Former President Barack Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, have been floated as the possible new namesakes of a school in their native Chicago.
But not everyone is on board with the idea, and several activists even staged a protest where they claimed the former president is just "another oppressor."
The Waukegan Board of Education is considering renaming a few of their schools due to their current namesakes' ties to slavery, WLS-TV reported.
One committee floated the idea of renaming Thomas Jefferson Middle School — currently named after the former president and Founding Father of America who owned slaves — after the Obamas. According to Fox News, that led to a protest outside the school board meeting on Tuesday.
"From the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation," demonstrator Julie Contreras declared. "We feel that Barack Obama did disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn't stop the deportations, the way he promised."
She added, "If you're removing the name of Thomas Jefferson, one oppressor, the name of Obama is another oppressor, and our families do not want to see that name."
Protester Mauricio Sanchez, whose father was deported under the Obama administration in 2015, said, "It was something very sad. We couldn't even say goodbye to our dad. We just hoped for him to be able to get out."
School board member Edgar Castellanos, who was brought to the U.S. illegally as a child, said flatly of the Obama renaming proposal, "I will not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community."
According to WBBM-FM, the activists called Obama the "deporter-in-chief," who hurt their community directly. Three million people were deported during Obama's eight years in office, Fox News said.
"That's millions of families that were affected and separated, many of whom reside right here in Waukegan," Oscar Arias told the outlet. "The fear that many of [my] friends faced of never seeing their parents again after coming home from school still resonates with me."
The Daily Caller noted:
Throughout his presidency, Obama drew criticism on the immigration issue from Republicans and Democrats. Obama implemented the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program by executive order, held unaccompanied minor children in facilities and deported a record 409,849 illegal immigrants in 2012.
A committee advising Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has proposed renaming dozens of schools, parks, and various other government buildings over their namesakes' connections to slavery, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Included in the list of individuals who the committee says should not have public works named after them are former Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor and Woodrow Wilson; Revolutionary leader Benjamin Franklin; explorer Christopher Columbus, and national anthem writer Francis Scott Key.
Never mind the fact that the city itself is named after George Washington and the district after Christopher Columbus.
The report, put together by the mayor's senior adviser Beverly Perry and public library director Richard Reyes-Gavilan, labeled 153 of the 1,330 individuals who have something named after them in the capital as "persons of concern" for their past conduct.
According to the report, the criteria for renaming included whether the namesakes owned slaves, supported the institution of slavery, passed laws disparaging women or minorities, belonged to a "supremacist organization," or discriminated against a marginalized group.
In all, the committee deemed problematic the naming of some 22 schools, 2 libraries, 11 recreational centers, and 78 streets, and 8 monuments or memorials — essentially pushing for a "cancel culture" makeover of the nation's capital.
"We believe strongly that all District of Columbia owned public spaces, facilities and commemorative works should only honor those individuals who exemplified those values such as equity, opportunity and diversity that DC residents hold dear," Perry and Reyes-Gavilan wrote in the recommendation.
"Commemoration on a District of Columbia asset is a high honor reserved for esteemed persons with a legacy that merits recognition," they added.
The move is likely to reignite public debate over renaming public assets that commemorate the nation's history.
As Black Lives Matter protests raged in the aftermath of George Floyd's death in late May, several on the left pushed for renaming everything that could be feasibly deemed offensive from product brands to national monuments.
This latest effort may be the most aggressive and sweeping yet, but it won't be entirely easy to enact. The Post noted in its report that certain assets, such as schools, usually undergo a rigorous "public engagement process" before being renamed. Other assets, such as streets, parks, and government buildings can be independently renamed by the city council.
Many of the monuments in the district are actually owned by the federal government, and are under its control.
The committee suggests that assets such as the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial be recommended for removal, relocation, or be given additional contextualization by the federal government.
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