Harvard Bows to SJWs and Abolishes the Title "Master"

[DamienCasanova]

This reminds me of another SJW assault on our language, culture and heritage. The word police SJWs also want to abolish the term "founding fathers" and make it "founding persons" because y'know, patriarchy and stuff. How much more can they try and distort our history and re-write history books through their modern day fish eye lenses of insanity?

 

[debeguiled]

The irony here is that the word "master" in the academic context has absolutely nothing to do with slavery. Nothing at all.

I believe the etymology of this word is derived from the Latin "magister" which means "teacher" or "rector." It has absolutely nothing to do with pre-Civil War slavery.

Even beyond dismantling historical traditions, it is like meaning itself is being hijacked. There are definitely situations where someone says something unconsciously racist and it needs to be brought to their attention for them to remedy.

But now, it seems like it we have thrown away the whole concept of the reasonable person, and without this, we are absolutely and unequivocably sunk as a society:

The standard also holds that each person owes a duty to behave as a reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person

If no one is held to being reasonable, then it doesn't even matter if anyone is knowingly being racist, or being unconsciously racist, or even not being racist at all.

The standard of the reasonable person has been replaced by the standard of distant plausibility. (Note, this standard, while already in effect, hasn't even been named yet.) The standard of distant plausibility goes like this:

In order to accuse someone of racism or sexism or any kind of chauvinism, not only do you not have to be reasonable about it, but the claim doesn't even have to be plausibly plausible. All it takes for one person, anyone, anywhere, to interpret any action as possibly offensive, is for that person to make a charge that is not absolutely impossible.

If their statement is not absolutely impossible, than it shall be treated as if it were the only possible possibility.

At this point, the standard of distant plausibility shall be invoked, and all other possible interpretations shall be considered null and void.

This allows all sorts of terms to be renamed, at any time and anywhere. It can create new speech codes, which can then change at will, at whim, as well has leading to buildings being renamed, and on and on.

And it leads not only to situations like the one in the OP, but ever proliferating others:

How about this recent one. A couple of college kids post a picture of themselves wearing a facemask beauty product:

This immediately leads to pandemonium when someone, somewhere invokes the standard of distant plausibility and declares the two racists for posting a picture of themselves in blackface:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ndergoing-facial-treatment.html#ixzz41DHlMnZj

Another recent example. In order to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Monkey, which begins Feb 8, the Sacramento Kings basketball teams tried to give away these tee shirts on a home game Feb 1:

However basketball player DeMarcus Cousins, invoking the standard of distant plausibility, found the fact that the shirts were being given out on the first day of Black History month to be a clear sign of racial insensitivity, and the promotion was cancelled, and the shirts were removed.

Yes, it is getting serious when the standard of distant plausibility can even lead to the possibility of free shit you were about to get being taken back even before you get it.

(I may even end up being forced to edit that ^ sentence, seeing as how it carries an implied reference to the term "Indian giving.")

http://www.eurweb.com/2016/02/sacramento-kings-pull-monkey-tees-after-demarcus-cousins-complains/

Now, to be fair, it is possible that a secret racist was sneaking some underhanded insults into the equation. However, if you look at the Kings home schedule (http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/Sac/sacramento-kings), you can see it is much more likely that the day was chosen because there was a run of away games for the Kings, and the dates of February 1st and 2nd were the two days closest to the beginning of the Chinese Lunar Year, and they had to pick one of the two.

It is unlikely that the people who schedule all the events and promotions for the venue were even thinking about the first day of Black History Month as a separate date apart from Black History Month as a whole, and you could easily take any day from the month and look for a possible insult or grievance in the choice of object given away or the food they chose to serve or whatever.

So I am gonna go with, using the now archaic "reasonable person standard," it was only DeMarcus Cousins who connected the animal on the Chinese New Year tee shirt with black people, and decided to make an issue of it. To everyone else, it was a free tee shirt celebrating the Chinese New Year, and had nothing to do with black people at all.

Yeah, I think we are not only shitting on history, but we are also having a go at meaning itself right now, and if we don't watch out we will be bickering with each other endlessly pointlessly over irrelevancies, while the world gives up the ghost in the background.

 

[Foolsgo1d]

There is such a term in the UK known as 'Master of the house', given to the man and his son's. In my mind the term master, when associated with academic or a skill is simply describing the skill level of that individual. You have mastered it, ergo you are a master of that particular science/skill/vocation.

Once again ignorance has won the day.

 

[Meadowlark]

 

[odesseus]

Harvard did indeed go 'Full Retard'

 

[PolymathGuru]

It is a conspiracy to have RVF removed from the greater society rather than dominating it. Yet this is exactly what society truly wants, RVFers as their masters. Its time to ante up our societal game skills. This is what Roosh has been training us to do all these years.

 

[Paracelsus]

Happily, this means Rey, the SJW hero of the current Star Wars films, will never become a Jedi Master.

 

[Rush87]

Quick question to the American's in here. Considering the fact that over 300,000 Irish were enslaved during American settlement, are they exempt from the SJW's 'privilege' narrative? Or has that part of American history been erased by the left because it doesn't fit the narrative? Genuinely curious as to what they teach in your high schools?

 

[WanderingSoul]

Quick question to the American's in here. Considering the fact that over 300,000 Irish were enslaved during American settlement, are they exempt from the SJW's 'privilege' narrative? Or has that part of American history been erased by the left because it doesn't fit the narrative? Genuinely curious as to what they teach in your high schools?

I knew there were white slaves in the US, but I had no idea there were 300,000 Irish slaves. We definitely do not learn that in school.

 

[weambulance]

Quick question to the American's in here. Considering the fact that over 300,000 Irish were enslaved during American settlement, are they exempt from the SJW's 'privilege' narrative? Or has that part of American history been erased by the left because it doesn't fit the narrative? Genuinely curious as to what they teach in your high schools?

I was never taught about white slavery in the colonies. I knew there was a lot of discrimination against the Irish at one time, and we learned about indentured servitude and all that, but much of what I learned about slavery was... incomplete. Looking back on what I learned in school, in a school district good enough people from all over move to the town specifically so their kids can go there, the narrative they were teaching is pretty obvious.

I graduated HS in the early 00s, so no idea what it's like now.

 

[Speculation]

The Irish were indentured servants which is when someone signs a contract for a certain period of years to work for an employer. The long contract was to help cover the expensive cost of transport to the Americas. This is different to the blacks who were generally slaves in perpetuity (along with their progeny).

I'm still trying to find out how the irish were treated compared to black slaves. Stefan Molyneux references that the irish were used for particularly dangerous work such as standing under cranes to guide the loading and unloading of cargo at the docks and suffered much more deaths and permanent disabilities as a result.

This was because black slaves were more valuable as they were owned for their entire lives as compared to rented for a few years. You might consider it similar to the use of mercenaries being placed in the front lines to soak up casualties otherwise destined for regular troops.

One of the articles out there says that while white servants could be whipped for striking out at their master, blacks could be tortured and killed.

Most of the left leaning articles seem to downplay how badly the whites were treated. For instance the above article while acknowledging that whites could be whipped, lets slip the following:

It is also true that many servants didn’t live to see the end of their period of servitude due to brutal treatment and unsparing work regimens,

The entire issue seems to be one of 'Yeah white 'slaves' had it pretty bad, but black slaves had it worse', implying that white's have nothing to complain about.

Sound familiar? Yeah its the same rebranded victim politics that Feminism engages in.

edit: There were also some Irish prisoners (political or otherwise) that were forced into indentured servitude without their consent (eg enslaved), but this was usually for a set period of time. That said, I'm sure working for 20 years on a sugar plantation in the colonies would be a death sentence in all but name.

 

[PolymathGuru]

Quick question to the American's in here. Considering the fact that over 300,000 Irish were enslaved during American settlement, are they exempt from the SJW's 'privilege' narrative? Or has that part of American history been erased by the left because it doesn't fit the narrative? Genuinely curious as to what they teach in your high schools?

I never knew there were white slaves. Could you provide a source?

 

[LeeEnfield303]

Quick question to the American's in here. Considering the fact that over 300,000 Irish were enslaved during American settlement, are they exempt from the SJW's 'privilege' narrative? Or has that part of American history been erased by the left because it doesn't fit the narrative? Genuinely curious as to what they teach in your high schools?

Reference? I'm genuinely curious about this, would like to read about it.

 

[deerhunter]

When all Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were being rounded up in the 1650's to sell as slaves in the New World I don't believe they were asked to sign papers to pay for their transport. Over 100,000 Irish children it is believed were sold to raise money for the crown.This calling them indentured servants pisses me off. It is what my kids are taught in school here in the U.S. Over 300,000 Irish sold overseas and there is no record of one person ever making it back to Ireland.

 

[PolymathGuru]

When all Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were being rounded up in the 1650's to sell as slaves in the New World I don't believe they were asked to sign papers to pay for their transport. Over 100,000 Irish children it is believed were sold to raise money for the crown.This calling them indentured servants pisses me off. It is what my kids are taught in school here in the U.S. Over 300,000 Irish sold overseas and there is no record of one person ever making it back to Ireland.

Thats because Americans assumed they were all hustling for money, with land being the reward after their servitude.

 

[Rush87]

The Irish were indentured servants which is when someone signs a contract for a certain period of years to work for an employer.

Without derailing the thread: I've always wondered whether 'indentured servants' were calculated much like the exaggerated feminist 'rape' figures today I:E: Changing the definition of slavery to omit an area that doesn't fit in with an agenda.

The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the New World. His Proclamation of 1625 required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies. By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat. At that time, 70% of the total population of Montserrat were Irish slaves.

Ireland quickly became the biggest source of human livestock for English merchants. The majority of the early slaves to the New World were actually white.

From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English and another 300,000 were sold as slaves. Ireland’s population fell from about 1,500,000 to 600,000 in one single decade. Families were ripped apart as the British did not allow Irish dads to take their wives and children with them across the Atlantic. This led to a helpless population of homeless women and children. Britain’s solution was to auction them off as well.

This is taken from 'White Cargo': The forgotten history of the white slaves.

Stefan Molyneux references that the irish were used for particularly dangerous work such as standing under cranes to guide the loading and unloading of cargo at the docks and suffered much more deaths and permanent disabilities as a result.

I've watched that as well. Great video. What I found fascinating [And take into consideration I went through 12 years of history in school and four years at University] is that while I was repeatedly told about the English responsibility for slavery - Not once did I ever hear of the 14 centuries of Middle Eastern Slavery, the 115 million African's killed in the Arab slave trade or the 1.5 million Europeans captured in the barbary slave trade. Once again: It doesn't fit the narrative [Much like we saw with Roosh getting crucified in the media over our proposed meet-ups whilst the New Years Eve rapes generated the sum total of zero f**ks from the media].

 

[Only One Man]

Good. This will solve all the problems in the black community right?

 

[DannyAlberta]

As Western institutions become more and more infected by concepts of "social justice", the less able they will be to accomplish anything. Soon, even the simplest task will become nearly impossible for Harvard for fear of "offending" some group of identity-first hacks (white, heterosexual males are of course exempt from this consideration).

Eventually, they will have to convene committees with racially diverse quotas to decide even trivial things, such as what is on the cafeteria menus for undergraduate students. It will be very contentious in these committees, with yelling, crying, swearing, accusations of "hate speech" for anyone being remotely disagreeable and constant pleas to "check your privileges". Endless meetings will follow where little to nothing ever gets decided.

I don't think I'm exaggerating in the slightest. This is the inevitable end-point of social justice in the West. Institutional gridlock.

 

[WalterBlack]

More retardation:

Harvard Law School scraps official crest in slavery row

Harvard Law School is to change its official seal, after a protest that it had links to slavery.

The law school, part of the US university, has a seal that includes the crest of a notoriously brutal 18th Century slave owner.

Students have been holding protests and sit-ins calling for a change in this official emblem.

A Harvard Law School committee says the seal no longer represents the institution's values.

Last week, the university announced that it would stop using the term "master" in academic titles, because of connotations of slavery.

Protests on campus have attacked the use of the official seal over its link with the Royall family, whose family coat of arms are incorporated in the emblem.

This reflects the role of Isaac Royall, an 18th Century businessman who funded the first professorship of law at Harvard.

But the law school committee, in its recommendation for scrapping the seal, notes that he was also known for "extreme cruelty", including burning 77 slaves alive.

Harvard Law School is now accepting calls for the withdrawal of the shield, which has been in use by the school since the 1930s.

But the decision to remove the emblem was not unanimous within the 12-member committee, with two people arguing that it should be retained.

The school's dean, Martha Minow, reporting to the university's ruling body, said: "We believe that if the law school is to have an official symbol, it must more closely represent the values of the law school, which the current shield does not."

In a message to staff and students, Dean Minow said the shield had become "a source of division rather than commonality in our community" and because of the associations with slavery it should be "retired".

There have been waves of campus protests about issues of race and representation.

Earlier this year, Amherst College, in Massachusetts, accepted student demands to drop links with its informal mascot, Jeffery Amherst, an 18th Century general accused of advocating infecting native Americans with smallpox.

And there have been sit-ins at Princeton in a bid to rename a school named after Woodrow Wilson, because of claims the former US president held racist views.

There have also been controversies about statues.

In South Africa, a statue of Cecil Rhodes was removed from the University of Cape Town, with protesters attacking the statue as an emblem of colonialism and apartheid.

But a call to remove a statue of the 19th Century politician from Oriel College in Oxford University was rejected.

George Washington owned slaves - will we have to change the American Flag too? This is what the future USA flag will probably look like once the SJWs have had their way:

 

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Eventually, they will have to convene committees with racially diverse quotas to decide even trivial things, such as what is on the cafeteria menus for undergraduate students. It will be very contentious in these committees, with yelling, crying, swearing, accusations of "hate speech" for anyone being remotely disagreeable and constant pleas to "check your privileges". Endless meetings will follow where little to nothing ever gets decided.

I don't think I'm exaggerating in the slightest. This is the inevitable end-point of social justice in the West. Institutional gridlock.

I remember from playing Alpha Centauri that running your faction as a Democracy gave you a +2 Efficiency bonus.

Now that I know what I know, I guess whomever made that game hasn't really thought it through.