What’s In A Name?
BY SAM FIELDS
Next time you are in Spain stop by the village of Castrillo Matajudios. It is a beautiful place that goes back a thousand years, although the name is only 400 years old.
The town’s name comes from the time of the Spanish Inquisition and translates in part to “Kill Jews“. Now, isn’t that quaint?
On May 25, the town is scheduled to vote on changing the name. All indications are that the “NO’s” have it. Personally, I hope it loses since keeping the name is a reminder of their evil past and those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
If that seems distant in geography and time, let me introduce you to the current Alabama Constitution. It was adopted in 1901 and, as John B. Knox, Chairman of the Convention said; its purpose was “to establish white supremacy in this State”.
He was just an old fashion Jacksonian Democrat.
These provisions included all the standard segregation wish list items about schools and miscegenation. It gave Constitutional gravitas to poll taxes and literacy tests while exempting folks whose grandfathers had been in the military (Think poor Whites and the Confederacy).
It enshrined male only voting while it excluded “idiots and insane persons”.
By the 1990’s, Alabama was firmly in the hands of the GOP. Some in the Legislature decided that these embarrassing, odious, archaic provisions needed to be exorcised since Federal law had made them null and void.
[Removing the section about prohibiting “idiots” from voting may have also been one of GOP self-preservation.]
The changes were put to the ballot in 2004. It was defeated by a slim majority. With Blacks voting overwhelmingly voting “YES”, it means that a large majority of Whites voted “NO”.
But people change.
In 2012, the good, god-fearin’, Christian folks of Alabama had a second chance to eliminate this embarrassing language and show America and the world how they had grown. This time the changes were defeated 61% to 39%.
Bob Dylan had it right. “The Times, They Are a-Changin’”. He just had the direction wrong.
Of course we know that racism had nothing to do with these votes. After all, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts recently declared racism in America is dead and used that rational to eviscerate The Voting Rights Act. And he was supported in the decision by Justice Clarence Thomas…who is sort of Black.
I ask you, my dear readers, not to think ill of either of these two places. The folks in Alabama and Jewkiller are not racist or anti-Semites. They’re just sentimental about “the Good Ol’ Days”.
May 13th, 2014 at 9:40 am
Perhaps the team owner of the LA Clippers NBA basketball team wants to weigh in on this one…….
May 13th, 2014 at 9:59 am
Also see Florida Constitution Article 1, Section 2 which authorizes the Legislature to regulate or prohibit the ownership, inheritance, disposition, and possession of real property by aliens ineligible for citizenship. These alien land laws were aimed at immigrants of Asian decent. These laws were overturned by the case Oyama v California, 1948.
In 2008, there was a question on the ballot which would have removed this language from the Florida Constitution. Needless to say, the amendment failed and the language remains.
May 13th, 2014 at 2:32 pm
With that idiots and insane persons line, Sam Fields should stay out of Alabama.
May 13th, 2014 at 6:53 pm
“sort of Black”…. Sam you are a racist POS.
May 14th, 2014 at 10:31 am
What about all the places named “Matamoros?”
May 14th, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Matamoros, Moor Slayer. Moors were the Saracens, the Muslim invaders of Spain. Matamoros means Muslim Killer. Cool!
“Saint James the Moor-slayer (Spanish: Santiago Matamoros also known as San Tiago de Matamoros) is famous Spanish mythological figure who helped the Christians defeat the Muslims in battle.”
They sure knew how to name people back then.
May 16th, 2014 at 6:56 pm
Or you could go up the Florida coast to Matanzas Inlet where the Spanish massacred the French Huegenot settlers in the area. Matanzas means massacre. The Huegenots were French Protestants that fled persecution from Catholics in France. Ain’t religious history great.