School Seeks to Dump "Racist" Goethe Name

[The Straight Story]

School Seeks to Dump "Racist" Goethe Name

Calling Charles M. Goethe a "prominent racist," a group of teachers, parents, and students from Goethe Middle School asked the Sacramento City Unified school board to change the school's name at Thursday night's board meeting.

Nadine Mitchell, the school's office manager, and Wanda Williams, an office employee, are spearheading the fight to change the school's name.

Williams said she learned of Goethe's disturbing past when researching the school's name on on-line. She came across a research paper written in 2004 by Tony Platt, a professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento.

....

Williams said when she read about Goethe she, "Got an attitude, I had a royal attitude because I had no idea that this person was like this."

Goethe Middle School is 32 percent Latino, 30 percent Asian, 27 percent African American, 5 percent White, and 6 percent other.

http://www.news10.net/display_story.aspx?storyid=24477

[meegbear]

1. Platt says Goethe was unapologetic about his views.

According to his published letters Goethe supported Hitler, endorsed eugenics, which is the selective breeding of humans, and advocated the involuntary sterilization of "socially inadequate" women.

[The Straight Story]

2. Well hell, the rw will be naming a post office after him next then :) (nt)

[Bridget Burke]

3. Edit: (Oops, I got the wrong Goethe!)

How could someone who died in 1832 "endorse" Hitler?

I haven't seen his published letters, but Goethe was a great artist, scientist & philosopher. Here's a "brief" summary of his life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe


I'll let that link survive, since I think the REAL Goethe is neglected nowadays.

Here's the dirt on the California Goethe. His name decorates many places enriched by his philanthropy. But they're mostly changing their names now.

CM Goethe was a highly influential public figure over much of the twentieth century who is best remembered for his dedication to nature conservation. Through the Save-the-Redwoods Foundation, Goethe used his substantial wealth to establish a number of memorial redwood groves in Northern California. Goethe’s enthusiastic support of nature study instigated the interpretive parks movement, which was responsible for the development of the educational aspects of the nation’s modern parks system.

Goethe was also a significant, and largely overlooked, advocate of eugenics both in California and beyond. He founded the Eugenics Society of Northern California in the 1930s, and was a lifelong advocate of "better breeding" principles, including restrictive immigration policies and the adoption of sterilization laws. For Goethe, nature conservation was an essential component of his complex eugenic vision of "human betterment."

www.csus.edu/cshpe/eugenics/goethe.html

[greyl]

5. Wrong Goethe - This is Charles M. who died in 1966 nt

[Bridget Burke]

6. I've corrected my error ....

Yup, the California Goethe was a creep.

[greyl]

4. I think this is the Platt paper Wanda is talking about:

www.csus.edu/cshpe/eugenics/docs/goethe_report.pdf

Testimony of Platt to the Senate: www.socialjusticejournal.org/pdf_free/Platt_Eugenics.pdf

Plus, lots more information and research here- Goethe Legacy at CSUS]