In Berkeley, the renaming of campus buildings takes a turn to the bizarre

The student body at Berkeley has a lot on their plate these days what with the imminent arrival of Ben Shapiro sending everyone scrambling for their safe spaces and all. But with so much to be done on the social justice front there’s simply no rest for the weary.

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In case you hadn’t heard, there are offensively named buildings to be tackled on campus. We must wipe away all vestiges of racism or colonialism or… something. With that in mind, the students are looking to change the name of Barrows Hall. That one clearly has to go because of the evil, sordid history of the man it was named after. (The College Fix)

Barrows Hall is named after the university’s president from 1919 to 1923, David Barrows, an anthropologist who served as superintendent of schools in Manila when the Philippines became a U.S. colony, according to the University of California Academic Senate’s biography in memoriam.

The Daily said his academic work was informed by “white supremacist ideology.” In 2015 the Black Student Union demanded the name’s removal among other high-priced demands, calling Barrows an “imperialist by way of anthropology [who] participated in perpetuating American colonialism.”

So it turns out that David Barrows wasn’t actually a slaveholder. In fact, he wasn’t around for the Civil War. But he was an anthropologist. (And you know how those people are, I’m sure.) Guilty of, er… imperialism by way of anthropology, he clearly needs to be wiped from the history books.

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But you can’t just leave a fancy building such as that one lying around without a name, right? So who will it be named after now? Hold on to your hats and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times, folks, because things are about to take a turn. They want to rename the building in honor of a convicted cop killer. (PJ Media)

The BSU insisted that Barrows Hall be renamed after Black Panther Assata Shakur, a convicted cop killer who escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba. Shakur is on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists.

You just can’t make this crap up, folks. You just can’t.

A man who served as a military officer, an anthropologist, an explorer, and a university president is someone of such poor moral standing that he must be erased from history, whereas a convicted and escaped cop killer is an ethical choice.

We’ve written about Assata Shakur here before and she regained some additional notoriety when Barack Obama moved to normalize relations with Cuba. That’s where Shakur has been in hiding for all of these years. Many, including Governor Chris Christie, wanted to see her returned to justice before any sort of rapprochement with Havana was attempted. That didn’t work out so she’s still on the run, but if the Black Student Union at Berkeley has anything to say about it, she’ll be immortalized on the west coast.

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Exit question: Does anyone at Berkeley actually go to, you know… classes anymore? Or is it really just a big social center for group hugs, trust falls, professional cuddling therapists and righteous indignation? And what are they paying for tuition these days? Oh, that’s right. $61,654 for out of state students.

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Ed Morrissey 10:40 AM | December 18, 2024
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