Response to: “A parent’s push to rename Burlingame Intermediate School after Ruth Bader Ginsburg”

Editor,

I first learned about the petition to rename Burlingame Intermediate School reading your article, “A parent’s push to rename Burlingame Intermediate School after Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” What truly concerned me were the comments on Instagram in response. People claiming that such a name would be “ridiculous” and alluding to her stance on the Dakota Access Pipeline to disqualify her makes me wonder about the controversy regarding other names of elementary schools. Washington owned slaves, Lincoln didn’t want true equality, Teddy Roosevelt was a racist and FDR rejected a boat of Jewish refugees and refused to bomb the Auschwitz tracks. Our complacency towards these names, especially towards the ignorance of FDR’s actions towards Jews, yet our disgust for RBG could hint to our complacency towards racism and anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is not just on the far right. Movements like Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS), which do not propose a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and have been labeled as anti-Semitic by the Anti-Defamation League are still supported by the left. In other words, party lines do not determine levels of bias. Simply posting the blacklivesmatters.carrd.co in your bio, which also links to the BDS movement, does not exempt you either.

Sincerely,

Molly Abramson

 

*This letter has been lightly edited for clarity and to follow The Burlingame B’s stylistic guidelines.*