Selective Application Of Sensitivity: Why Calhoun College Gets Renamed, But Yale Isn't, Oh, Beatrix Potter U
Consider the reasoning behind changing the name of Calhoun College at Yale: Calhoun was a slave owner. In fact, as Roger Kimball notes in the WSJ, Calhoun even "argued that slavery was not merely a necessary evil but a 'positive good,' because it provided for slaves better than they could provide for themselves."
Uh, a bit of a soft-pedaling, which is to say Kimball leaves out a few choice bits about Calhoun. Lincoln Caplan writes in The Atlantic:
As the historian Sean Wilentz wrote recently, in that era "most white Americans presumed African inferiority." But Calhoun went much further. He believed that the American dream depended on that presumed inferiority and the slavery that was built on it. To Calhoun, the historian John Niven observed, "freedom was based on slavery." That central idea of his was profoundly divisive. It was a major cause of the Civil War. As others passed it forward, it was a significant cause of the racial segregation that lasted in law until the mid-20th century and that endures in reality, and of the reactionary element animated by racism that remains so explosive in American politics. Calhoun's various ideas made him prominent on the national stage for 40 years, but that's the one that came to obsess him and, in the end, to define him.
And then there's the 1837 speech Calhoun gave in the Senate called "The 'Positive Good' of Slavery." Caplan continues:
To Hofstadter [Richard Hofstadter, in "The American Political Tradition"] the speech was important because "Calhoun was the first Southern statesman of primary eminence to say openly in Congress what almost all the white South had come to feel." Nonetheless, as the petition summarizes, "His legacy is built on his vociferous defense of a state's right to enslave blacks." Read from the perspective of the present, the speech is filled with condescending phrases, racist views, and fantastic claims.Calhoun said in that speech, "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. It came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, reviled as they have been, to its present comparatively civilized condition."
Okay, so I might not feel so great if I were a black student attending Yale and living in Calhoun cottage. Or -- I might think, "Hah, you slave-owning, slavery-loving fucker, I showed you."
But if we're applying a character test, well, as I've noted before, we should probably rename Yale. Back in the WSJ, Kimball continues:
Calhoun owned slaves. But so did Timothy Dwight, Calhoun's mentor at Yale, who has a college named in his honor. So did Benjamin Silliman, who also gives his name to a residential college, and whose mother was the largest slave owner in Fairfield County, Conn. So did Ezra Stiles, John Davenport and even Jonathan Edwards, all of whom have colleges named in their honor at Yale.Writing in these pages last summer, I suggested that Yale table the question of John Calhoun and tackle some figures even more obnoxious to contemporary sensitivities. One example was Elihu Yale, the American-born British merchant who, as an administrator in India, was an active participant in the slave trade.
President Salovey's letter announcing that Calhoun College would be renamed argues that "unlike . . . Elihu Yale, who made a gift that supported the founding of our university . . . Calhoun has no similarly strong association with our campus." What can that mean? Calhoun graduated valedictorian from Yale College in 1804. Is that not a "strong association"? (Grace Hopper held two advanced degrees from the university but had no association with the undergraduate Yale College.)
As far as I have been able to determine, Elihu Yale never set foot in New Haven. His benefaction of some books and goods worth £800 helped found Yale College, not Yale University. And whereas the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica praises Calhoun for his "just and kind" treatment of slaves and the "stainless integrity" of his character, Elihu Yale had slaves flogged, hanged a stable boy for stealing a horse, and was eventually removed from his post in India for corruption. Is all that not "fundamentally at odds" with the mission of Peter Salovey's Yale?
Um...yes, but there's a huge problem.
People who've gone to Yale -- a name that carries a lot of prestige -- would like that prestige to be maintained.
Suddenly calling Yale "Acme University" or "Harriet Tubman University" or whatever kills a lot of the value of the diplomas of people who've attended there.
But -- phew -- simply renaming Calhoun college throws activists a bone while not throwing possibility of alumni donations down the crapper.
Maybe people should just start saying "No" to these race baiters.
They're in Yale because they couldn't get into Harvard. So, if they don't like the name of Calhoun College, they can go ... somewhere less prestigious.
Thanks to the cowardly Christakis couple, Yale has started a precedent of capitulating to bullies.
Patrick at February 13, 2017 12:04 AM
Winnie the Pooh, a bear of little brains, would be an appropriate mascot for several universities.
Wfjag at February 13, 2017 3:55 AM
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he reloaded.
Radwaste at February 13, 2017 4:05 AM
Maybe some African American graduates who've done well should pony up a donation... Columbia renamed one or two buildings for recent donors during my student days... happens a lot to the economics/business schools.
Ben David at February 13, 2017 4:15 AM
It is time to expunge the name "Democratic Party", for its support of slavery in the 1800's, and of segregation, discrimination, and the Klu Klux Klan in the 1900's.
Calhoun was a Democrat, and KKK member Sen. Robert Byrd also.
http://www.dailywire.com/news/8696/flashback-bill-clinton-once-justified-robert-byrds-hank-berrien
=== ===
Now that Hillary Clinton has taken it on herself to attack Donald Trump for his toleration of white supremacists, it might behoove her to attack her own husband, who rationalized the late Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-W.V.) membership in the Ku Klux Klan by lamely allowing Byrd was simply trying to get elected.
=== ===
Andrew Garland at February 13, 2017 6:00 AM
John C. Calhoun was a Southerner. Elihu Yale was born in Boston. As such, it's not only okay to rename Calhoun College, its imperative.
Conan the Grammarian at February 13, 2017 7:22 AM
Well, let's just rename Brooks County, Georgia and Brookstown, Florida, for being named after Preston Brooks, arguably the vilest individual ever to disgrace the floor of the House.
And Taney County, Missouri, for being named after the author of the Dred Scott decision.
Patrick at February 13, 2017 8:19 AM
How about renaming Oklahoma? I'm told it means, "red people". How vile!
Radwaste at February 13, 2017 8:23 AM
If you start down the path of renaming everything, there is no limit. Every politician ever has done something vile or told lies. To some people, famous industrialists (Carnegie, etc) are saints for giving millions for museums, to others they are the devil themselves. Many famous artists were terrible spouses or supported the Nazis or Communists. There are no humans who cannot be criticized for something. They could even be criticized for not being "woke" 200 yrs ago, before the term existed, or not being sufficiently politically active. So we have named things after people who gave money or who had influence at the time (perhaps 200 yrs ago), get over it. Just think of it as a name of a building, not a reflection of current values.
cc at February 13, 2017 9:36 AM
"How about renaming Oklahoma? I'm told it means, "red people". How vile!"
Well, anyone who takes a dip in the red river becomes a red person. At least till they shower the mud off.
Ben at February 13, 2017 11:54 AM
Like every other SJW demand, unless they university is willing to put their foot down now, there will be no end to these tantrums.
Isab at February 13, 2017 5:31 PM
Why all the interest in Yale University's decision to rename one of its several undergraduate residential colleges?
My beloved corporate employer renamed itself three times over the course of my 37 years on the payroll.
Andre Friedmann at February 13, 2017 6:13 PM
The Yale residential colleges were created around 1930, so there's no long tradition behind Calhoun College. The original Connecticut "Collegiate School" was renamed "Yale College" about 1716, so there few traditions in the USA older than that name - although it seems to be just a geographical coincidence that it was named after Elihu Yale rather than one of the other and more generous donors. (OTOH, the biggest donor may have been named Dummer, and I think it's clear why they didn't adopt that name.) Elihu paid for a building, which was named after him; further land acquisitions and building happened to put the Yale building in a central location, and "Yale" was a shorter and more distinct name than "Collegiate School".
Neither Yale nor Calhoun had any strong association with the college; Yale donated some ill-gotten money at long distance, and Calhoun was just one of hundreds of prominent graduates, and a southerner who had as little to do with New England as possible after he graduated.
As for character, Elihu Yale was a slave trader as well as a slave owner and a vicious racist, but this was long before there was any significant movement to abolish slavery. Calhoun was a vicious racist and one of the prominent defenders of slavery after most of the civilized world had abolished it. He was also an advocate of nullification - that is, the idea that the south could reject national laws - and IMO that makes him one of the founders of the line of thought that led to secession and the Civil War.
IMO, Calhoun College should never have been named after him, and renaming it after Admiral Grace Hopper is a good thing. I can see reasons to take Elihu Yale's name off the university, but that's throwing out 3 centuries of name recognition, so it's much more difficult...
markm at February 15, 2017 6:26 AM
"Why all the interest in Yale University's decision to rename one of its several undergraduate residential colleges?
My beloved corporate employer renamed itself three times over the course of my 37 years on the payroll."
I'm guessing your company didn't brag about how moral and superior it was with every name change. When I was at OU they renamed one of the ROTC buildings and no one really cared. So to answer you, advertising. No one really cares that they renamed a building. But they find the shallow moral claims quite offensive. It's not the act but the sales job.
Ben at February 17, 2017 10:34 AM
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