KARLSTAD, Sweden, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The city of Karlstad in western Sweden will change the name of a neighborhood called "The Negro," despite its 150-year history, the city council ruled.
"They've come to their senses," National African-Swedish Association Secretary-General Kitimbwa Sabuni told Sweden's Tidningarnas Telegrambyra news agency.
Karlstad's Negern neighborhood came under fire this spring after a citizen complained the name was "objectionable, insulting or just plain rude," the news agency said.
The council first sought guidance from the National Land Survey of Sweden, which ruled in June the name should remain because it should be seen as "exotic and evocative" and a part of Sweden's cultural heritage.
The ruling outraged Sabuni and others, prompting a heated debate on the opinion pages of newspapers nationwide and prompting the Karlstad council to take action.
After a committee made its recommendation, the council's City and Buildings Committee decided to remove the name, following a similar ruling by the city's Place Name Division.
"We can't have a name which we don't even dare to say out loud," buildings committee head Hakan Holm told the news agency.
The agency did not say what name would replace Negern.
Local Christian Democratic Party head Peter Kullgren said he was angered by the council's decision.
"It's an old name, and if we continue to take away names that some find offensive, then we'll end up with an extremely poor cultural history in the future," he told the news agency.
He asserted the neighborhood received the Negern name shortly after the end of the U.S. Civil War.
