“However,” he continued, “slope, gook, and zipperhead are still allowed.” We’re talking about a rural area in East Texas (which is the most Southern part) here, folks. Of course there are people who would call a Japanese person a “Jap.” There’s still quite a lot of racism in the rural South.
So a rural community jumps on the 20th century bandwagon a few years too late, and all of a sudden Texas is overrun with retards? Yawn. This isn’t much of a news story, or a rant.
[nitpick] In the instances of the above-named, the correct term is “whelped”. [/nitpick]
Cynic that I am, I’m pretty thoroughly convinced it went more like this:
Stupid Texan #1: “You take your first right offa Main Street, till you get to the outsida town, then left on that dirt road where that Jap lives.”
Stupid Texan #2: “Lemme get this straight: right offa Main, left on the Jap’s road.”
Stupid Texan #1: “Yup.”
Cut to the present day:
Smart Texan #1: “I’m tired of feeling like a racist every time I give directions in this town. I’ll try to get the name of Jap Road changed, to bring us all into the 20th century. I’ll work on the 21st later. . . .”
Stupid Texan #3: “Hey, you can’t change stuff!”
Smart Texan #1: “Why not? It’s racist.”
Stupid Texan #3: “No it ain’t, it’s, it’s, um, a whaddyacallit, it’s a tribute.’”
Smart Texan #1: “A TRIBUTE? That’s ridiculous! A tribute to WHO, exactly?”
Stupid Texan #3: “To, um, that Jap, musta been a Jap livin here sometime, else we wouldn’t be calling it Jap Road.”
Smart Texan #1: “Whatever. Careful, there’s a wall there.”
You know, I remember a very similar controversy a few years back…It had to do with Chinese people…a racist slur in a place name…a resistence to change…think…think…Oh yeah, Idaho. Chinks Peak, near Pocatello Idaho. Three years ago…in the 21st century. Here a link to a commentary on the place name by AsiaWeek cite. It seemed the Idaho Geographic Names Advisory Council “has decided that a mountain near Pocatello, Idaho, should keep its current name, Chinks Peak.” This was despite it being a racial slur. They changed their minds, eventually. I do not recall Texans calling the people of the Northwest retarded racists, however. I guess if we weren’t all a bunch of retards we would have jumped on that moral high ground.
That article was lame. I could give you 200 better stupid Texan stories. Any state can have old roads in some nowhere town with a name that are now slurs. But how many states have a major political party (Our beloved Texas GOP) that wants to return the gold standard or how many states allow people to sell dildos only if they have warning telling you not to insert them anywhere? Texas actually probably has less retards then most other states on account of the fact that we execute a good portion of them and then send the rest to Washington D.C. You want proof, look no farther then Tom “The Salamander” DeLay on the right and Sheila “The Hurricane” Jackson Lee on the left.
Bwaah! first outloud snort of the day.
What!, somebody is trash talkin’ mah home… get a rope.
The folks that have a problem with Texas should feel free to stay away!!!
Unclviny
MPSIMS but I always thought that “cracker” was a term for Florida cowboys that freguently cracked whips in gathering cattle.
Fifth-generation Texan checking in…sometimes it feels like I defend Texas for a living b/c I work downtown at a tourist bar. I encounter stereotyping practically every day. “Why don’t you sound like you’re from Texas?” “You seem really intelligent…you’re not from here, are you?” “Why does Texas think it’s so damn special?”
FTR, I grew up and now live in South Texas…and a few South Texans like to say that Texas stops north of 35, and that everything above Austin is really South Oklahoma.
I wouldn’t go that far…although I admit to laughing about it…but I’ll admit South Texas is its own unique kind of Texas, and people who live here wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else in Texas, even though we’re still proud of our state as a whole. Particularly when people start dogging it.
But for everyone who comes down here who loves to start trying to “take us down a notch or two,” there are tons more who are completely overwhelmed by the charm and beauty of Texas and its citizens. I’ve actually had people who visited us from other states who decided to move here b/c they loved it so much. They say the natives are unbelievably friendly, the price of living is low, the food is fabulous, and the women are gorgeous. blink blink Well, we are, dammit. 
We have our share of idiots, just like everybody else, but I wouldn’t live anywhere else if you paid me. Texas isn’t really part of the South. It’s Texas. Just like the ads say, “It’s a whole other country.” It’s the only state I’ve ever heard of where people fly the state flag more often than the stars and stripes.
It’s not our fault we’re fabulous. If you can’t lick us, join us. 
Gook Lane? Nip Trace? Slope Terrace? Bukkaki Drive? 
(I’m ashamed of myself!)
Deal! Now you keep Texas away from me.
Well…
Y’see, Texas is big. Really big.
In a place this big, you’re going to get some isolated communities. It happens. There are little towns all over Texas where… well… nobody ever goes there. The people who live there stay there. Sure, there’s commerce and such, but the locals keep to themselves, and they don’t get a lot of tourist trade. Farming communities and suchlike.
Now, it does not surprise me that there was a place out there called Jap Road, and that nobody thought about it twice until some out-of-towner raised hell about it. Hell, my grandfather regularly used the “N” word, and not as an ethnic slur – as an adjective, a method of describing a person, the way you or I might use the word “redneck” or “freckle face.”
It surprises me not in the least that some Japanese guy moved to Texas and made enough of a name for himself that the locals called the place “Jap Road.” Seems like they liked him well enough, to judge from the reaction. Not saying it’s right or politically correct – only that I suspect no harm was intended. And once the place was Jap Road, nobody thought about it twice for decades…
Seconded.
Good article in the NY Times.
Follow-up from yesterday on the change. IMO it was a nice gesture to Mr. Mayumi but very very clumsy.
I’ve lived in Texas for 14 years - half of my life - yet I don’t really feel like a “Texan”. Where I live, El Paso, is so far removed from the nearest sizeable city in Texas that I barely feel connected to the state. To me Texas is what issues my drivers license and plates - and that’s about it.
For me, “Texas” is everything from Odessa and Midland east to Orange and Vidor. We are far more connected to New Mexico (yet we often look at New Mexicans with a certain disdain) and Mexico. I have been to Tucson, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Las Vegas many times - but I have only passed through Austin and San Antonio (places that I concede are probably really worth visiting).
I know many Texans are extremely proud of their state, and feel a certain degree of ‘patriotism’ to their ‘country’, and while that’s fine - I just don’t feel it here.
Years ago, after I first moved here, my uncle started asking me “So…how does it feel to be a Texan?”. I’ve been answering him the same way for 14 years - I don’t know yet.
I was born and raised in Texas. As most people have said already, it’s a pretty cool place with a vast array of land types and styles; it also has a vast array of people to go with it. I’ve actually seen this sign while I was with my best friend on the way to a family visit. I was shocked, in that whole, dude, did that say what I think it said manner. She said it had been that way for years, sometimes people try to change it and it was a dumb name. When I later learned of a German detainment camp in San Antonio ( opposite direction), it kind of sent a shiver up my spine. I’m glad to know the origin of the name of the street, and that people are going to change it. On a totally unrelated note, my dad is from Minnesota. No one believes me. On occasion when asked, he tells people that he wasn’t born in Texas, but got here as fast as he could.
As far as Texas being groovy, being in Houston I’m eminently thankful for the medical center. Sure, it’s not perfect, but its close enough for me. (even though it felt like 105 degrees outside the other day).
p.s. racinchikki – if you’re in the town I’m thinking you’re in, I haven’t heard of that sign but I’m asking around about it. Outside of town there’s a sign that says women who wear pants will go to hell. It almost made me want to wear a pair of pants, but I was duly informed that they found my short skirts just as offensive. Tee hee.
Hey, don’t worry-- it’s not just Texas.
I just posted this last week in response to a GQ about a racial slur. It’s basically the same ridiculous story, except the ethnicity and locale are different. (Here, we ‘honoured’ some folks by naming a lake “Chinaman Lake,” and folks got hetted up and offended when some uppity Chinese-Canadians objected to the historic name.)
I’d really like to be able to point to Texas an example of outrageously backwards, racist thinking, but I think it’s pretty widely distributed.
So it goes.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040720/480/mosc10207202336
How so very right wing of her.
Damn…I miss that “post new thread” button that used to be there.
My bad.
Supposed to be a new thread.