<\/p>\n
Cesar Chavez\u2019s name adorns the student center at San Francisco\u00a0State University, pictured in 2018. There\u2019s a movement to rename the public spaces named for the labor rights icon.<\/p>\n
Sarahbeth Maney\/For the S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Regarding \u201cCesar Chavez\u2019s name is all over the Bay Area. Will streets, schools and parks get renamed?\u201d<\/a> (Bay Area, SFChronicle.com, March 18): The allegations that Cesar Chavez sexually abused women and girls are a sad reminder that gender inequality and sexual exploitation are a sickness of our patriarchal society that affects even the most dedicated advocates for economic justice..\u00a0<\/p>\n Chavez\u2019s reported behavior was unacceptable, and the decades-long cover-up reminds us that unquestioning deference to charismatic leaders is a plague on the left and the right.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take this moment to turn away from the view of history that elevated Chavez on a pedestal and reorient ourselves toward the farmworkers \u2014 women and men \u2014 who are the true heroes of the movement they built.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Farmworkers put food on our tables and deserve our gratitude and support, not to mention a living wage, safe working conditions, and, where appropriate, a path to citizenship.\u00a0<\/p>\n I hope we will rename all the \u201cCesar Chavez\u201d schools, buildings, streets and holidays to \u201cFarmworkers\u201d as a reminder of their essential work and as a tribute to people who truly make America great.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Backlash too strong<\/p>\n Regarding \u201cA UC professor won criminology\u2019s highest honor. Americans still don\u2019t believe her research\u201d<\/a> (California, SFChronicle.com, March 17): Congratulations to Professor Charis Kubrin for winning the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for her research that shows immigration does not increase crime. Despite the research by\u00a0Kubrin and others, Americans, on the whole, believe the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This is not a surprise because, as much as America has depended on immigrants, those who get here have tended to want to shut the door to the next group.<\/p>\n There has always been a vociferous nativist streak reinforcing fear of the other, despite the advantages America has realized from immigrant populations. It\u2019s difficult to overcome almost 200 years of anti-immigrant propaganda.\u00a0<\/p>\n You\u2019d think we\u2019d know better by now.<\/p>\n Bernard Gershenson, Oakland<\/p>\n Do carpools help?<\/p>\n