If replacing Roanoke, Virginia’s statue of Robert E. Lee with one of the unknown Henrietta Lacks was laughable, then the latest two renamings I ran across today are downright hilarious. And embarrassing. Granted, the renamings took place some time ago, but they flew under radar and are worth discussing because Allan Wall reported that they were coming. So, apropos of Steve Sailer’s post about removing the Confederate memorial from Arlington National Cemetery, let’s follow up.
In accordance with guidance set forth by @SecDef and the congressionally mandated Naming Commission, the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser formerly named USS Chancellorsville (CG 62) will be renamed USS Robert Smalls (CG 62).
— Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro (@SECNAV) February 28, 2023
https://t.co/Rd1t0Qs3xf pic.twitter.com/qrfKxtHIjT
The powers that be renamed the USS Chancellorsville, a guided-missile cruiser named for the famous Civil War battle. It became the USS Robert Smalls, another figure in the pantheon of completely unknown and unremarkable blacks, who like Lacks, must be honored because they aren’t white.
Smalls was a slave who escaped by commandeering a Confederate ship, the CSS Planter, in Charleston harbor, and then became one of the Reconstruction blacks shoe-horned into Congress after the war. Given some of the mythology about blacks of that era—think Harriet Tubman or the historical fiction, Glory—we can take tales of Smalls’ heroics with a grain of salt.
Even more amusing is the new namesake for the ship that used to be called the USNS Maury, an oceanographic survey vessel. It is now the USNS Marie Tharp. She mapped the Atlantic Ocean floor. Tharp’s contributions to science are nothing close to Maury’s. The Confederate Navy officer was called “Pathfinder of the Seas” and credited with being the father of meteorology and oceanography. The women and soy boys running the Navy simply couldn’t think of anyone else. Indeed, you have to wonder what Tharpe, dead now 17 years, would think.
Then again, maybe naming a ship for Tharp doesn’t seem so bad. Recall that the Obama Regime named a navy ship for Harvey Milk. Milk was a boy rapist [A presidential medal based on a sex life, WorldNetDaily.com, August 12, 2009].
As for how laughable the Lacks-for-Lee switch is, she is notable only because her cervical cancer cells were “stolen” to use in research. In nine of 10 cases, sexually transmitted human papillomavirus causes that cancer. She had her first child at 14.
Lacks was apparently the best Roanoke could do to replace Lee. Draw your own conclusions.
