UW-Madison Planning to Remove Large Rock From Campus Because it Once Had a Racist Name
“This is a huge accomplishment for us”
This brings the removal of campus monuments to a whole new level.
Madison.com reports:
UW-Madison moves forward on plan to move 70-ton boulder seen as symbol of racist past
UW-Madison is moving forward on a plan to remove a boulder from Observatory Hill after calls from students of color who see the rock as a painful reminder of the history of racism on campus.
The 70-ton boulder is officially known as Chamberlin Rock in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But the rock was referred to at least once after it was dug out of the hill as a “niggerhead,” a commonly used expression in the 1920s to describe any large dark rock.
The Campus Planning Committee unanimously voted last week to recommend to Chancellor Rebecca Blank that the boulder be removed from Observatory Hill. Blank has previously indicated she supports the rock’s removal, though a timeline for removal has not been established.
The Wisconsin Black Student Union called for the rock’s removal over the summer. President Nalah McWhorter said the rock is a symbol of the daily injustices that students of color face on a predominantly white campus.
“This is a huge accomplishment for us,” she said on Wednesday. “We won’t have that constant reminder, that symbol that we don’t belong here.”
McWhorter also faulted the Wisconsin State Journal for printing the vulgarity in a 1925 news article.
University historians identified the news story as the only known instance of the offensive term being used. It’s unclear whether or for how long people on campus referred to the boulder as “Niggerhead Rock.” The term itself appears to have fallen out of common usage by the 1950s.
NOT A JOKE: The University of Wisconsin is removing a rock from campus because of its racist history. https://t.co/VdLgISht8Z
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) November 19, 2020
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Comments
“We won’t have that constant reminder, that symbol that we don’t belong here.” Yea, but every time you look in the mirror……
So by this logic, every institution of higher learning that ever denied entry to any “BIPOC” (or whatever divisive term is going to be used next week) should be shut down. And the same if women or LGByadayada… were not admitted. Period. Shut them down. Get after it leftists. And don’t think you can just reopen with a new name and charter… nope, the very ground will reek of that racism. It must be cleansed.
“This is a huge accomplishment for us,” she said on Wednesday. “We won’t have that constant reminder, that symbol that we don’t belong here.”
How dare that rock roll onto what would eventually become Wisky’s campus? Did it not know that what it was doing was not actively anti-racist all those millions of years ago??
Wait, wait. University historians can identify only a single use of the term to refer to the rock in an 85-year old news article, but this is a ‘huge accomplishment’ for the professionally aggrieved? Highlights just how far they have to dig to find something new to offend them.
(According to the Urban Dictionary, the term was originally used by the Spanish and Portuguese in the 1300s to refer to a bollard on a pier.)
I meant a 95-year old article.
Clearly, a “dig” should be organized immediately. How many more of these racist rocks lurk just the grass? Even one is too many! The time for action is now!
Yes indeed. I attended that esteemed University for 7 years. First 3 I passed that rock every day to and from my dorm. I knew all along it was a racist rock. Just the way it looked out on its less obvious lesser rocks nearby.
Glad TPTB there have now cured racism. At last. More time now for climate change.
They’re gonna need a bigger rock.
We have officially lost our collective mind.