A magnificent April Fool’s joke in
today’s Times, but one that scrapes the knuckle of truth. In short, students
from Imperial College and King’s College have demanded the two colleges be
renamed in order to ‘decolonise and demisogynise higher education.’ Student
Union members claim the names are ‘symptomatic of the historic and structural
racism and sexism that cause daily microaggressions to students of colour and
those who self-identify as female.’ Two new names have been suggested: Gaia
College and Citizens’ College.
Frederick Chetwynd-Talbot,
President of the King’s College Indigenous People’s Society believes the
existing names are ‘inimical to a place of learning that claims to offer a safe
space for all.’ For him it is ‘about the intersectional oppressions suffered
each and every day by people of the Global South, and members of the LGBTQ
community.’ There is to be a vote tonight in the Saif Gaddafie room, built from
a bequest by the late Libyan leader’s son.
What can I say? Today’s April Fool,
tomorrow—who knows? Rhodes has escaped by a narrow squeak, for the moment. In
America the process is already gaining momentum, until the pendulum turns. In
Pennsylvania, the Lynch College Memorial Hall provoked students there to demand a
name change because of its racist connotations. In fact the hall is named after
one of its past presidents Clyde Lynch, a
1930’s benefactor and fundraiser behind the building of the memorial
hall. Now had the hall been named after the Virginian planter, Charles Lynch,
whose ad hoc courts tried and ‘lynched’ British patriots during the American
Revolution, those students would have something to shout about. I already feel
a microaggression coming on. Pass me the smelling salts
What has been your best April Fool this year?
2 comments:
This reminds me of a university here in the states. I can't remember which one but someone was going around writing 'Trump 2016' in chalk.
Well, the students were so traumatized the dean had to send for a counselor. A counselor!!
I thought it was a joke until I read it on several news feeds.
If this is the state of our future generation we better fund them now for stiffer backbones and thicker skin.
When you think of it, Maria, April Fool becomes meaningless in a culture of fools
Post a Comment