty became a war on the poor when Lyndon Johnson expanded the welfare state in 1964. The following is from the late and great Walter Williams:
The No. 1 problem among blacks is the effects stemming from a very weak family structure. Children from fatherless homes are likelier to drop out of high school, die by suicide, have behavioral disorders, join gangs, commit crimes and end up in prison. They are also likelier to live in poverty-stricken households. But is the weak black family a legacy of slavery? In 1960, just 22 percent of black children were raised in single-parent families. Fifty years later, more than 70 percent of black children were raised in single-parent families. Here’s my question: Was the increase in single-parent black families after 1960 a legacy of slavery, or might it be a legacy of the welfare state ushered in by the War on Poverty?
According to the 1938 Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, that year 11 percent of black children were born to unwed mothers. Today about 75 percent of black children are born to unwed mothers. Is that supposed to be a delayed response to the legacy of slavery? The bottom line is that the black family was stronger the first 100 years after slavery than during what will be the second 100 years.
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The most damage done to black Americans is inflicted by those politicians, civil rights leaders and academics who assert that every problem confronting blacks is a result of a legacy of slavery and discrimination. That’s a vision that guarantees perpetuity for the problems.
But black leaders will tell the black “community” they’ve accomplished something with a new black-named building or new national holidays celebrating MLK and Juneteenth, but it will all be “full of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
Here’s the story from some years ago:
“The Willingboro Council will take public input, at its next meeting, on changing the name of a township building from the John F. Kennedy Center to the Barack Obama Center.
“The Center opened as John F. Kennedy High School in 1966 but now is used mostly as a recreation center. Since it’s undergoing renovations, some council members thought it would be a good time to rename the building in honor of the current president.
“They introduced and passed a resolution to do so at last week’s meeting, but residents who learned about it later protested that they should have had a say.
Mayor Eddie Campbell agrees. Even though he supports the name change, he voted no because he wanted to give residents time to weigh in.”
When JFK was assassinated, there were a lot of JFK this and JFK that renaming going on. The biggest one was Cape Canaveral.
From 1963 to 1973, the area had a different name when US President Lyndon Johnson by executive order renamed the area ‘Cape Kennedy’ after President John F. Kennedy who had set the goal of landing on the moon. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, suggested to President Johnson that renaming the Cape Canaveral facility would be an appropriate memorial. Johnson recommended the renaming of the entire cape, announced in a televised address six days after the assassination.
The renaming did not help anyone. It was an understandable thoughtful gesture.
In 1973, the Florida Legislature passed a law restoring the Canaveral name. “The Kennedy family issued a letter stating they ‘understood the decision.’ NASA’s Kennedy Space Center retains the ‘Kennedy’ name.”
Liberal do-gooders and busy bodies who believe they know what’s best for the disenfranchised petitioned the owner of the Washington Redskins to change the name of the team. The Redskins became the “Washington Football Team” before opting for the Commanders moniker prior to the 2022 season.
In what way did the name change help America’s Native American population? Zero. Like the War on Poverty, there was a war on native Americans going back centuries. The solution? More welfare. The protestors will move on to their next project like forcing the University of Mississippi to drop its “Ole Miss” nickname and Rebel mascot. Interestingly, a group of vociferous Native American’s want the name changed back to Redskins:
The name of the football team playing in Washington D.C. is once again under question.
A group called the Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA) is demanding the Washington Commanders change their name back to the Redskins, organizing support for the name reversal with a petition that has gained more than 90,000 signatures.
“We invite all Americans to stand up for the dignity of EVERY AMERICAN under assault in today’s increasingly nonsensical culture wars,” the petition says.
“This ‘LINE IN THE SAND’ moment reinforces undeniable history of the NATIVE AMERICAN assisting the FOUNDING OF AMERICA, with NATIVE AMERICAN principles used by the FOUNDING FATHERS in the US Constitution—and, EVERY AMERICAN’s right to the 1st and 14th Amendment and not to be targets of cancel culture or ESG. “This is not a simple left or right issue for Americans; it reaches across the political spectrum dating back to our Founding Fathers.”
A Native American woman was taken off a butter brand. Now there’s just an O where a native American woman used to stand. In this case, a Native American woman was erased.
On June 17, 2020, Quaker Oats announced that the Aunt Jemima brand would be discontinued and replaced with a new name and image “to make progress toward racial equality.” Also in 2020, other rebrandings and reviews were announced. This included Uncle Ben’s rice (which was renamed Ben’s Original), the Mrs. Butterworth’s pancake syrup brand and bottle shape, and the “Rastus” Black chef logo used by Cream of Wheat. These actions are little more than virtue signaling. There is no trickle-down effect that has done anything to help any disenfranchised group. These same companies will be pressured to “donate” money to leftist causes or boycotts will ensue. They learned this tactic from the “Justice Brothers,” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths
Christianity's failure to show itself practical in the past 150 years has guaranteed the success of secularism and militant Islam, both of which are doing incalculable harm at home and abroad. The rejection of any type of "this-worldly" application of the Bible has resulted in the proliferation of man-centered worldviews that have steadily drained the life out of our world and left behind a spiritual vacuum.
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