What a foolish letter by J Rose (19 July).
It is surprising and alarming that J Rose thinks it’s okay to have a suburban street called effectively Boong Street or Nigger Street, as long as there’s a plant with the same name.
Wikipedia says about the ‘hottentot plant’ – Carpobrotus edulis is a ground-creeping plant with succulent leaves in the genus Carpobrotus, native to South Africa. Its common names include hottentot-fig, sour fig, ice plant or highway ice plant.
As for the other street names mentioned by J Rose, I can’t see any that would be offensive on racial grounds, but ‘Hottentot’ certainly is.
Wikipedia says ‘Use of the term Hottentot is now deprecated and is offensive… the European, colonial image of ‘the Hottentot’ from the 17th century onwards bore little relation to any realities of the Khoisan in Africa… this image fed into the usage of Hottentot as a generalised derogatory term’.
Correspondingly, the word is ‘sometimes used as ugly slang for a black person’. Thus, it is offensive to many, including the writers of last week’s letter. And to me, now that those writers have explained their concern.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
