"White House" - thats why I don't like studying high

[flyingimam]

So a classmate of mine apparently saw the cannabis.com logo from back on my laptop early in the class and after the class asked me if i smoked , i told her i haven't smoked since ike hit and generally tend to keep it sober and at very best on occasion

got me blazed on some dank stuff, then she had to go and i had to get back to library and study for the quiz i have to take.

I started reading "That Evening Sun (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/White/anthology/faulkner.html)" By William Faulkner and got to this part at the very beginning and me being the overthinking creature i become when high I got distracted and actually did a lil research to find out about this thing

here is the passage

"But fifteen years ago, on Monday morning the quiet, dusty, shady streets would be full of Negro women with, balanced on their steady turbaned heads, bundles of clothes tied up in sheets, almost as large as cotton bales, carried so without touch of hand between the kitchen door of the white house and the blackened wash-pot beside a cabin door in Negro Hollow."

I felt for a sec that like many things that the white race has done and said in the past, this might be a longtime unnoticed implied thing to have the president's house named "white" house

I know this is just me being high way of thinking, but has it occurred to anyone else that there might be such a thing to it?

I did look it up briefly on google and found this

"5. White House. Three different houses have been erected on this site, made famous as having been owned by Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, all of which suffered from fires. The second White House served as an army camp and General McClellanâ??s base of operations in May of 1862. It was burned by Union troops that year. The presidential White House in 37 Washington, D.C. may have been named for the White House of New Kent, of which the Washingtons had many fond memories."

from http://www.co.new-kent.va.us/planningcomm/ExistingConditions.pdf (PDF) page 36 [this is an official government website]

Please don't get the current political situation involved in it, I just want to know if anyone else has had similar questions or not and if they have found concrete answers? since the white house was not the official name for a while after it was built and became the name certainly after the civil war

Feel free to make fun of my high, i know it may sound silly to some, but this seriously is something i want to know the answer to, cuz it will be quite a thing if it is in fact named with such an intent, and im kinda feeling i will never find the answer to this question, but still it wont hurt asking around :P:D

The whole interest originates from The White Man's Burden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden#Differing_interpretations) that I've learned about in history class before. u know, issue of intent and interpretations... its something very sensitive in certain cases and usually something impossible to prove or disprove about history...

[Coelho]

Well... knowing how racist are the americans, i wouldnt doubt that they would call their presidents house the "White House"...

[Algag]

alright buddy, "the" americans aren't racist. some are some aren't, its the product of a free country.

[cygnustaxt]

sounds like you're on the right path. I know that Faulkner mentions white houses a lot in his stories, usually to symbolize purity. This would also represent purity as in the white race, so yeah I could see why one might find the name The White House as prejudice or discriminatory.

[jimmy8778]

i mean, there is some really good evidence presented here. But do you think that maybe that it was named cause of its color, i mean, the last time i looked at the white house it was blindingly pale. And the name coming from the name of Martha Washingtons plantation in Kent County, Va. is a valid choice, though not as believable, the white house was built after Washington had already left office, so unless it was a throwback by Adams then i doubt that is the origin. Also, the White House hasnt always been named that, it had several official and unofficial names, of them "Presidential Manson", and "Executive Manson" were two, the latter being the official reference until the change to The White House. So it hasnt always been named that, but you never know, the people of this country, especially the ones before its current population were crazy, just like the rest of us, just in a different way.

[Psycho4Bud]

Word Origin: White House

Origin: 1811

The residence of the president of the United States did not start out as the White House. In the early years of its occupancy by the Adamses and Jeffersons, it was called the President's House. It took a proclamation by Theodore Roosevelt in 1901 to officially designate it the White House.

Many early presidents had a hand in the establishment of this important government building. George Washington picked the site for the Federal City and even supervised some of the construction of the President's House. James Hoban, an architect, won the contest for the design, though it is said that Thomas Jefferson had submitted plans, too. The first to live there as president was John Adams, in 1800, even though it was at the end of his term and the building was far from complete. The first child born in the mansion was a grandchild of Jefferson, resident president from 1801 to 1809.

Legend says it got the name White House when it was rebuilt and painted white after the British burned it in 1814. In fact, it was known as the White House at least three years earlier. A letter of 1811 mentions a politician who went "to act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that may issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington."
White House: Definition from Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/white-house)

Better not white wash that fence or use white out on a paper or black ball a person, etc.. A white comedian says the "N" word and he's a racist; a black comedian says not only the "N" word but also includes redneck honky and he's a star. This politically correct bullshit just cracks me up. :rolleyes:

Have a good one!:jointsmile:

[deathduck]

Word Origin: White House

Legend says it got the name White House when it was rebuilt and painted white after the British burned it in 1814. In fact, it was known as the White House at least three years earlier. A letter of 1811 mentions a politician who went "to act as a sort of political conductor to attract the lightning that may issue from the clouds round the Capitol and the White House at Washington."
White House: Definition from Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/white-house)



lol what kinda horrible answer is this? They are saying 'oh it's named the white house because after the British burned it they painted it white'

Then they turn around saying 'well it was called the white house 3 years before that lulz'... SO WHY was it called the white house 3 years earlier #@%@#%#@$^ answers.com

[Aristotle]

So a classmate of mine apparently saw the cannabis.com logo from back on my laptop early in the class and after the class asked me if i smoked , i told her i haven't smoked since ike hit and generally ...
I find your subtle references to catastrophic hurricanes humorous and refreshing. I applaud you.

[psychocat]

People who look for discrimination will find it.
The official explanation for the name is because of the whitewash that was applied after the (good ol' :D) Brits set fire to it.