Woodrow Wilson during his first term as president. ca. 1910s
Princeton University Student members of the Black Justice League staged a protest inside the presidents office to demand removal of Woodrow Wilson’s name from the campus:
About 30 black and white students, from a group called the Black Justice League, took part in the protest, demanding a range of changes to improve the social and academic experience of black students. Scores of other students joined in the protest outside the building.
Princeton is home to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs, his name is on one of the school’s residential colleges and there is a mural of Wilson in a dining hall that the protesters want removed.
“Having to walk by buildings that (have Wilson’s name), having to walk by his mural, having to live in residential colleges that didn’t want our presence on campus, that’s marginalizing,” said Asanni York, a black junior who is majoring in public policy. “People are hurt by that. All this matters because, at the end of the day, black people’s feelings matter just as much as any other people’s feelings matter.”
The protesters also want the Ivy League university to institute cultural competency training for staff and faculty, and add a cultural space on campus dedicated to black students.
Marginalize: treat (a person, group, or concept) as insignificant or periphera
(Can an image do that?)
It seems to me that these students have a better choice.
They could look at the photo’s of Wilson’s and his name and hold their heads high with a sense of pride. They share a rich history with those who came before them. Their parents and grandparents “overcame” racism and bigotry so they could attend this prestigious university.
But no, this bunch of militant students are using a former Democrat President’s racist past to intimidate. They demand the removal of an historical image and a transfer of wealth. The win would demonstrate “black power.” It’s what self important kids do these days.
They are going to Princeton! How privileged can you get!
College and University leaders had better wake up to the fact that they cannot appease these clowns, no matter what. Just take a look at their irrational demands!
They lost all credibility when they started whining that the Paris attacks got more news coverage than they did. And their Black Wednesday protest yesterday went over like a lead balloon ’cause nobody came.
Fabulous! They’ve already left a shameless trail of damage.
My message to them…go read a book…do your assignments. Think about your future. Be grateful you live in a free country.
I would think the Tea Party would be all for this, given Glenn Beck’s longstanding crusade against Wilson.
Good for them. Wilson was a horrible president.
Thanks to him we have the income tax and the Federal Reserve. And he tried to force the League of Nations down America’s throat. That was the forerunner to the corrupt UN which is a major force in the effort to kill off our sovereignty and impose one world government.
Chris the Tea Party is in favor of free speech. We don’t run from history or try to wipe it out symbolically. Our arguments and objections are based on whether Wilson’s policies resulted in consequences that did more harm than good.
Beck’s problem isn’t with Wilson as a human being. It is with Wilson’s progressive ideology and the legislation passed with democrat control in Congress. Two pieces of legislation in particular “transformed” our nation.
One bill created the Federal Reserve which allows the government to play around with interest rates and print money. Yellen has kept interest rates artificially low. (She believed it would cause borrowing and that would get the economy going. It hasn’t; the economy remains sluggish. Perhaps worse, when interest rates do again rise inflation could follow.) The market doesn’t like to be jerked around.
Another was passage of the 16th amendment changing language in the Constitution to give the government greater taxing authority. Some say it was never properly ratified.
The newly created gold standard was suspended when WWI broke out so we could print money to fund the war. The unintended consequence was hyperinflation:
Tea Party people, and conservatives, are not protesters in the way you think about it. We are interested in seeing things work to the best advantage for the most people.
Wilson was the worst combination of progressive and internationalist bankster puppet.
He was way in over his head and at the time did not know what he was unleashing.
That is nothing more than specious trash talk nonsense, “bob”. What do you think you gain by that crap?
So you’re for central banking, the income tax and the UN?
Do you want a politburo type organization trying to control the supply of money and interest rates or do you want to let free markets do their job? If you want the latter how can you possibly be for central banking and the Federal Reserve?
Also, Wilson was Demoncrat.
That is nothing more than specious trash talk nonsense, “bob”. What do you think you gain by that crap?
Spoken like a true Deweycrat.
Re Tina : “Chris the Tea Party is in favor of free speech.”
And the left is not —
Reporters barred from Smith College sit-in held in solidarity with University of Missouri students unless they support movement
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/traditional_media_not_welcome.html
I have to wonder, what do the left wing “want to make a difference” in the Smith College journalism department think of this?
Pie, I haven’t read about Smith College but a lot of what is going on at various campuses like Amherst and Mizzou saddens me. It’s like some of these liberal protesters are determined to prove conservative objections about political correctness right. Colleges should of course take action against racism but some of the demands from the liberal protesters are unreasonable, as if they think their campus can protect them from anything, even things that are done by non-students. Even the behavior of some professors has been appalling and tyrannical. The worst is the new catchphrase “hate speech isn’t free speech,” which should always be followed with “Of course it is you ninny.” So I just want to let you know even though we usually don’t see eye-to-eye, I do recognize the problem you’re pointing out in this case and I can’t and won’t defend it.
1) did these people say they were the left? They are people, young peoplK.
2) Freedom of speech? That does not mean you have to let in the propaganda squad. When the press is barred from a koch bros summit in palm springs that is different? Freedom of speech does not mean you have to let the press into every event.
Key word “journalism” today’s reporters are infotainment trolls there are very few real journalist’s today.
People do not have to comply to conservative views. That is dictatorship.
People don’t have to comply to your views either Dewey.
We know them by their ideology.
You, on the other hand are confused in this regard as you have demonstrated again and again.
If the students didn’t want attention they should have organized a meeting rather than a protest and refrained from alerting the press. They wanted the attention but they demanded compliance. They have no right to do that nor respect for speech rights.
I don’t agree with a lot of what you wrote, Tina, but it’s a sensible response to my admittedly rather pithy and glib comment, so thank you.
I agree that the protest for a name change is a bit silly–Wilson is hardly the worst person we honor in this way. I’m not opposed to all calls to rename certain institutions–I don’t think we should name anything after Confederate generals, for instance–but renaming institutions named after American presidents, even exceptionally racist ones, goes too far for me.
Incredible Pie. Once again evidence that young people have not been taught even the basics of our Constitution! This is a disgraceful stain on education in America.
Complacent: Satisfied with the current situation and unconcerned with changing it, often to the point of smugness.
So this student thinks that neutrality, reporting who, what, when, where, and why, is smug complacency? O M G
The truth is she doesn’t want to make her case. She doesn’t want any opposition. She doesn’t think anyone has the right to defend against specious, damaging accusations or getting fired!
What a stupid, stupid world we have created for ourselves.
In this case, Tina, you’re absolutely right.
The students have the right to assemble and protest. let them fight their battles. I think there are bigger fish to fry but they will learn civics by experience and that is good.
And for once we agree Tina! The Fed is a crock! The FED who’s board is a revolving door of wall street executives. The fed is at the very core of the rigged game. The Fed was the seed of fascism that handed America over to the Banksters. Their fascist coup in 1934 was not the end. We face going down to authoritarian fascist rule today.
Are you aware that the Koch’s are not Wall Street excutives Dewey?