On his blog, No Punches Pulled Bob Jones has published a letter sent to him by a friend who is a professor at Berkley. His friend reveals that his Dean has told him that the name of a Science award will have to be changed because the famous and respected American Natural scientist that it was named after (like many men at the time) was a slave-owner.
This is not the first time that Berkley has made efforts to erase the scientist’s name. Jones’ friend also revealed that the administration had earlier made an effort to remove the name from the physics department building as well as elsewhere on campus.
The friend pointed out to his Dean that it was hypocritical to target the scientist for the memory hole because he owned slaves when the University’s namesake Berkeley, was also a slave owner! If you want to read the letter in full and find out what the Dean said in response you will need to visit No Punches Pulled.
In his blog post Bob Jones had the following to say about Contemporary Revisionism.
Historic revisionism is infantile and potentially endless. For example, there’s vigorous debate about whether the bible endorses slavery and racism. It’s pointless. No Christians today believe in slavery, in line with today’s values. Philosophy students study Plato of Aristotle, both defenders of slavery, without offence being taken, but instead seeing it in the context of the times.
This type of contemporary revisionism in universities (the same nonsense is occurring in Britain about names on buildings and the like, of accomplished figures from the past who owned or were involved in the slave trade) is simply a form of book burning.
Every society has at some stage had slaved as part of its social structure. Let’s remember which ones ended it, specifically British and American abolitionists.
No Punches Pulled
Only last week we saw this kind of revisionism of our New Zealand history where a historic incident between Captain Cook and Maori was rewritten as a completely one-sided encounter. All the blame for what happened was laid at the feet of men who were not there to colonise or to conquer while the Warriors who were “murdered” were portrayed as victims of an “atrocity.”
