Pressure builds for Yale to change its name

Going trans will only go so far

Okay, so far, the pressure seems to be coming mostly from my side of the aisle, but how long can the Lincoln haters ignore Eli’s sordid past?

An anonymous Princeton professor sees the delicious dilemma Yale faces:

Removing Woodrow Wilson’s name from its School of Public Affairs is Princeton’s most underhanded ploy yet to undermine its hated competitor Yale–to which it more often loses than wins in the competition for outstanding students. It reveals the extraordinary cunning and ruthlessness of Princeton alumnus Christopher Eisgruber, the University’s president. It comes at a cost, of course, since the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a valuable brand. But clearly, and shrewdly, Eisgruber judged that the cost is well worth it. For this puts Yale in an impossible position.

“Elihu Yale, after whom the University was named, was a vicious racist–not only a slave holder but a slave merchant, a buyer and seller of black bodies. By any accounting or measure, he was an even worse racist than Woodrow Wilson. By removing Wilson’s name from one unit of Princeton University, Eisgruber has put Yale under extreme pressure to change the name of Yale University. But, of course, this would be the loss of a massively—incalculably–valuable name brand.

“Think about it. What high school valedictorian with 1580 SAT scores who founded a charity to send tricycles to toddlers in Tajikistan would turn down (say) Princeton to attend the University of Central New Haven? (It has to be central New Haven, by the way, because there is already a University of New Haven. Of course, they could rename it Angela Davis University, I suppose.) And yet, if Yale refuses to take the “extraordinary measures” required to confront honestly the University’s history of racism (etc., etc.) by removing the vile slave merchant’s name, then what Woke high schooler is going to want to attend unWoke, indeed racist, Yale over Woke Princeton, which did have the courage to take “extraordinary measures” to confront honestly the University’s history of racism (etc., etc.)? This Eisgruber fellow is a genius.”

It occurs to me that a reasonable compromise is possible here: keep the Yale name for the sake of alumi cash, but issue diplomas in the name of Central New Haven U. The old coots will continue to mention Yae in their wills, and today’s woke students can feel good knowing that they’ve relinquished their white privilege and partially atoned for their sins against the African race.