Japanese-Americans are leading an effort to rename "Jap Road" in Beaumont, Texas, but residents there say their street is not racist and may even have been named in honor of a Japanese man.

A meeting on Monday was held to consider the issue. "Jap Road should not be a part of the United States landscape,'' a Japanese veteran who fought in World War II was quoted as saying.

People living on the road resent suggestions that the name is offensive. "How can I be considered a bigot and a racist when I got a Puerto Rican son-in-law?" one resident told The New York Times before the meeting.

One woman said the road, according to "local lore," was named after a Japanese man who once lived in the area. "If we change the name, we're conceding to the idea that it was meant the wrong way - and it wasn't," the woman was quoted as saying.

Get the Story:
Jap Road center of debate in Fannett (The Beaumont Enterprise 7/16)
Texas Community in Grip of a Kind of Road Rage (The New York Times 7/16)
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Esther Wu: Slur in road name challenged (The Dallas Morning News 7/15)
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