Rhode Island wins vote to change ‘racist’ name

Voters in one US state have won the right to change its “racist” name, following years of criticism over connotations of slavery.

While all eyes are on the race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump – and who will be victorious in the presidential election – one US state has declared an important win of its own.

Voters in Rhode Island, on America’s east coast, took to the state’s polls to vote on a referendum that would change the state’s official name – The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations – after years of criticism for its “racist” connotations.

According to The Associated Press, yesterday’s ballot question to remove “and Providence Plantations” passed with nearly 53 per cent of the vote.

A petition earlier this year, which received over 11,000 signatures, said: “If you ask anyone what’s the first word that comes to your mind when you (read) plantation? They’ll likely say slavery, and to every African American it holds a painful memory and represents the very real systematic racism in our government.”

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Harold Metts, a black state senator who helped lead the push, called the “Plantations” reference in the state’s official name “a hurtful term to so many of us”.

“We are no longer hiding from our past. We are acknowledging our role in the Atlantic slave trade. It was time for us to make amends, and we did so,” he said.

Now that the referendum has passed, officials said they’ll begin assessing all state property where the offending phrase is inscribed – including the State House’s marble facade – in preparations for removal.

It’s not the first time the issue has been raised – a similar vote in 2010 to change the state’s name failed, with opponents arguing that the word “plantations” is a reference to colonies with agricultural economies, not to slavery.

But, this year’s petition to change the name read, “‘And Providence Plantations’ holds the memory of an economic foundation built on slavery, and only keeps us connected to a shameful past. It’s just like movements across the country to take down statues of slave owners – but it’s only three words.”

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Rhode Island votes to change state's controversial official name https://t.co/aZEBMrXY7w pic.twitter.com/Dd2GQQq2Ti

— New York Post (@nypost) November 5, 2020

The decision “says we are a changing state of inclusiveness, of togetherness,” Representative Anastasia P Williams, who sponsored legislation for the name change referendum, told The Boston Globe.

“We are one Rhode Island – period.”

While he acknowledged the change was only incremental, former state Democratic Party chairman William J Lynch told The Globe it “sends a bold public signal to people that we are sensitised and willing to think harder about what matters to our neighbours, friends, and co-workers”.

“It shows we are a more forward thinking state than people give us credit for.”