@hebegebe Of course we’re using today’s norms, because we think they’re better. If we thought the old norms were superior, we’d be using them instead.
Showing through humor doesn’t work when your analogies don’t make any sense.
The key question is not whether they are better, but whether it is valid to do so. I don’t believe it is.
You don’t think abolishing slavery is better for people of color? 
^ You are deliberately misinterpreting what hebegebe said and you know it.
@albert69 @hebegebe Thx for posting some sarcasm and humor. Am driving 9 hours up I-95 in traffic today, and you are entertaining me while my husband is grumpy at the wheel. Dropping son off for freshman year at Cornell next week. I wonder which buildings need renaming up there.
^ I think he’s saying that we shouldn’t judge them by our standards.
The problem here is that even in Calhoun’s time, there were people who stood on the “right” side of history and condemned him. So plenty of other people who deserve the spot.
No, @albert69 I’m not misunderstanding. The norm we’re talking about here is the philosophy of support and propagation of slavery. Calhoun was a proponent. Today’s norms say this was an abhorrent philosophy. We’re judging him by that norm. Questioning that norm is questioning whether slavery was abhorrent.
^ So you truly believe that leaving Calhoun’s name on a building at Yale means that Yale really actually supports slavery of colored people in 2016?
At any rate- I think its GREAT that the student protestors brought back up the Calhoun issue (the majority of students are in support of removing the name) protested and tried to effect change…
Just because a school has a big powerful name like Yale (or any IVY) doesn’t mean they always act in the best interests of their students … the current state of sexual assault/ university response comes to mind… if the students don’t protest for change who will? The fact that the school has such prestige creates a unique power imbalance that can harm the minority students attending … so the attitude “you are getting revenge bc you attend the school” doesn’t cut it… Kudos to those speaking up!
Well by today’s norms, Washington would be rejected for slavery. Jefferson too. Lincoln was a racist.
Teddy Roosevelt said about Indians (Native Americans):
So, do you recommend we dynamite Mt. Rushmore, rename DC, and get rid of their monuments?
@hebegebe These are students protesting and speaking up for change at their schools, not national monuments. They are talking about changing the name on a building. They attend the school- they have a right to speak up and IMO we shouldn’t be mocking them.
As I said to Pizzagirl many, many, many posts ago, I’m not necessarily calling on Yale to rename the building.
I’m calling on Yale to no longer sweep under its wealthy rug the fact that Calhoun was a notorious defender of a philosophy we today consider catastrophic and abhorrent.
If Yale chooses – as it’s its right – to keep it Calhoun College, it could still behave honorably (according to the norms of our time) and not whitewash the College’s history. Yale could, for example, do what Georgetown is now doing as it deals with ugly aspects of its own history.
President Roosevelt signed the order for the Japanese Americans to be locked away. Time to do away with all the Roosevelt-named schools out there.
On this, I agree 100%.
@albert69 Japanese Americans were granted reparations and a formal US government apology. And no, not by some sensitive bleeding heart liberal, but by Ronald Reagan himself.
Now THAT’S dealing with history.
Thank you for bringing up this example.
How exactly does one sweep something under the rug in the age of the Internet? A quick Google search can find plenty of information on a prominent historical character like that. But if Yale was trying to sweep that under the rug, so to speak, then that is wrong.
So I guess the president should formally apologize tomorrow and gave all black Americans a chunk of cash. That would be nice - maybe then we could put the issue to rest.
“Put the issue to rest”? In what ways did reparations to Japanese Americans put the fact of internment camps “to rest”? It was simply a formal acknowledgement of a crime committed by the government against some its own people.
There should be an unconditional apology for slavery.
The issue of reparations for slavery is far more complex. Reparations are far more fair for everyone when it is done near the time of the offense. Those receiving reparations were those who were offended, and it is paid mostly from those that directly caused the offense.
But now we are 151 years after slavery was abolished. It is likely that a majority of the people in the United States today are not even related to the people that lived in the US in 1865. In addition, there has been black immigration to the US post-slavery. How is eligibility determined, and how are benefits to be determined?
Just to be clear: I neither support nor criticize the idea of reparations. It’s (as you point out) a complex issue about which I don’t know enough to comment.
I cited it in response to albert69’s attempt at humor in #295. (Because you know, internment camps were so funny.)
How many Japanese Americans have you seen protesting to rename Roosevelt High Schools?
I don’t think any eligibility for compensation needs to be determined besides being black. I highly doubt any of the black students at Yale have been personally affected by slavery, but it is a historical event attached to their skin whether their ancestors were brought over in chains or not.
I know… let’s replace Calhoun name with Reagan! 
Edited to add: I wasn’t trying to be funny with the internment thing, I was using the analogy for more serious discourse. I was trying to be funny with the Revere and his horse thing.