“A Convenient Way To Sidestep History”

Inside the college walls, the title of ​“master” was eliminated. Outside the name of a leading slavery advocate, John C. Calhoun, remained at the entrance.

Those actions, taken recently by Yale University sent a muddled, mixed message, rather than effectively addressing racial concerns on campus.

So concluded three Yale professors in a roundtable discussion on the recent campus unrest. The professors — Law School Professor Tracey Meares; Alicia Schmidt Camacho, professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration, as well as what until now has been called associate ​“master” of Yale’s Ezra Stiles residential college; and Vesla Weaver, as assistant professor of African-American studies and political science — held the discussion on the latest episode of WNHH radio’s ​“Kica’s Corner” program hosted by Kica Matos.

They began the discussion by focusing on a series of decisions announced on April 27 by Yale President Peter Salovey in response to demands by student and faculty protesters that included the removal of John Calhoun’s name from a residential college. Salovey announced that Yale will no longer use the title ​“master” for the person in charge of each of its residential colleges. He also announced that the name of Calhoun College — honoring leading slavery advocate John Calhoun — will not be changed.

The panelists all agreed that the name should have been changed.

The ​“master” and Calhoun decisions — as well as the decision to name one new residential college after a slaveholder (Benjamin Franklin) and another after a pioneering civl-rights attorney, Pauli Murray — ​“are inconsistent with each other,” argued Camacho. ​“Where is the vision?”

Meares, who is the only black woman ever to receive tenure at the law school, noted that a majority of faculty members signed a petition calling for the Calhoun name to be changed. She also noted that a majority students surveyed by the Yale Daily News called for the change — and also believed the university wouldn’t make it.

In his announcement, Salovey argued that keeping Calhoun’s name will promote further discussion of the slavery. He argued that Yale must confront history, not run from it. (His full announcement, including the arguments for it, can be found here.)

“This is such a convenient way of sidestepping history and of not actually doing the right thing,” Weaver argued. ​“It begs the question: History for whom?

“This is good for white students to grapple with and acknowledge this tormented past. What about black students? How do black students experience this? This is not walking by a memorial. This is where they live. This where they dine. This is where they study. … To keep this name means that Salovey was OK with or didn’t consider the effects on black students. … When people are reminded of their unequal worth,” they internalize that message and act accordingly.

Click on the above audio file to listen to the full episode of ​“Kica’s Corner,” which also touched on the decline in ranks of faculty of color at Yale and on recent campus protests.