Racial insults may be wiped off map: North Carolina place names

Raliegh News-Observer ^ | April 30, 2003 | LYNN BONNER

[Tall_Texan]

(Is "Blowing Rock" still OK, or does that offend the gays?)

Shhh. They think it's a tribute to Rock Hudson.

[Tall_Texan]

They could change them to "Niggaz Head" or "Niggaz Springs" and turn it into a tourist trap for hip hop and rap fans. Of course, the property values might go down...

[Constitution Day]

But I find it interesting that these names are in the western part of the state . . . the part of the state that remained loyal to the North during the late unpleasantness.

Extremely interesting!

[fella]

We own some land near a town called Japton. It's in an other state but this P.C. stuff tends to spread like a fungus. Will we neeed to get new letterheads?

[GraniteStateConservative]

In NW Arkansas, the KKK participates in the Adopt-a-Highway program.

[Lee'sGhost]

"Shhh. They think it's a tribute to Rock Hudson."

Bwahahahahahaha!!! Want to have some fun? Look at a list of Rock's movie titles and consider them in context of what we know now.

[billhilly]

"What will they rename Whiteville, NC?"

That is more in the class with Blacksburg, Virginia. Neither of them is racial as far as I can tell. In the former case I would guess that the town was named for someone named White. It happens.

[billhilly]

Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia is going to get some scrutiny.

[berserker]

I've never heard of any of the places mentioned in the article

Astonishingly, I found one of the places mentioned in the article on the postcard here. The postcard is from a website at toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/photo/lecompte/lec082.htm and it states that it was published by the Asheville Postcard Company.

[Susannah]

"The State of Virginia was named for "The Virgin Queen", Elizabeth I. My goodness, someone might think of sex when they say the name "Virginia". (/sarcasm)" If that's true, we really need to take the "ho" from Idaho. Probably should take the "Massa" off Massachusetts too. Seriously, though; I'm not black and still find the word "nigger" offensive. This is probably something that should be decided by states. If they want to save paint/ink, they could change a "N" to an artsy "V"...or paint out the "N" and replace it with another letter.

[dstarr]

There is another place with that 'N word' also. I have seen it in my NC maps book. I think it's in Bladen Co. The place is Niggerhead Bay. I don't know why it was so named.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

The river which runs through Asheville, NC is the "French Broad River".

It was named "French Broad" to distinguish it from the "Broad River" that ran on the ENGLISH side of the Eastern Continental Divide, way back when the Western side of the divide was French terriroty (and isn't any longer, Thank God!!)

[Darth Reagan]

they could change a "N" to an artsy "V"...or paint out the "N" and replace it with another letter.

How bout a "T"?