Darkies Corners

Just outside of the town of Durham Ontario there's a bridge. Embedded into the concrete is the name "Darkies Corners Bridge" along with the names of all the township bigwigs (all white, no doubt) who presided over the christening of said bridge in the 1970's. The bridge replaced an older structure and honored, in its way, the community that was moved to facilitate its construction.

I suppose that in the etymology of words that non-blacks use to refer to blacks, "darkie" falls somewhere in the middle. Not as grating as the n-word. Not as sensitive as "Afro-Canadian" or "Afro-American."

Darkie.

There was a bit of a fuss a few years ago about the plaque on the bridge. Ontario is one of the most liberal constituencies in North America. Whatever good-news laws you might have in Ohio or New Mexico or British Columbia, chances are Ontario got there first. We're queer friendly out the ying yang. People were coming up here from Boston for same-sex marriages, if you can imagine such a thing!

More liberal than Boston?!

Yup, that would be Ontario. And sure enough, some do-gooder revisionists took exception to the darkie of Darkies Corner. Let us expunge reality from our collective consciousness was their rallying cry.

Fortunately, saner non-concussed heads prevailed. It's still there, with offensive plaque intact, just a couple of miles east of Durham.

Seems that in the bad old days of the underground railroad and Uncle Tom's Cabin and all that stuff, quite a few black folks found their way to the Durham area and put down roots. Hence, "Darkie Corners."

It's part of our history.

History should never be deleted.