No doubt the high-ranking Marin County politicians who hatched the idea of re-naming Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the Coast Miwok Trail (or something like it) thought in the end Marin-ers would come together for a giant group hug and sing praises to their racial sensitivity.
Well, that didn’t happen.
The Drake renaming exercise has now become the most divisive issue to come down the pipe in decades. The towns of Larkspur and Ross have already given a big “N.O.” “to the idea. Some angry residents added one finger salutes for good measure.
So, what went wrong?
Well, not to put too fine a point on it, the name-changers failed to make a compelling case for ditching the Drake name. They banked on being able to show that Drake’s name intimidated people of color, like Civil War statues in the South, and that Drake was an unworthy historical figure because of his involvement in the slave trade.
Both assertions fell way short.
Local historians showed, in fact, that the Marin forebearers adopted the name Drake not to oppress people of color, but as a marketing ploy. It might have been crass, but it certainly was not racist. Period.
As for the attempt to paint Drake with a 2020 pallet as a racist pirate, slave trader and world class S.O.B, historians said that actually the most authoritative and recent scholarship on Drake doesn’t provide that simplistic take-a-way. While as a young man he did sail on voyages on his cousin’s ship, who did engage in the slave trade, Drake’s accomplishments to the world come not as a slaver but as the No. 1 world explorer of his day. Later in life he opposed the slave trade, in both voice and deed.
Drake was a pirate, to be sure, but only if you were Spanish. To the English and most of the rest of the world he was seen as a national hero. By all accounts, he also treated the Miwok with respect during his five-week stay in Marin. It was the Spanish that later oppressed the Miwok.
But perhaps the biggest miscue in the whole deal comes from the hubris encased around the idea that ditching Drake’s name somehow does something about racial inequity Marin.
People saw through that tokenism right away.
Several speakers in the Larkspur and Ross public hearings asked the key question: How does changing the name of a street do anything, exactly, to fix racial inequity? The answer, of course, is nothing. It’s feel-good stuff.
Now look, I’m not arguing against honoring the Miwok or that there’s nothing to the idea of racial inequality in Marin. I’m just speaking the truth about renaming Drake, which is: This idea is going nowhere. It brings more heat than light. It’s probably best to move on.
If I’m going wrong somewhere, please let me know how.
ITEMS OF NOTE
— RIP Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the iconic poet, founder of City of Lights Bookstore and legendary San Franciscan. Dead at 101. He will be remembered well by independent thinkers everywhere. The Marin connections are, of course, everywhere, not the least of which is his publishing of Sausalito poet Alan Ginsberg’s book “Howl” in 1955.
— Kudos to President Joe Biden for definitively telling those in his party who want him to forgive all student debt for everyone. “I’m not gonna do that,” he said on national TV responding to a question. I love it when a politician speaks plainly. It doesn’t happen often enough.
— Good for HBO for airing the Woody Allen documentary. The ick-factor for this movie maker is off the charts.
— Hat tip to the San Francisco Chronicle for vigilance in reporting the apparent increasingly open hate crimes aimed at Asians in the Bay Area. Hard to read, but important to understand. Good journalism.
HOW EMBARRASSING IS THIS?
In the world of hypocrites, there is embarrassing and then there’s EMBARRASSING. On that theme, meet Matt Meyer,a white Berkeley guy who wears his hair in dreads (which may be all you need to know) who is also the head of a California teachers union fighting to keep California schools closed on the grounds it is unsafe in the Age of Coronavirus.
He was caught on video last month taking his 2-year-old child to a private pre-school.
You can imagine the outrage. A group called Guerilla Momz posted the video and said:
“Matt Meyer Berkeley Federation of Teachers President blocks opening public schools in-person, yet has had his own child in in-person school since June 2020. Stop the hypocrisy. Our children are suffering. Open schools full-time Now.”
Meyer said he had to do it because “there are no public options” for 2-year-olds.
Hoo-boy. I’d say Matt’s in the running for the 2021 Coronavirus Hypocrite award. But it’s early in the year.
ONE MORE THING
With that, I’ll pick up my knitting and let myself out. Thanks for reading. Be safe, be kind and mask-up. Please subscribe to Marin’s most interesting newspaper. See details on Page 3A.
(Sherman R. Frederick is the founder of Battle Born Media, a newspaper company dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/sherm.frederick/. He may be reached at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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