Wisconsin Middle School Will Not Boast White Pride Fitness Room

A remodeled fitness room at a middle school in Wisconsin will no longer be called the “Roger T. White Pride Fitness Room.” A local social media firestorm caused school officials to change the name–with great haste.

The epicenter of the kerfuffle is Meyer Middle School in River Falls. The plan had been to christen Meyer Middle School’s renovated fitness room the “Roger T. White Pride Fitness Room as presented by RCU,” reports the River Falls Journal, the local paper out of the town of about 15,000.

Chuck Eaton, the principal of a local elementary school and the chief fundraiser for the fitness room revamp, had previously told the paper that the longwinded name would probably be called the “White Pride Fitness Room” for short.

The lengthy original name was an unfortunate, coincidental blend which, apparently, no one had bothered to say out loud or consider in much of any way.

The family of Roger T. White contributed $15,000 to the sprucing-up campaign. {snip}

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The word “pride” in the fitness room’s name came from the successful $100,000 fundraising campaign, notes Minneapolis Fox affiliate KMSP. The idea was to “build pride” with a much-needed makeover.

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After KMSP ran with the story this week, the social media backlash was immediate.

“White pride?” said a typical commenter, according to the Journal. “Which culturally insensitive committee let this slide? So much for building an inclusive community.”

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In any case, by Thursday, River Falls school district officials had decided it would be prudent to change the name to either the “Roger T. White Wildcat Fitness Room” or, perhaps, the “Roger T. White Fitness Room as Presented by RCU.”

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