Fresno County leaders should not propose a way to get S-word back in town’s name | Opinion

A year ago, California approved AB 2022, by Assemblymember James C. Ramos, which banned the “S” -word as a name for geographic features and locations within California. Central Valley and rural lawmakers from both parties in the Assembly and Senate, supported the bill and it went to the governor’s desk without a single “no” vote.

The federal government and at least three other states — Minnesota, Maine, and Montana — have already adopted similar bans on use of this degrading term. Local governments and private entities across the country are voluntarily renaming streets, housing developments, and other places that use it.

Despite broad recognition that the term should go the way of the “N”-word for African Americans or the “D”-word for Italian Americans or other expressions degrading groups of people, the all-male Fresno County Board of Supervisors initiated a costly, taxpayer-funded battle to perpetuate the bigoted reference. Despite failing to kill AB 2022 — let alone getting a single no vote — and losing a lawsuit in November that supervisors are considering appealing, they now propose a questionable political scheme to amend the county charter.

Why continue to exalt a word recalling a painful, destructive history of genocide against California Native Americans as well as assaults against women that some believe has contributed to the disproportionally high numbers of missing and murdered Native women and girls?

California is fifth in the country for the number of such cases. In 2018 Ramos became the first California Native American ever elected to the Legislature. Every year since, he has authored measures to fight this epidemic of violence, held hearings and championed funding for tribes and the Department of Justice to combat the largely ignored crimes against Native American women. One new tool is the Feather Alert, similar to AMBER alerts, to enlist the public in finding missing Indian people.

He authored the legislation and brought local tribes and law enforcement from around the state together — including Fresno — so they can more effectively use this resource.

Our language is replete with words featuring historical contexts that we’re all better off not using. Just because a word was used at some point in history doesn’t mean it should be celebrated and perpetuated, which is what naming a street, river or location does.

California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, called for exterminating Native Americans and got the Legislature to pay bounties to militias and others for killing Indians. Many atrocities committed against California’s First People victimized women and girls who are still dehumanized by the “S”-word. That shameful past is deservedly becoming better known. Victims of those horrific acts — our foremothers — could not speak for themselves then, but their descendants deserve more awareness of that history as well an understanding of and respect for their objections commemorating the “S”-word as a geographic identification.

Our mothers, sisters, daughters, and granddaughters should not have to endure this sort of dehumanizing language.

Federal, state, and local governments operate under agreed upon exchanges of powers. Ballot box shenanigans to amend county charters to preserve a name tainted by a disgusting past is the wrong thing to do. Renaming locales to honor all people and our common history is the right thing to do.