I'm posting this, partly to illustrate one of the points that Chris Hedges
constantly makes. He wrote a book, the title of which is, I think, The End
of the Liberal Class. He uses the change in purpose and functioning of
universities as an example of how our society is changing. He sees our
version of unregulated Capitalism, now described by almost everyone as Nelo
Liberalism, as a dehumanizing force that grows stronger and stronger. This
story about Yale is a small example of his point.
Miriam
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Yale Clings to Racist Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
________________________________________
Yale Clings to Racist Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
By Peter Laarman [1] / Religion Dispatches [2]
July 27, 2016
Yes, I know "they all do it," but today I'm going to pick on Yale.
I don't actually read alumni magazines; I just lay them out on my cocktail
table to show off. If my guests happen to flip through them, I might observe
to them that Brown uses nicer typography, whereas Yale uses nicer paper. But
yesterday, as I was tossing the May issue of Yale's sleek book into the
recycling, I let myself get drawn into the university's report on its
decision to keep John C. Calhoun's name on one of the old 12 residential
colleges while naming two brand-new such colleges for (wait for it) Benjamin
Franklin and Pauli Murray [3]. The Yale Corporation also decided to drop the
name "master" and substitute "head of college" for those persons, usually
faculty members, who oversee programming in the colleges.
Let's look at these in order. Even though some prominent Yalies like Henry
Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (who lived at Calhoun) argued for retaining
Calhoun's name, mainly for the sake of its "teachability," this decision was
a massive affront to many black people and a colossal mistake in that Sen.
Calhoun [4] was no ordinary racist but was, in fact, the foremost and most
ferocious advocate of racial subjugation during the antebellum period.
Calhoun's famous "slavery a positive good" speech [5] needs to be read
through to get a feel for this man's snaky brilliance (Calhoun was Yale's
valedictorian in 1804). But it was brilliance put to an evil end.
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson undoubtedly did much harm to African Americans by
bringing Jim Crow to Washington, D.C. as president, but Wilson's offense
pales in relation to Calhoun's "achievement" in racist ideology and his
active involvement in treasonous activity.
Moreover, as one astute Yale Alumni Magazine reader pointed out in a letter,
the context in which the Yale Corporation voted, in May 1931, to name the
then-new college for the South Carolinian serpent, was charged with
anti-black resentment in New Haven.
In March 1930 Herbert Hoover had appointed an openly white-supremacist judge
to the Supreme Court. That nominee narrowly lost a Senate confirmation vote
in May, but in July of that same year W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in the NAACP's
Crisis, listed all the senators who had voted in favor of the racist judge
and called for them to be denied reelection.
On Du Bois's hit list were Connecticut's two senators (both of them
Republicans and Yale men, needless to say). It is inconceivable that
DuBois's take-them-down campaign was not very much on the minds of Yale's
trustees in May 1931. Their defiant response: name a gorgeous new
gothically-crafted residential college for the man who epitomizes white
supremacy, Sen. Calhoun.
Calhoun College originally featured a large stained glass window with
shackled slaves kneeling at Sen. Calhoun's feet. The offensive part of that
window was discreetly removed in 1992, but many smaller windows with images
representing Calhoun's "values" remained. Then, last month, a black Yale
dishwasher who was sick and tired of seeing these degrading images took a
broomstick to one of them [6]. While Yale has just announced it will not
press charges against the gutsy and self-respecting Corey Menafee [7], it is
very telling that a university committee only voted to remove all of the
Calhoun-themed glass afterMenafee's bold action.
And now, what about the naming of the new residential colleges for Franklin
and Murray? I think that the choice of Murray was brilliant, even if most
people don't know who she was. But I worry that the Corporation named a
college for this fiercely activist and sexually courageous Yale Law grad as
a kind of offset for the stupidity and cupidity of naming the other new
college for Ben Franklin, a slave owner who had nothing at all to do with
Yale (and who, in fact, founded the University of Pennsylvania).
So why go with Franklin? Because a rich alumnus who gave $250 million toward
the physical expansion of Yale College happens to be madly in love with
Franklin.
Wow.
Of course, Yale has whored itself out many times before (and "they all do
it"), most notably in not only agreeing (for a gift of $150 million) to name
a renovated Commons/Memorial Hall complex for private equity kingpin Stephen
Schwarzman but in also agreeing to let Schwarzman himself participate in
shaping the programming of the new Schwarzman Center [8].
Yes, they all do it. But it's still not pretty to see these old "liberal"
institutions, all of which were built with what Lincoln called the "wealth
piled up by 250 years of the bondsman's unrequited toil," sucking up to the
new oppressors for additional gilding. It's disgusting, in fact.
Oh, and what about the decision to change "master" to "head of college"?
Here is where the Corporation might have stood its ground for the sake of
"teachability." Surely even today's Yale students are capable of
understanding that, in an academic context, "master" refers to magisterand
not to someone sipping mint juleps on the verandah as his "people" sing
softly in the gloaming. And, like the decision to honor Pauli Murray, Yale's
abolition of the term "master" hardly compensates for the positive evil of
retaining Calhoun's name while letting plutocrats call all the major shots.
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [9]
[10]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/education/yale-clings-racist-legacyand-cashlots-cash
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/peter-laarman
[2] http://religiondispatches.org
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_Murray
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Calhoun
[5]
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/slavery-a-positive-good/
[6]
https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/media/Yale%20slave
%20windows%203%20long_glass16_t670.jpg
[7]
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/13/how-dishwasher-corey-menafe
e-smashed-racism-at-yale-literally.html
[8]
http://news.yale.edu/2015/05/11/landmark-gift-alumnus-stephen-schwarzman-est
ablish-first-its-kind-campus-center-yale
[9] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Yale Clings to Racist
Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
[10] http://www.alternet.org/
[11] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > Yale Clings to Racist Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
Yale Clings to Racist Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
By Peter Laarman [1] / Religion Dispatches [2]
July 27, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
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Yes, I know "they all do it," but today I'm going to pick on Yale.
I don't actually read alumni magazines; I just lay them out on my cocktail
table to show off. If my guests happen to flip through them, I might observe
to them that Brown uses nicer typography, whereas Yale uses nicer paper. But
yesterday, as I was tossing the May issue of Yale's sleek book into the
recycling, I let myself get drawn into the university's report on its
decision to keep John C. Calhoun's name on one of the old 12 residential
colleges while naming two brand-new such colleges for (wait for it) Benjamin
Franklin and Pauli Murray [3]. The Yale Corporation also decided to drop the
name "master" and substitute "head of college" for those persons, usually
faculty members, who oversee programming in the colleges.
Let's look at these in order. Even though some prominent Yalies like Henry
Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (who lived at Calhoun) argued for retaining
Calhoun's name, mainly for the sake of its "teachability," this decision was
a massive affront to many black people and a colossal mistake in that Sen.
Calhoun [4] was no ordinary racist but was, in fact, the foremost and most
ferocious advocate of racial subjugation during the antebellum period.
Calhoun's famous "slavery a positive good" speech [5] needs to be read
through to get a feel for this man's snaky brilliance (Calhoun was Yale's
valedictorian in 1804). But it was brilliance put to an evil end.
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson undoubtedly did much harm to African Americans by
bringing Jim Crow to Washington, D.C. as president, but Wilson's offense
pales in relation to Calhoun's "achievement" in racist ideology and his
active involvement in treasonous activity.
Moreover, as one astute Yale Alumni Magazine reader pointed out in a letter,
the context in which the Yale Corporation voted, in May 1931, to name the
then-new college for the South Carolinian serpent, was charged with
anti-black resentment in New Haven.
In March 1930 Herbert Hoover had appointed an openly white-supremacist judge
to the Supreme Court. That nominee narrowly lost a Senate confirmation vote
in May, but in July of that same year W.E.B. Du Bois, writing in the NAACP's
Crisis, listed all the senators who had voted in favor of the racist judge
and called for them to be denied reelection.
On Du Bois's hit list were Connecticut's two senators (both of them
Republicans and Yale men, needless to say). It is inconceivable that
DuBois's take-them-down campaign was not very much on the minds of Yale's
trustees in May 1931. Their defiant response: name a gorgeous new
gothically-crafted residential college for the man who epitomizes white
supremacy, Sen. Calhoun.
Calhoun College originally featured a large stained glass window with
shackled slaves kneeling at Sen. Calhoun's feet. The offensive part of that
window was discreetly removed in 1992, but many smaller windows with images
representing Calhoun's "values" remained. Then, last month, a black Yale
dishwasher who was sick and tired of seeing these degrading images took a
broomstick to one of them [6]. While Yale has just announced it will not
press charges against the gutsy and self-respecting Corey Menafee [7], it is
very telling that a university committee only voted to remove all of the
Calhoun-themed glass afterMenafee's bold action.
And now, what about the naming of the new residential colleges for Franklin
and Murray? I think that the choice of Murray was brilliant, even if most
people don't know who she was. But I worry that the Corporation named a
college for this fiercely activist and sexually courageous Yale Law grad as
a kind of offset for the stupidity and cupidity of naming the other new
college for Ben Franklin, a slave owner who had nothing at all to do with
Yale (and who, in fact, founded the University of Pennsylvania).
So why go with Franklin? Because a rich alumnus who gave $250 million toward
the physical expansion of Yale College happens to be madly in love with
Franklin.
Wow.
Of course, Yale has whored itself out many times before (and "they all do
it"), most notably in not only agreeing (for a gift of $150 million) to name
a renovated Commons/Memorial Hall complex for private equity kingpin Stephen
Schwarzman but in also agreeing to let Schwarzman himself participate in
shaping the programming of the new Schwarzman Center [8].
Yes, they all do it. But it's still not pretty to see these old "liberal"
institutions, all of which were built with what Lincoln called the "wealth
piled up by 250 years of the bondsman's unrequited toil," sucking up to the
new oppressors for additional gilding. It's disgusting, in fact.
Oh, and what about the decision to change "master" to "head of college"?
Here is where the Corporation might have stood its ground for the sake of
"teachability." Surely even today's Yale students are capable of
understanding that, in an academic context, "master" refers to magisterand
not to someone sipping mint juleps on the verandah as his "people" sing
softly in the gloaming. And, like the decision to honor Pauli Murray, Yale's
abolition of the term "master" hardly compensates for the positive evil of
retaining Calhoun's name while letting plutocrats call all the major shots.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [9]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[10]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/education/yale-clings-racist-legacyand-cashlots-cash
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/peter-laarman
[2] http://religiondispatches.org
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_Murray
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Calhoun
[5]
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/slavery-a-positive-good/
[6]
https://www.insidehighered.com/sites/default/server_files/media/Yale%20slave
%20windows%203%20long_glass16_t670.jpg
[7]
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/13/how-dishwasher-corey-menafe
e-smashed-racism-at-yale-literally.html
[8]
http://news.yale.edu/2015/05/11/landmark-gift-alumnus-stephen-schwarzman-est
ablish-first-its-kind-campus-center-yale
[9] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Yale Clings to Racist
Legacy-And Cash... Lots of Cash
[10] http://www.alternet.org/
[11] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
