‘Nigger’ and the word in French, ‘negre’ are still in use officially in the province of Quebec as the names of at least 11 sights or places. And Rachel Zellars says it’s time to change that.
ListenRachel Zellars, is a PhD student in Education at McGill University. When she became aware that these places existed she created a petition to alert the provincial toponomy comission to the fact that many Quebecker’s find the names offensive.
Originally from Ithaca, New York, Rachel Zellars says, as an immigrant, she is very aware of the names and places with historical connections all over Montreal, But when she read, in a CBC post, of the ongoing-existence of these places in Quebec she knew she had to act.
“As a researcher of race it’s really important for me to step away from the theory of race, which I love very much at moments like this, and remember that the racism, the practice of it and the experience of it are certainly not abstractions they’re real things that land on the body and when I saw the August 8th article on CBC, that’s certainly something that connected with me very much.”
She says she was shocked to see that there were 11 sights still called ‘Nigger’ or ‘ Negre’. Some of these places are historic sights that have yet to be designated as such”
“One of the most absurd parts of this entire story”
The so-called ‘Nigger Rapids’, 120 kilometres north of Ottawa, is named after a black couple that drowned there in 1912. Rachel Zellars says the Mayor of the nearby community of Bouchette “has justified its name by insisting that the name was actually given in memory of this couple, and to me it felt like one of the most absurd parts of this entire story.”
When asked why the word ‘nigger’ is so offensive, Zellars says, “It is the most hateful symbol, unequivocally, that has been used to defile black people in North America”
Rachel Zellars explains that some of the resistance she has encountered comes from “this idea that somehow removing the word nigger from the natural site will erase the history, or historical memory of a place.but,” as she argues, “first that presumes that naming something ‘nigger’ or ‘negre’ describes the historical event which it does not, and it also presumes that taking the term away will destroy history in some way, which it will not.” Zellars says “the larger issue at hand is the fact that these sights have yet to be designated as historic sights widely in Quebec because we just don’t know enough about them, and we need to.”
She continues saying, “it feels illogical to conflate the issue of a need for creating greater visibility around Black-Quebec history with this desire to remove a word that has been used as a term of debasement and violence toward black people everywhere in North America for over 200 years.”
You can find more information in English and French by going to this page: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/removing-nigger-from-quebecs-natural-sites
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