The town began to grow along the Chisholm Trail in the 1830s. There were actually two settlements almost side by side. One consisted of Native Americans and the other consisted of white settlers from back East. Thus the fledgling town was called "White Settlement" to differentiate it from the Native American settlement. Obviously the name had racist intentions.
During World War I the Army Air Corps needed a place to train pilots. They established three bases in the Fort Worth Area, one being in the area of White Settlement. The town didn't grow much from the establishment of the base until World War II, when the Army Air Corps opened a aircraft manufacturing plant that brought jobs to the area. The Army Air Corps became the United States Air Force in 1947 and in 1948 the air base was named Carswell Air Force Base. It remained so until the 1991 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission recommended that it be closed by 1994. Today, the facility is known as Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base and hosts Air Force Reserve units, Navy Reserve Units, Marine Reserve Units and an Air National Guard unit.
The small town of White Settlement incorporated and officially became a city in 1941. It thrived for a while then, after cuts to the Air Force caused unemployment and income to drop, several businesses moved elsewhere and the small city began to run down.
In 2005, hoping to attract more people and businesses to White Settlement, the Mayor suggested the name be changed on the logic that the name itself might be discouraging to businesses and investors. Only 2500 people turned out for the vote and over 2200 of them voted to keep the name as it is. The rest of the people in town didn't care enough to even vote.
"It's been this way for years, so why change it?" said one African-American entrepreneur who owns a store together with his wife.
"Back in the 1940's, being politically correct wasn't big a deal," said another man. "But today our name keeps us from having a meaningful discussion with potential partners," said Mr. Jackson, a Choctaw Indian who grew up in Oklahoma before moving here in 1972. "It doesn't mean there's any racial strife here, but something like West Settlement would go down a lot easier."
Obviously the people of White Settlement are racist. How could they not be if they won't change the town's name to be politically correct? It doesn't matter if Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic and/or Asian Americans don't feel offended by the name. That's no longer important in this country. What's important is that someone out there is most likely offended for them and the name should be changed to appease those few. After all - that's the case with the Washington Redskins.
Hey - maybe the Redskins should find a new home in Texas and become the "White Settlement Redskins." Wouldn't that just make some liberals' heads explode with incredulity....??
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