San Fran Schools To Eliminate “Chief” In Job Titles Due To Native American Connotation

In today’s episode of woke virtue signaling by trying to fix things that no one actually cares about, San Francisco Unified School District has decided to do away with the term “chief” in job titles across the district. And their reason is exactly what you’d expect it to be. They feel like using the word is tantamount to Native American cultural appropriation, and they want to “avoid the word’s connotation with Native Americans.”

This is simply the stupidest thing to come out of San Francisco since Nancy Pelosi last uttered a sentence. Firstly, the word “chief” isn’t Native American. It comes from the old French word “chief” or “chef,” which comes from the Latin word “caput,” meaning “head.” As in “public relations head,” “head of the Art Department,” or “head of the tribe.”

Secondly, the word has absolutely been associated with the head of Native American tribes, many of whom have contributed incredible and essential stories to American history and culture. Abolishing the word from the American English lexicon essentially erases, or at least minimizes, the impact that Native American culture has had on American history and culture. In their effort not to offend a demographic that probably wasn’t offended by a job title anyway, they end up essentially working to erase the history and impact of that demographic.

I feel like they did the same when they removed the names and faces of black Americans from products around the country. They did away with Aunt Jemima on the syrup bottle, Uncle Ben on the rice box, and Rastus on Cream of Wheat, among others. But they left all the white faces on all the other products. So now, when you walk down the grocery aisle, the only faces you see on products are white. Seriously, how is that any better? I feel like that’s worse! Heaven forbid someone should be offended by this woman’s face on a bottle of syrup, so let’s remove her entirely, like she wasn’t even there? No! Leave her incredible and industrious face on that syrup bottle, tell her story, teach us her name, and let everyone remember it when they see her face on that syrup bottle at the breakfast table. There is a horrifying but powerful picture (ironically owned by Pfizer) depicting J. Marion Sims, considered the “father of gynecology,” and the three black women on whom he performed atrocious anesthesia-free medical experiments. Inaccurate reports circulated in 2020 that the picture was hanging in the Alabama state capitol building. The picture is actually archived with the University of Michigan Museum of Art. However, the wide circulation of the picture at the time generated numerous calls for the picture to be removed (if it were actually hanging in the Alabama state capitol building) or to be destroyed entirely because it was “offensive” to glorify a racist man who performed such horrific medical experiments on black women. But I disagree. That picture represents and horrifying but important piece of history and the story of those brave women should be told far and wide. In fact, it should be hanging in public view and there should be a plaque by the picture telling the story of these women. Everyone should know it and remember it when they see that picture. Removing or destroying it minimizes the incredible sacrifice of those woman and the horrors committed by that doctor. It does those women and our entire society a disservice to remove their story from the public view under the guise of preventing offense.

Painting of J. Marion Sims, “the father of modern gynecology” with his test subject, Anarcha Westcott, an enslaved woman who was forced to endure extreme pain as Sims operated on her without anesthesia. ⁠
J. Marion Sims purchased enslaved Black women and used them as guinea pigs pic.twitter.com/Jx0NIwWm0F

— Kentah Gwanjez (@GWANJEZ) June 29, 2020

It’s like these woke “progressives” don’t realize that their effort to “fix” things that aren’t broken are actually contributing to the problem they think they’re fixing. Their lack of self-awareness is astounding.

Regardless, why is this even a priority for San Francisco? I mean, the place is a total disaster. The word “chief” in job titles should be the least of their worries.