Work Begins to Transform Portion of Outer Harbor

Wow, can we possibly have signage called it "Chinaman's Lighthouse"?? Wow!

(insert other horribly racist jokes here)

It isn't Chinaman's light anyway. That name applied to a different light which once stood on the breakwall nearby.

would have been great if a local landscape architect had been able to design the space rather than an out of towner. Beardsly is a good firm, but we have lots of local firms as well.

It's "Chinaman's Light", changing it would be like changing Mark Twain.

Not being Asian, I can't attest to whether I find the name offensive or not. But it's no worse than Squaw Island, Kaisertown or Dick Road. The name seems to have a historical basis for its origins, in a time when it was not considered offensive.

I think the PC way to handle it is to refer to it by its proper name, Buffalo Lighthouse, and acknowledge its nickname in smaller type on any historical markers or plaques which will hopefully be installed for visitors. There's a lot more history to the light than most people know, and its nickname is a part of that history.

According to the City of Buffalo website:

Two stories emerge about how the lighthouse gained its nickname, "Chinaman's Light". One, the more obvious to the eye, is the fact that the top of the lantern housing looks like a Chinese coolie hat. The other, which tends to be more historical, is that a pagoda-like wooden lookout tower stood adjacent to the lighthouse for many years, from which illegal immigrants crossing from Canada, including the Chinese, were monitored and apprehended. This tower, complete with a hanging light, was long familiar to the crews of Great Lakes vessels and when the tower was eventually torn down, the name of "Chinaman" was transferred to the lighthouse itself.

And from Wikipedia:

Chinaman is an English language term that denotes a Chinese man or person, whether by Han Chinese ethnicity, or as a Chinese national, or, in some cases, an indiscriminate term for a person native to geographical East Asia or of perceived East Asian race. The term is not listed as derogatory in older dictionaries. While the usage of such parallel compound terms as Englishman, Frenchman, Irishman, Welshman and Dutchman remain unobjectionable, the term Chinaman is noted as offensive by modern dictionaries. Its derogatory connotations evolved from its use in pejorative contexts regarding the Chinese and other Asians. While usage of the term Chinaman is nowadays strongly discouraged by Asian American organizations, the term has been used by English speakers of Chinese descent and others, without offensive intent, and has also been used as a self-referential archetype by authors and artists of Asian descent.

As Chris pointed out, the 1833 light is NOT "Chinaman's Light", which is long gone. Look at this page: http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/light/1866-1920.htm . The fourth photo shows both structures in 1911.

There's nothing remotely Chinese-looking about the current lighthouse, for that matter.