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University of Virginia Makes Small Change to Athletics Logo Over Slavery Connection

University of Virginia Makes Small Change to Athletics Logo Over Slavery Connection

“After the release of our new logos on April 24th, I was made aware of the negative connotation between the serpentine walls and slavery”

You can see the image below. The change is barely noticeable.

The Hill reports:

University of Virginia changes athletics logo over connection to slavery on campus

The University of Virginia’s Athletics Department announced this week that it is changing a logo that was unveiled earlier this year over its link to slavery on the school’s Charlottesville grounds.

UVA’s logo for the athletic department includes a “V” with two sabers crossed under it, and athletics director Carla Williams said in a Monday statement that changes were made in April to two logos, adding additional lines on the sabers as a reference to the “serpentine walls” on grounds.

“After the release of our new logos on April 24th, I was made aware of the negative connotation between the serpentine walls and slavery,” Williams said in the Monday statement. “I was not previously aware of the historical perspective indicating the original eight-foot-high walls were constructed to mask the institution of slavery and enslaved laborers from public view.”

She added that she has “worked to better educate myself and that education will continue.

“There was no intent to cause harm, but we did, and for that I apologize to those who bear the pain of slavery in our history. As such, we have redesigned the logos to remove that detail. All other aspects of the logos will remain the same.”

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Comments

That’s so trivial it’s insane.

I blame the death of spanking for the infantilism we see all over today.

You have GOT to be sh1tting me.

healthguyfsu | June 18, 2020 at 1:21 pm

Will the serpentine walls be taken down now?

I thought the serpentine walls were an architectural achievement that (among many other examples) earned enduring respect for Jefferson’s design skills. The curving wall was built with fewer bricks than a straight wall would have required and it was more stable (less likely to fall down) than a straight wall. I have NEVER heard of any connection to slavery. Consider Jefferson’s intellect, creativity, and gift for innovation and ask yourself which purpose likely motivated his design: to built a more economical and stronger wall (prettier, too), or to cover up slavery? Slavery was an established institution at the time, and I don’t believe that slaveholders made much effort to hide a legal and commonplace sight from public view.

I was not previously aware of the historical perspective indicating the original eight-foot-high walls were constructed to mask the institution of slavery and enslaved laborers from public view.

I wonder where this historical perspective comes from. Perhaps this person wasn’t previously aware of it because it isn’t true.

    GatorGuy in reply to randian. | June 19, 2020 at 3:25 pm

    Perhaps.

    I say, let’s explore the matter; let’s find out if how a possibly representative UVA student’s feelings are supported by some reliable historical evidence, if it even exists.

    I’m for good social outcomes related to both MyTruth-based aims AND those based on a science-guided approach — in the hypothesis-led hunt for empirical evidence — in this case, valid historical evidence, whether documentary or testimonial.

Whew! Glad we accomplished the most important thing in the galaxy.

This isn’t about race relations. This is about Carla Williams
proving her bona-fides in the Liberal/Wackjob world as the “wokest of all”. She is, after all, a product of that mindset.
It would be interesting to know how she “educated” herself on the subject and as she has said that education will continue how she will do so.

It was also announced that the 1979 movie, “The In-Laws” won’t be shown anymore at U.Va because it’s reference to “Serpentine” evasion from bullets:

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4130–serpentine-serpentine-the-impeccable-madness-of-the-in-laws

I dunno. To my eyes and mind, a design-artist’s pictorial representation of a classically ribbed saber handle belonging to
an Errol Flynn-like Cavalier doesn’t appear to resemble, let alone romanticize about the good ol’ days of slavery, a serpentine design at all.

But I’ll accept the claim, in the proper, skeptical manner for now, that the uncomfortable connotation to some students et al is sensible, and historically sound. To make me a complete believer, I would hope to read supportive documentary evidence to validate what appears to be the offending, socially unjust, as it were, some would claim an even criminal connection between 1) slavery’s existence on campus and UVA’s intended perceptual suppression of it to whites on campus and 2) the design-artist’s intent to memorialize that connection in UVA’s modern logo.*

Does the documentary evidence, needed in the attempt to answer the above historically relevant questions, exist, and, if to answer either or both of them, why hasn’t the one, or the other, or both been added to what is substantially an academically centered issue?

Wouldn’t it be a fine academic exercise — a leading model for the coexistence of a given connotative and emotional understanding AND a good historical investigation, the promotion of a rational, scientific approach to reversing any historically bad fact and its claimed related policy?

Schools, for our nation’s and civilization’s established and long-time promoted sake: Ask. Hypothesize. Set out. Find. Argue formally. Embrace. Rejoice. Grow.

Be rational. Be organized, Be as good as we’ve been in the past for the most part, and better than what’s materializing culturally before our very own eyes — which the best part of us all today detests!

We’re Americans. Do it the American, rather than any totalitarian, culturally revolutionary way — which un-American ways have proven historically not only to fail, but to fail murderously and miserably.

Need we be another historical chapter of les miserables?

____________________
* “When U.Va. Athletics decided to incorporate the walls into their logo designs, I FELT [my emphasis] as if they were attempting to ‘glorify’ past University wrongdoings,” Cochran said. “For many, this wall evokes stringent feelings of emotional distress and pain. As an African-American student who walks past these walls every day, I experience uncomfortable emotions relating to them.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/serpentine-walls-and-slavery-university-of-virginia-ditches-saber-logo-based-on-thomas-jefferson-design

In a world where what “I felt,” a MyTruth-recognizing postmodern world, can rationally, peaceably, and teleologically coexist with an “evidence has been hypothesized and found to support,” science-recognizing, modern world, I believe our culture has a very good chance, not only to survive, but to grow as a New World of Epistemic Togetherness.

Let’s try to continue where Columbus is recognized, perhaps after many earlier runs by different cultures, to have, at the very least, notably achieved: simply to explore.

This is what such an epistemic holism wants us to say and do: This time, we’ll get it wholly right.