Posted on 04/18/2014 3:41:38 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
After the Civil War, Robert E. Lee accepted a position as president of what was then called Washington College. By all accounts, he served the school well and had a nice end of life. After his death, Washington College was renamed Washington & Lee.
Today, many black people attend the university that bears Marse Robert’s surname, so I guess we won. But a group of black law students at Washington & Lee Law School is getting really sick of the university’s consistent, stars-and-bars waving support of Lee’s legacy and the whitewashing (no pun intended) of what that legacy represents.
They’ve got a list of some very specific “demands” for the Washington & Lee administration…
On the one hand, I’m kind of surprised that black students at Washington & Lee are just now threatening “civil disobedience” over the school’s longstanding remembrance of the Confederate cause. The thing is called Washington & Lee, not Washington & GRANT. I mean, here’s a line taken right from the school’s “about” page on its website:
Founded in 1749, Washington and Lee University is named for two of the most influential men in American history: George Washington, … and Robert E. Lee, whose presidency and innovative leadership brought the University into the national limelight.
Right… the two “of the most” influential individuals are George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Not Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Not even Washington and John C. Calhoun… you know, the guy who came up with the whole, bollocks secessionist legal reasoning. But Washington and Robert E. “I’d rather fight for my state than combat a great evil for my country” Lee. Lee’s logic is akin to me fighting the Orkin Man because the “New York City” rats shouldn’t be subjugated to a “national” company, but whatever.
Again, black people could have probably known what kind of university they were getting involved with when they applied to Washington & Lee, but if you want to know what’s pissing the black law students off, I can begin to explain in a picture:
Now, I don’t know if a tomb to a dead general crosses that intangible line from historical preservation to offensive nostalgia. But when you couple those traditions with other things black law students at W&L are complaining about, you can understand their problem. Here is a list of demands from a group of black law students calling themselves “The Committee”:
Here is a list of the FOUR DEMANDS:
1. We demand that the University fully recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on the undergraduate campus.
2. We demand that the University stop allowing neo-confederates to march on campus with confederate flags on Lee-Jackson Day.
3. We demand that the University immediately remove all confederate flags from its property and premises, including those flags located within Lee Chapel.
4. We demand that the University issue an official apology for the University’s participation in chattel slavery, including a denunciation of General Robert E. Lee’s participation in slavery.
If the school does not act by SEPTEMBER 1, 2014 we WILL engage in civil disobedience.
Really, this is a Confederate Battle Flag issue. To me, it’s a symbol of racial oppression. To others, it’s a symbol of Southern pride. My question to the Southern Pride people is always: what about all the black Southerners? Are they not allowed to be “prideful” of their Southern roots as well? Or are they supposed to wave around a Confederate flag in support of their “state’s rights”?
I contacted Washington & Lee about the controversy. Here is the school's statement:
We have received communication from the group of law students who signed the letter and have responded by inviting invited them to engage in serious discussions about the issues that they have raised.
The question of cancelling classes on MLK Day has been discussed on several recent occasions. The law school does not hold classes that day. Any decision on changing the University's undergraduate calendar rests with the undergraduate faculty, which approves academic calendars and adjustments to the class schedule. Washington and Lee does recognize Martin Luther King Jr. each year with a university-wide MLK Legacy Week during the week of MLK Day. This annual observance features a prominent guest speaker. Recent examples are Donna Brazile, Andrew J. Young, and Julian Bond. In addition, panels, symposia and programs are available not only for the university community but also for the Lexington/Rockbridge County community. We have chosen to honor Dr. King's legacy in this way.
In terms of the other issues that the students have raised, we will give them all careful consideration
Yay. Washington & Lee has black friends, so it's all good.
Look, in terms of Washington & Lee, sure George Washington was a slaveholder too. And if W&L is using that flag in order to honor slavery, well, go nuts. But let's just remember that Washington — the Washington who fought and froze and bled for this country, the Washington who was our first federal president under our constitution — would probably roll over in his marble grave to know that a REBEL flag was displayed so prominently at a university that bears his name.
Whatever you think the Confederacy was about, it most certainly involved a violent rebellion against a duly elected president led by people who had the right to vote but could not achieve their political motives through the agreed upon process. The Founding Fathers wanted representation. The Confederates wanted to get their way, regardless of what "voters" wanted in new territories. You think Washington would wave a flag for that?
Washington & Lee has two people in its name, maybe it's time to start listening for the echoes of the other guy.
Blacks must be incredibly fragile. How pathetic.
So is someone holding a gun to their head forcing them to spend $50,000 a year to go to Washington and Lee law school?
Why?
They've sworn obeisance to an Illegal Alien from Indonesia SOLELY on the color of his skin!
It could be worse..... you could have black radical assholes that offend by just being for classmates
They could always transfer to UMich.
America is the only country in the world with a genuine race problem insomuch as the white establishment feels they owe something.
Anywhere else in the world, blacks would be castigated for trying to pull some BS like this. I agree that they should be thanking us. Had those landowners not brought over boatloads of slaves from Africa to till their fields, an overwhelming majority of modern day black men and women would not even be alive.
Subsaharan Africa was and still is a brutal area of the world.
We demand, We demand, We demand, We demand.
Sounds a little like the chorus from hell in regards to ice water. Absolutely pathetic.
I keep looking, but I don’t see the Right to Not Be Offended ANYWHERE in the Constitution. . .
I recognize MLK Blvd and stay the heck away from it whenever and wherever I encounter one.
Hit the nail square-— These so called Law Students should be judged for the content of their character—and not allowed to act like Communist Revolutionaries. I doubt any of them ever lived when Martin Luther King was alive.And I sincerely doubt he would have marched with them. They misrepresent Robert E.Lee— and the South. Bet every one of themis a Yankee clipper.
Hello. Earth to black law students. Washington led a revolution against the legitimate government, did you forget that part?
Perhaps if the W&L Administration declared a “Black Liberation from the Contemporary Plantation Week” and invited Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Ben Carson, Allen West, etc as the speakers we would see this same group of offended law students protesting to ban this group of (black) speakers.
After all, if the protestor’s sole criteria is the color of skin, acquiesce to their demands on skin color and then nail ‘em with reason and accurate thought... from black men.
A uniquely stupid analogy:”Lee’s logic is akin to me fighting the Orkin Man because the “New York City” rats shouldn’t be subjugated to a “national” company, but whatever.”
If Blacks have a problem with stupid honkies Why don’t Blacks just ignore them or “kick they asses”?
Blacks, you are GOING to a school NAMED for a so called racist (in your mind). That would be like whites complaining that (for example) we are not welcome at a university named Obama Mandela University or CONSERVATIVES welcome at a university named Stalin Lenin Mao University.
If you want to blacks, you could go to a tradional black college like Grambling or Norfolk State.
Is this a trick question?
And out of the blue, it hit me. There needs to be a university named for two Africanmericans.
OBAMA & KING University.
Think of the possibilities.
Since it is to be a commemorative university, it should be endowed by Africanmericans. For Africanmericans. Rev Al? Rev Jesse?
Naggers should stop nagging. I’m really getting to hate Naggers.
stupid naggers....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.