^ Oh, so is that why people call country music racist? Because of Rhett Akins? 
Hyperbole never fails to weaken an argument and derail a reasonable discussion. It is the key defense mechanism of the indefensible position.
Sound like someone had surgery to remove their funnybone.
^Indeed. And a very effective way of exposing hyperbolic assertions is through humor.
There is humor in this thread?
The second defense mechanism of the indefensible position is ad hominem.
So back to topic- I do think if someone does not have firsthand familiarity with a strong residential college system, they may not have a complete feel for all the issues at hand.
I know a Rhett. I fact I know a couple. And Scarlets? Very popular for the grandchildren of my friends. Making quilts for two of them right now.
There is an elementary school girl named Scarlett who just moved in nearby. They moved here from California.
I know an immigrant family who named their daughter Scarlett because the mother was obsessed with Gone With The Wind back home. Go figure.
Getting again back to topic, its all kind of a moot point since Yale decided back last spring to retain the name of Calhoun College
Daffy was never one to understand humor or sarcasm.
Honestly though, save the MJ one, some of the name analogies are not too far off. If someone is feeling uncomfortable in a building named after a known slave owner, how can they possibly feel warm and fuzzy knowing there’s people out there named after Confederate leaders? Perhaps even entering that building. (Yikes!) Why go for bricks and mortar when you could demand the living, breathing reminders of slavery be abolished? (Since the premise here is that an association is support.)
You really didn’t read much of this thread, have you?
Hint: the identity and culture of RCs at Yale are fairly profound to Yale students. They’re not just another building. If this hasn’t sunk in, perhaps reread some of jym626’s recent comments.
I think the tongue in cheek comments are being taken too seriously.
And probably I’m taking it too far. Okay, I’ll quit and stop trying to inject humor (yes, humor, Postmodern) into this conversation. ^:)^
If they don’t already, maybe Yale can allow students to request other residences if they get assigned to Calhoun in the sumner before freshman year and are unhappy with that? If enough kids start requesting to switch out of Calhoun, then maybe Yale would feel obligated to change the name. If not enough people express concern, then those who do could still be given another living option.
Almost no Yale folks have posted here, so either few people care about the name of this dorm, or they have other things to do than read this CC website.
Bummer. I like the humor. I drove by Yale yesterday and was thinking about this discussion.
I’ll just pm you when I come up with clever remarks, @MOMANDBOYSTWO >:D<
Oh, and as a complete aside, my earlier post (#374) got me musing about old college days and memories. I remembered going to parties in Ezra Stiles and Silliman. I had a relative who was a Resident house fellow for one of the colleges many years ago (cant recall which college) and a friend who is a current house fellow. IIRC, each college held its own graduation ceremony in its courtyard - either that or they went up by college (I was young-- cant recall-- would appreciate help from any Yale grad to clarify). The cohesive bond instilled by the residential college system (save the halloween costume mess of last year), enjoying study breaks at the faculty fellow’s apartments, turning to them for assistance when needed, etc, is very powerful. I am not surprised they would not give up the name associate with the college.
With respect to the close relationship with the house fellows, we were very grateful for the assistance form DS#1s house fellows when he shattered his femur on a vacation, requiring surgery, and arrangements to look into alternative housing when he returned, and he lived 3 stories up, with no elevator, in his dorm). Called them from the hospital many states away. They were wonderful. They also brought snacks to the intramural games and were essentially like second parents. These are big families, and they don’t want to lose the family connection or the family name.
“Hint: the identity and culture of RCs at Yale are fairly profound to Yale students. They’re not just another building. If this hasn’t sunk in, perhaps reread some of jym626’s recent comments.”
So you’re saying that it’s meaningful to want to change the name of Calhoun because it’s a residential college. But it would be less meaningful / defensible / worth falling on a sword over if it were just a Yale administrative building that housed, say, facilities management. Correct?
Similarly, if another school had a dorm that was named Calhoun Hall, but it was a school that just had dorms and not the res-colleges-are-my-identity of Yale, you wouldn’t get quite so worked up over it. Correct?
IOW, the res-college-ness and the Yale-ness make renaming Calhoun more of a moral imperative than it would be in other circumstances. Is that your argument?