RENAMING EUGENICS AVENUE [R, 7-8-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

RENAMING EUGENICS AVENUE   [R, 7-8-21]

 

Glenda Murray, the Monroe County Historian, is a friend from church, and on the city/campus committee tasked with renaming Jordan Ave. I’ve been giving her suggestions. She still speaks to me anyway. That may be, though, because she is an usher, and part of the church usher contract is they have to speak to everybody. The Bible says so.

There is a lot of controversy right now in Bloomington, Indiana over re-naming Jordan Avenue. It runs through both Bloomington and the Indiana University campus, so the university trustees and the city council have to agree on what a new name should be.

Of course, it would be perfectly normal for you to ask, “Why would you change the name of a street that is named for Michael Jordan?” Yes, we are rightly lauding Kobe Bryant now, because of his early and tragic demise, made even more poignant because his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gianna, was killed in the plane crash with him. Still, Michael is the basketball GOAT, Greatest Of All Time.

The problem is that the street is named not for Michael Jordan but for David Starr Jordan, president of IU from 1884-1891. His reputation has taken an understandable hit lately because it has come to light that he was an advocate of “eugenics,” which essentially is a pseudo-scientific way of justifying racism, “proving scientifically” that black folks are inferior, because of the shape of their heads or something. Where I come from, “eugenics” was called “mongrelizing the races.”

IU has already taken that former president’s name off the Jordan River, a tiny stream that runs through campus, and the life sciences building, and—worst cut of all—a parking garage. Only that street remains.

When I was an IU student, I always thought the Jordan River was named after the one in “The Holy Land,” where John baptized Jesus. Which proves that Jesus was a Methodist, because you certainly could not dunk somebody in that trickle. Some seasons just getting enough water for a sprinkling baptism would be a stretch.

Which reminds me of the old guy who lived near here who was asked if he believed in sprinkling baptism. “Believe in it?” he said. “Why, I’ve seen it done.”

Which is part of the problem. David Starr Jordan believed in eugenics, not because he had seen it done, because he had seen it work, but because his heart was full of unacknowledged racism and elitism, an “original sin” problem that remains today. Everybody knows racial superiority is a crock, so we have to think up fancy names to justify it. Maybe Jordan Ave. should be renamed “Wake Up to Your Own Blindness” Street. 

Maybe it’s best just to announce the street is no longer named for the former IU president and let people assume it is named for any Jordan they favor. Named for Michael? Why not? Barbara Jordan? Now there’s a name worthy of a street!

There are a lot of street names that don’t have to specify someone or something in particular. Elm Street. No particular Elm in mind. Besides, the elm from which it might have gotten its name in the first place was probably destroyed by Dutch Elm disease long ago and been replaced by signs for Taco Bell and Tasteless Tattoo.

Glenda told me last Sunday at church—yes, we go there in person now—that they “are getting close” to having the street renamed, so I’d better get a batch of new name possibilities to her, names that remind us of important events. Like… Cicada Way… Global Warming Ave… Wear Your Damn Mask Street… Terrorist Uprising Boulevard… White Supremacy Cul de Sac… oh, wait, that’s what got us into this mess in the first place.  

John Robert McFarland

“Answers that begin by explaining far too much always end by explaining far too little.” Wm Sloane Coffin