The recent protests by college students across the country are mostly about racial insensitivity and charges of discrimination and mistreatment on campuses today. But there also are complaints about what students see as symbolic vestiges of a racist past. Some
The recent protests by college students across the country are mostly about racial insensitivity and charges of discrimination and mistreatment on campuses today. But there also are complaints about what students see as symbolic vestiges of a racist past. Some of these objections are more valid than others, but even the worthy ones raise difficult questions for institutions that revere tradition but also have obligations to the current generation of students.
Last week, Princeton University announced it no longer would refer to the heads of its residential colleges as “masters,” a term inspired by the ancient universities in England. …
Much less frivolous are demands that colleges rename buildings or programs identified with historical figures who supported slavery or segregation. At Yale, some students want the university to find a new name for Calhoun College, named after the 19th century politician John C. Calhoun, a Yale graduate, U.S. senator, vice president — and one of the nation’s fiercest defenders of slavery. At Princeton, a group known as the Black Justice League has called for the name of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the U.S., to be stripped from a residential college and the Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs.
It’s certainly understandable that African-American students would feel uncomfortable residing in a college named for Calhoun. Wilson is a more complicated case. Historians say he harbored racist views, and note that as president he resegregated the federal workforce. Yet his legacy is much larger and includes his role on the world stage. …
We can see why African-American — and other — students object to honoring historical figures who held noxious views about race. Yet the sad reality is that the United States has a long history of racism and many of its founders were slaveholders. There is no easy answer to the question of whether or when the names of racist historical figures should be removed from buildings or monuments. In some situations, an attempt to eliminate offense can amount to rewriting history. Better in those cases to acknowledge the history and learn from it. In other cases, the names should go.
— Los Angeles Times
