September 2, 2020

"In collaboration with the Black Student Union at the school, University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders are discussing plans to remove a 70-ton boulder from campus grounds due to it once being called a racist name nearly a century ago."

"The boulder had traveled to the region over 10,000 years ago, deposited by ancient pre-Cambrian bedrock drift from Canada, according to its plaque. In 1925, workers pulled the rock out of the side of a hill on campus and named it 'Chamberlin Rock' after Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, a 19th century glaciologist and University of Wisconsin president. The rock was adorned with a plaque commemorating Chamberlin and placed at the university’s Washburn Observatory, where it remains today. While Chamberlin Rock has been a campus fixture for 95 years, it recently came under fire due to once being described as a 'n****rhead' in 1925 as was common geological practice at the time to describe large dark rocks.... The Black Student Union at UW is now calling on the university to find an alternate way to represent Chamberlin on campus without the legacy implied by the rock. 'You clearly see what the rock was called and you can’t deny the history. Additionally you can’t deny the way it makes some people feel,' Black Student Union president Nalah McWhorter told Madison.com. 'If you’re not going to move the things that are disrespectful to us because other students love it, put something up that us Black and brown students can celebrate.'"

The College Fix reports.

What is the cost of moving a 70-ton boulder? What is the value of the beauty of the rock itself, which has nothing to do with racism? The only reason for attacking the rock is that there is no way to do anything to the use of a word 95 years ago. That's an incident in the past. Gone. But the rock is there. You're getting mad at a rock? No, you're asking for something to be done that can be done. A 70-ton rock can be moved, and so the demand is to move the rock. It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no.

IN THE COMMENTS: Meade said:
We live a stone’s throw from the Chancellor’s mansion. Last Friday morning around 7AM, I heard chanting outside. Turns out it was coming from a group of 20-30 protesters at her front door chanting, “Wake up, Becky and move the rock! Wake up, Becky and move the rock!”

It is despicable of the protesters to harass Chancellor Rebecca Blank anywhere but especially at her personal residence.

191 comments:

Michael K said...

Hilarious. When do black students demand that all blacks get degrees without attending class ? Class is racist, you see.

Drago said...

According to our leftists/liberals/LLR-leftists, this rock is clearly racist and served in the Confederate army under Field Marshall Benjamin Franklin and also "owned" as "rock slaves" several even darker smaller rocks which to this day have never received reparations.

There can be no peace until this historic injustice is rectified.

Expat(ish) said...

I’ll pass the popcorn, ya’ll pay your taxes.

Let’s see who has more fun.

-XC.

PS - Florida is full.

rcocean said...

Mad at a rock = dumb as a rock.

rcocean said...

Mad at a rock = dumb as a rock.

Ice Nine said...

Well, so much for eating Brazil nuts at University of Wisconsin...

rcocean said...

They won't remove the rock. No one totes around a 70 ton boulder asking people if they want to take it in. They'll DESTROY the rock. Smash/blow it up, and cart away the the pieces. Goodbye, Mr. Rock - you racist. But isn't the rock, a "Rock of color"? Wouldn't destroying it be an act of white rock supremacy?

Roughcoat said...

My money's on the university on not having the sense to say no. Dollars to donuts.

This is all about power. Blacks are whose feelings really are hurt or who are offended by the sight of the rock and knowledge of what it was called almost a century ago are morons. I'm not discounting that there are many such morons but in any case they should all be regarded dismissively. Blacks who are advocating for its removal as an exercise in power deserve a rather different response. Namely: refusal, and pushback.

Joel Winter said...

It's so interesting to observe how much power the past is being given.

In this instance it seems that one person (A journalist! In 1925!) used that term to describe it--and its future has been eternally tarnished. Not only tarnished, but the aura of that tarnish seems to be unavoidably spraying its hatred all over everyone, from the rock's perch there on the grass.

Of course history shapes the present--but how much--and why let it?

Are we really that entirely consumed by what has happened in the past? This type of obsession is one more example of how the Left and Right seem to be trading their foundations (wasn't it the Right that was conservative and obsessed with the past?)

Rory said...

"What is the cost of moving a 70-ton boulder?"

Incoming white fresh students should be chosen by lottery to be chained together, given sledgehammers, and reduce the rock to pebbles.

Clues? said...

Finally we get some clarification on systemic racism. The system they’re referring to is the “glacial system.”
https://www.tutor2u.net/geography/reference/the-glacial-system-explained

Dude1394 said...

How about telling them if they don’t like it, leave the f*** from campus. Anyone not telling these idiots NO should be fired yesterday.

David-2 said...

Proof positive that university administrators - at UW-Madison for sure but also elsewhere - are cowardly time-servers willing to destroy their own institution just to buy a little span of being left alone before the next stupid student shouts out. Instead of "discussing plans" to remove the rock why can't they just say what everyone with any sense is thinking: "Go home, you're done. We don't have room on campus for hysterical babies. This place is for adults." How can anyone take this "demand" seriously?

Charlie said...

"It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no."

Guaranteeing it will be moved!

RMc said...

It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no.

They won't, though. ("Jump!" "How high...?")

Sebastian said...

"No, you're asking for something to be done that can be done."

No, they are asking for any absurd thing that can conceivably be framed as racial to be done, to show that there is no defense and there are no limits.

"A 70-ton rock can be moved, and so the demand is to move the rock."

No. "We demand x in the name of racial justice, therefore move it already."

"It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no."

If only. The theater is real in its consequences, designed to humiliate white liberals and to show who's in charge. It's the theater of prog coercion so sense has nothing to do with it. Be grateful they don't make you move that rock along with other nice white women in Madison.

Mr Wibble said...

Again, none of this is really about social justice, or actual insults towards black students. It's about power. The activists are doing this because they want to demonstrate that they can make the administration bend over backwards to appease them. They want to demonstrate to their fellow leftists how effective they are, as a form of social positioning, and they just want the thrill that comes with exercising any power over another person.

Unknown said...

"Feelings... nothing more than feelings..."

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Wait until they hear about Brazil nuts!

madAsHell said...

"Alex, I'll take Persisting Stereotypes for a $1000."

Phil 314 said...

Hazelnuts soon to be banned

Mike Sylwester said...

The fundamental problem is that universities enroll too many students who cannot and will not read at the university level. Not all (or even most) such students are Black, but they are disproportionately Black.

Charles Murray wrote a book titled Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality. One of the "four simple truths" is that too many people are going to college.

That chapter of the book compares passages from high-school textbooks and college textbooks. The difference is stark, and college textbooks are too hard for many people to read effectively. Students who could not and did not read their high-school textbooks will not be able to read their college textbooks.

The overwhelming majorit of those students who read inadequately will fail academically. If there were only a few such students, then some of them could be accommodated. However, there now there are far too many of them.

In order to justify the universities' foolish decisions to enroll so many of them, the administrations argue that the students are too troubled by prevailing racism on campus. These students are distracted by racist building names, by racist artwork, by racist Halloween costumes, by racist sombreros at fraternity parties -- and now even by racist boulders.

However, even after all such racist distractions are removed from the campuses, those students still will not be able to read their college textbooks. They still will fail academically.

wild chicken said...

Is if too much to ask that UW tell the complainers to go pound sand?

Someone will, eventually.

Ryan said...

This is just too funny. A fucking 70 ton boulder is now racist. When they are done moving it, they can also go out to Moab, UT and move "Ni**er Bill Canyon," as it was known until 1968.

n.n said...

Paint it black. Black rocks. Blackfeet Nation. Black holes... whores h/t NAACP

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Oh, Nalah again.

She needs more homework.

Old and slow said...

I always think I've seen the dumbest example of "woke". but suspect I never will.

Daniel

MartyH said...

Shouldn’t they move all of the offending rocks, not just this one?

Ryan said...

By the way, moving it won't solve the problem: the racist rock will just be somewhere else causing heartburn. What they need to do is pulverize it into a fine dust and let it blow away in the wind, or something like that.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

The University could offer to take off the Chamberlin plaque and replace it with one that reads Black Lives Matter.

JML said...

“ It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no.”

So, how long before it is moved? Can Meade use it as a centerpiece in your back yard?

Hunter said...

Unless there is some reason to save the rock there is no reason to move it - you can simply crack it apart where it lies and haul away the fragments. Don’t even need to use dynamite - build a fire around and it will crack naturally. Cheap and easy.

FWIW, that Is exactly what was done to many of the stones at the Avebury Henge in England. During the late Middle Ages there was a moral panic against “heathen” structures, so the destruction was encouraged by local clerics. Lots of parallels with today.

MikeR said...

70 tons. Maybe let them move it.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's a rock.

Planet earth had slaves. Still does in some backwater nations.

Shall we blow up earth? Come on... FEEELZ.

Kevin said...

We clearly need to move everyone to a planet where slavery has never been practiced.

Until then we should leave no stone unturned in making people feel comfortable.

LilyBart said...

Are people on the left embarrassed when lefties are this stupid?

SteveSc said...

If the source of your unhappiness is a large rock, you have work to do.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

It's a 70 ton boulder the size of a 10 ton boulder.

rhhardin said...

I wouldn't be surprised if Crayola had a n****r black color, to go with Indian Red.

You've got to be able to color faces, if you're a kid.

British grey.

Mary Beth said...

'If you’re not going to move the things that are disrespectful to us because other students love it, put something up that us Black and brown students can celebrate.'

The rock is for bargaining. They will use it to get something else that they can "celebrate" because that's easier than removing it. The bonus with that is, they can keep coming back to ask for more.

JaimeRoberto said...

That's a big thimble. Maybe the biggest. Yuge.

rhhardin said...

You could decommission the rock. This would involve removing the rock's weapons and electronics as well as other ceremonial acts.

papper said...

Sense? hahahahahahahahaha

mccullough said...

Wait until they find out who the city of Madison was named after.

Amadeus 48 said...

"It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no."

Yeah, but what are the odds? We are talking a major public educational institution. I say they fold like a cheap suit really quickly.

By the way, any American public corporation would do it faster than the university will.

Althouse, you really should read Atlas Shrugged (1957) for a look at how predictable this turned out to be...or you can just dip into the news pages of NYT, WaPoo, or, most disgracefully, WSJ, to see how craven the top executives of American business enterprises are.

Kate said...

We can ban Brazil nuts. They taste weird. And they were never called Brazil nuts when I was growing up. The other name immediately pops into my mind, whether I want it there or not. Cancel away!

gspencer said...

"'put something up that us Black and brown students can celebrate'"

Popeye's or an Uncle Jemima Liquor Stand?

https://vimeo.com/182715131

Beach Brutus said...

"It's not a boulder, it's a lage."

Eleanor said...

Find out how much it will cost to move it. Find something on campus the kids like and want to have, and let them vote on which one gets the funds.

Narayanan said...

giving it white face all over should be acceptable to the systemic rayciss - and call it white privilege

or do a Sisyphean contest - roll it higher up?

Narayanan said...

or how about laying it in Abe's lap sitting in his chair?

Chanie said...

It's a good thing Ann is retired or else she'd be compelled to denounce this rock, if not herself.

Northwestern U. law school had a town hall meeting online recently. Everybody began w/ a ritual denunciation of themselves as racist. Reader: "Prof. Speta is not a racist. He is a wonderful man universally loved by students. It makes me sad that he is forced to say otherwise."
https://twitter.com/roddreher/status/1300897705858928646

Original Mike said...

I'm a geology nut. I'll take the rock, as long as they deliver it.

walter said...

For maximum empowerment, gather every black/Black/African American/melanated student and have them work a setup like Egyptian slaves used for boulder moving.

stevew said...

Lord this has become absurd.

You should hear what mrs. stevew's maternal grandmother called brazil nuts. And she wasn't alone.

I'm Full of Soup said...

I am proud of the outage Althouse has been expressing almost every day over the latest dumb woke shit.

rhhardin said...

If they move the rock north, the days will be shorter. South, longer.

rhhardin said...

Thou art Peter and thou shalt pick picked peppers.

The Godfather said...

The rock USED TO BE called a "n*****head". At about the same time, African Americans USED TO BE called "n*****s". Our solution with people wasn't to get rid of them; it was to stop calling them that. Same approach ought to work with the rock. But if African American students don't like that solution, they can just leave the University. That would be a lot easier than moving the rock, and just as effective.

William said...

Will racism be diminished if they move the rock? Will Black students feel better about themselves if such a rock no longer exists on campus? Are Black students stupid enough to reply in the affirmative to these questions. If so, the moving of the rock will further serve to disillusion Black students......I would like to live long enough to see some activist somewhere be denounced by his Black peers for engaging in ridiculous or hateful anti-white activity. I don't think it's going to happen in my lifetime. A few jokes about Jussie Smollett is about as much one can hope for.

tim in vermont said...

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said Tuesday she looks forward to advancing the recommendations made in a report that urged her to remove, relocate or contextualize the Washington Monument because of its “disqualifying” history.

Maybe they could get a discount if they remove and pulverize both together.

Original Mike said...

"They won't remove the rock. No one totes around a 70 ton boulder asking people if they want to take it in. They'll DESTROY the rock. Smash/blow it up, and cart away the the pieces."

Then you'll have hundreds of racist rocks.

I guess you could bury them. In secret so nobody knows where they are. You'd have to kill the work crew.

rhhardin said...

Claim that the rock stands for the black family, back when blacks had families.

rhhardin said...

You could move it by rearranging the letters into cork.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

appeasing the Woke mob

...a Sisyphusian task

Yancey Ward said...

Lake Mendota was once known as N****r Lake.

Am I joking?

n.n said...

Hilarious. When do black students demand that all blacks get degrees without attending class ? Class is racist, you see.

Didn't that effectively happen in Atlanta, when black administrators and teachers made sure that no child was left behind? That said, affirmative discrimination is evidence that affirmative action was a catastrophic failure, further exacerbated by Some, Select Black Lives Matter et al that profit from misdiagnosed symptoms, and untreated, persistent collateral damage.

RobinGoodfellow said...

“ Blogger Ice Nine said...
Well, so much for eating Brazil nuts at University of Wisconsin...”

Oh, snap! ISWYDT!

Jupiter said...

"'If you’re not going to move the things that are disrespectful to us because other students love it, put something up that us Black and brown students can celebrate.'"

Maybe they could give them their own private water fountain.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Don't want to call it Niggerhead because it was black? Paint it white.

Oh...wait....that would be white privilege or racist or something. How about brown. Nope....Mexican people are brown and that would be racist too. Hmmm....plaid? Cammo? that would be good...maybe no one will see it then.

I know...blow the damned thing up.

PS...there was...maybe still is a place in the wilderness near me that is/was informally called Niggerhead Flats by the locals and on some very old maps. Named after the plants that the settlers in the 1840's encountered. A quite lovely place. Lots of those racist plants with a pretty stream running through the marshy areas, 😁

Yancey Ward said...

"This is all about power."

Of course it is. The demands will just get more and more ridiculous. I can't imagine the total lack of dignity it takes for the university leadership to actually agree to this ridiculous demand, but they will surely do it. I guess no amount of crawling around on ones belly is too much for academics.

Earnest Prole said...

I have a dream to live in a nation where glacial erratics will not be judged by the color of their stone but by the content of their character.

Rt41Rebel said...

A large boulder the size of a racist boulder needs to be moved I guess.

George Leroy Tirebiter said...

As the Nervebreakers sang 41 years ago, My Girlfriend Is a Rock.

Static Ping said...

Ann, you act as if this supposed to make sense. Being woke means never having to say you're sorry, or never having to act as a rational human being for that matter. If you feel it, then it is true, no matter how absurd. Alice in Wonderland would know this well.

My money is they will bend the knee. How much this will matter once the university is disbanded is another question, given the it is becoming more and more questionable if the institution any longer serves a useful purpose.

Big Mike said...

Incoming white fresh students should be chosen by lottery to be chained together, given sledgehammers, and reduce the rock to pebbles.

No, NO, NO!. Have the university administrators chained together and do the rock hammering. Include the Chancellor, the Provost, and all the Deans.

Rick said...

It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no.

Saying no suggests is is appropriate to test activist claims against reality. If the left generally admits this should be done the entire basis for their entire economic and social program would fail.

Jamie said...

Once society caved to the first idiotic, senseless demand in the name of sparing hurt feelings, we were lost. I have no idea if we can claw back what we have willingly given away.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Sisyphean", sorry.

...hope no one was peeved-- miffology aint our strong suit

YS said...

This reminds me of that "niggardly" case back in 1999. I am surprised that the current admins haven't decided to ban Chaucer from classrooms.

Tom said...

“You can’t deny the way we feel...”

Well, I won’t deny the way you feel. I will, however, be clear that I don’t care how you feel and I don’t believe someone with so little emotional resilience should be in college.

The enablers who are submitting to your evil rock request are doing you no good in preparing you for life.

tcrosse said...

None of my business, but how many of these Woke Black guys have blonde girlfriends? That used to piss off Black women no end.

Narayanan said...

earlier I suggested laying the rock in Abe's lap

changed my mind - set up Abe on top of the rock after white facing it.

Rick said...

However, even after all such racist distractions are removed from the campuses, those students still will not be able to read their college textbooks. They still will fail academically.

That's why the Grievance Studies Departments exist: to provide a major these students can pass.

Narr said...

I've skipped ahead, but will be be back later to review.

"Dumb as a box of rocks," comes to mind.

Narr
We are screwed, blued, and tattooed (and not not in the good ways)

steve uhr said...

You could try to roll it down the hill into lake Mendota. It would prob come to rest on the bike path though.

I bet the rock has significance to Native Americans since an Indian mound is next door

effinayright said...

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...
Wait until they hear about Brazil nuts!
***********

Yes! I've solved that problem by referring to them as "vitiligo toes".

And it's a good thing these idiots don't read books, otherwise they would burn down all university libraries for carrying that Joseph Conrad book with the...unfortunate... title.

Not to mention that the Polish-born author culturally appropriated English!

Narayanan said...

The most talked about objects are without a doubt, the famous Olmec Heads weighing between 20 to 40 tons and reaching up to three meters in height. These enormous heads were carved from basalt rocks.
-----------==============
to deserve the soubriquet? carve MLK head or some other head of choice : Thurgood Marshall? Clarence Thomas will be tickled to be chosen

are the Olmec sculptors still around?

GingerBeer said...

If elementary schools, high schools, college buildings, and dorms can be renamed, why not a rock? I suspect the ask is so ludicrous because they expect UW to cave and humiliate itself. I'm sure there is a Sisyphus joke in this somewhere.

Jon Ericson said...

Cancel rent

Vance said...

The University should tell the complainers they can move it, but since the landscaping is costly no machinery will be allowed to assist.

So the black whiners will have to chain themselves to the rock and try to move it, slave style.....

boatbuilder said...

I suppose spray painting the rock white wouldn’t do...?

GingerBeer said...

Where is Leo Burt when you need him?

Wince said...

University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders are discussing plans to remove a 70-ton boulder from campus grounds due to it once being called a racist name nearly a century ago.

Yet wouldn't moving a rock be offensive to gay students, because of the name Sisyphus?

I'm Not Sure said...

"While Chamberlin Rock has been a campus fixture for 95 years, it recently came under fire due to once being described as a 'n****rhead' in 1925 as was common geological practice at the time to describe large dark rocks...."

And it was common to call blacks 'n****rs' in 1925. If the rock needs to be removed from campus because of what it was called 100 years ago, shouldn't blacks be removed from campus because of what they were called back then, too?

Francisco D said...

Bucky Badger is next.

The mascot looks like a raccoon which is a racist epithets that was once use for Blacks.

It warms my heart to see activists focusing on what is truly important to the Black Community.

Rabel said...

Looks like it's sitting on the side of Observatory Hill and it's downhill all the way from there to the lake.

Just give it a push. The football team isn't doing anything, let them do it.

Hunter said...

Unless there is some reason to save the rock there is no reason to move it - you can simply crack it apart where it lies and haul away the fragments. Don’t even need to use dynamite - build a fire around and it will crack naturally. Cheap and easy.

FWIW, that Is exactly what was done to many of the stones at the Avebury Henge in England. During the late Middle Ages there was a moral panic against “heathen” structures, so the destruction was encouraged by local clerics. Lots of parallels with today.

chickelit said...

I'm a UW- Madison grad ('83) but I am embarrassed by my alma mater. I'd rather give money to Althouse than to the University. My kids already chose alternative universities. So the ties are severed.

Wince said...

Wow, there's a tremendous allegory in the Sisyphean mythology when it comes to modern day "woke" atonement.

Sisyphean describes a task as seemingly endless and futile — you keep doing it but it never gets done. The word comes from the name of Sisyphus, a character in Greek mythology who was punished by being forced to continuously roll a boulder up a steep hill...

Sisyphus is the symbol of modern man, capable of attaining consciousness that his existence is absurd. More than that awareness of this fact, he can also find meaning in his life precisely by accepting the absurdity. In this way, Sisyphus the symbolic incarnation of modern man suffering from an existential crisis who looks to the absurdity of life as a means of salvation...

Camus lends the punishment philosophical depth by virtue of how he imagines Sisyphus comes to deal with the true nature of the punishment: with an eternal sentence of doing completing a job that can never [be] done, Sisyphus not only must perpetually keep trying, but also realize that he cannot even hope for success. Facing this knowledge of eternally recurring lack of success by admitting there is no hope is what actually finally allows him to find happiness merely in the doing. The punishment is a multi-layered symbol covering impossible tasks, loss of hope (also known as existential dread) and, finally, giving his life meaning.

Temujin said...

"It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no."

That is correct. But universities should have had the sense to also say no to critical race theory and intersectionality, multiple genders and daily pronoun creation, safe spaces, admissions (or lack of) based on race, removal of the classics for English majors, Chancellors for Diversity & Inclusion, and gender studies curricula.

Aside from that, they're doing a bang up job for $60k/year.

Automatic_Wing said...

Whether the rock actually gets moved or not is not really the point. The reason they're bringing this up is simply to keep people talking about racism. Everyone has to eat, sleep and breathe racism 24/7/365.

Gojuplyr831@gmail.com said...

Rename it the Robert Byrd memorial rock. That would solve the problem, right?

Mark said...

Bigoted racists have to go. Period. Does it really need to be explained to you in your white privileged ivory tower.

BLM. Racists must go. Even bigoted racist rocks.

Michael K said...

However, even after all such racist distractions are removed from the campuses, those students still will not be able to read their college textbooks. They still will fail academically.

No they won't. We will soon have a law that requires degrees for all black students that enroll. These "activists"have devalued every black student who does the work and can actually read the textbooks. The black medical students I taught were mostly immigrants and had no time for ignorant aggrieved American blacks.

D.D. Driver said...

Nuke the rock.

Just nuke it.

Michael K said...

how many of these Woke Black guys have blonde girlfriends? That used to piss off Black women no end.

The opposite, black women with white husbands like my Ethiopian dental hygienist also get the "hate stare" from black women like Michelle Obama.

bagoh20 said...

A University full of supposedly smart people couldn't figure out that a small rock is easier.

You just walk out in the woods find a small rock, and claim that it offends you. You don't pick on the biggest rock you see. What a bunch of maroons.

bagoh20 said...

What if someone writes "Black Lives Matter" on the rock. Then they can't move it.

Ryan said...

A comment at the original article said this:

"By that logic, all black students should also be removed from campus because black people were once referred to as n*****."

Sally327 said...

I was sure until the very last word that Althouse was going to be in favor of moving the rock.

I think the University should be relieved if all that's left for the Black students to complain about is some rock. I don't imagine that a University in Wisconsin would have much in the way of unfortunate history when it comes to race relations.

But then I would never have thought that Minneapolis would be ground zero for race riots in the year 2020 either.

madAsHell said...

Wasn't this a Star Trek episode?

LordSomber said...

Ineffective, failing, or parasitical organisations tend to go after the symbolic rather than provide real-world solutions to perceived problems.

donald said...

Of course it is. The demands will just get more and more ridiculous. I can't imagine the total lack of dignity it takes for the university leadership to actually agree to this ridiculous demand, but they will surely do it. I guess no amount of crawling around on ones belly is too much for academics.

I can’t imagine the lack of dignity to tell them to go fuck or kill themselves. I’m good either way.

donald said...

Of course it is. The demands will just get more and more ridiculous. I can't imagine the total lack of dignity it takes for the university leadership to actually agree to this ridiculous demand, but they will surely do it. I guess no amount of crawling around on ones belly is too much for academics.

I can’t imagine the lack of dignity to tell them to go fuck or kill themselves. I’m good either way.

donald said...

I can’t believe nobody didn’t tell them to go duck or kill themselves. Just sayin.

BUMBLE BEE said...

The University can take it out of the ChiCom endowments they've been hiding.

Tommy Duncan said...

To paraphrase General Anthony Clement McAuliffe:

Brazil nuts!

Two-eyed Jack said...

Shouldn't the University be removed from the rock instead? Even if the rock is moved or destroyed, I don't think students should have to work and reside anywhere near a place where this offensive boulder was allowed to sit for decades as if it was just some sort of geologic curiosity, rather than a symbol of the unending injustice of America.

wbfjrr2 said...

“put something up that US black and brown students can celebrate.”

As noted above re educability, this college “leader” can’t construct a grammatically correct sentence. Surprised our host didn’t comment on that. I’m certain she noticed it, given her compulsive penchant for this sort of thing.

Are you shy because he’s black, Althouse? They might call you a racist? But they already have.......all of us.

Gahrie said...

They don't really want the rock moved. Because if it is, they have to invent some new outrage to protest about.

Two-eyed Jack said...

Here is another horror: têtes-de-nègre!

https://www.pardonyourfrench.com/merveilleux-meringue-and-chocolate-cream-sandwich-pastries/

traditionalguy said...

Just paint the rock a pale gray. Problem solved. But NO carved figures of Lee and Jackson.

MadisonMan said...

I think the rock will be moved. What a complete waste of time.

Ralph L said...

Despicable of the protesters to harass her at her personal residence.

They need to respect bouldaries.

Joe Smith said...

The only remedy is the entire destruction of the school itself.

Burn the whole thing down. The rock will remain, of course, but a point will have been made.

jaydub said...

UW is not worth defending if this rock causes the school administration to do. These people can't be serious. They're just trying to get white people to do tricks for them.

Josephbleau said...

A racist boulder the size of a small boulder. How awful. It’s not the boulder’s fault, don’t hurt the poor boulder. Campus boulders are useful for pissing on at night, and this poor one has really been pissed on. In this civilized age miners now call them Hard Heads, which is still descriptive.

Bill Crawford said...

Maybe the university can hire the folks from Oregon who blew up the whale.

etbass said...

"It's theater, and the university should have the sense to say no."

No, the university should have the courage to say no.

Gordy said...

put something up that us Black and brown students can celebrate

'Brown' students don't give a shit. Most black students probably don't either.

Gordy said...

"Wake up, Becky and move the rock!

Becky is as much of a wimp as the mayor of Portland. Bye, bye rock.

Mark said...

Sounds like a frat prank. "Hey, I bet I can get the school to move that rock!" "Suckers!"

nbks said...

The real question is how many elementary school scholarships for black kids in bad school districts could the cost of moving that rock cover?

Bill Crawford said...

We will find out if wokeness is an irresistible force.

Josephbleau said...

It would be cheaper to have a voodoo ceremony by smearing the boulder with chicken guts and wooden figures to kill the soul of the boulder, then let it be reborn as a new boulder creature with an inoffensive spirit name.

Michael K said...

The people who are most convinced of white supremacy are these leftist blacks.

Just sad.

Browndog said...

I'm mad at a rock.

-Libs
----------

That's it. That's the comment.

DanTheMan said...

We seem to be bending over backward to assure that no black person anywhere is every offended by anything ever again.

That's very strange behavior for a horribly racist country full of white supremacy.

Reg said...

I wish I was a fly on the wall at the Black Student Union meeting when they came up with this one. “What should we make them do?” “I dunno, how about if we make the provost stand on his tippy toes and go ‘ooga ooga’ all day?” “No. No. That’s not dumb enough.” “Let’s tell them a rock is racist and demand its removal.”

n.n said...

Cancel the rock. Throw it in the lake.

Shouldn't the University be removed from the rock instead?

Exactly. The University is infested with diversity dogma (e.g. racism). Cancel the University, save the boulder. Boulder Lives Matter #BLM

DanTheMan said...

>They're just trying to get white people to do tricks for them.

We seem to have mastered "roll over" and "play dead".

tommyesq said...

How does calling the rock "n****rhead rock" bother or otherwise implicate brown students? Why does Black Student Union president Nalah McWhorter feel he can speak on behalf of "brown" people (Latinos? Arabs? Pacific Islanders? Indians? All of the above?)? Why is the Black Student Union sublimating all minorities (other than Asian) into the black experience?

Meade said...

We live a stone’s throw from the Chancellor’s mansion. Last Friday morning around 7AM, I heard chanting outside. Turns out it was coming from a group of 20-30 protesters at her front door chanting, “Wake up, Becky and move the rock! Wake up, Becky and move the rock!”

It is despicable of the protesters to harass Chancellor Rebecca Blank anywhere but especially at her personal residence.

Meade said...

"What if someone writes "Black Lives Matter" on the rock."

It's only a matter of time.

Ann Althouse said...

"What if someone writes "Black Lives Matter" on the rock."

It was a traditional prank in the old days to paint and repaint rocks with fraternity letters.

tommyesq said...

If elementary schools, high schools, college buildings, and dorms can be renamed, why not a rock?

As I understand it, they did rename it - hasn't been called that since about 1925.

CWJ said...

For anyone who gloated over the academic destruction of the University of Missouri, Wisconsin Madison is on the same glidepath.

gilbar said...

let me see, if i've got this straight?
in the bad old days; people referred to rocks like that, with an 'n word'
THEREFORE; the rock should Not be allowed to be on campus
IN FACT, should Not be allowed to exist

I have it, on good authority; that there were PEOPLE on campus; in the bad old days;
that people referred to WITH AN 'n word'

THEREFORE'
those people, that were referred to with an 'n word'; should not be allowed on campus
IN FACT, those people, that were referred to with an 'n word'; should not allowed to EXIST!

do i have that right?

rhhardin said...

This is all because blacks have an average IQ of 86, via a long chain of displacements, to whites must be against us.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

After defacing and taking down the Heg and Forward statues, the mob is now reduced to bitching about - a rock.

I remember an old geezer in my childhood neighborhood called Brazil nuts an unmistakably racist term.

Shall we ban Brazil nuts too?

LA_Bob said...

Unknown [Daniel] said, "I always think I've seen the dumbest example of "woke". but suspect I never will."

The Black Student Union members have rocks in their heads.

Black Student Union president Nalah McWhorter is as Dumb as a Box of Rocks.

Rock on, Wokesters!

PS - Black Rock City, Nevada and White Sands, New Mexico. Gotta be something in there.

D.D. Driver said...

...and if UW really has so much money that it can afford to move a boulder, I'm not going to believe them the next time they call asking for money.

CWJ said...

"Help I'm a rock."

I can't believe Zappa fan Althouse missed this!

Paul said...

If you come to our neighborhood at 7 am 'chanting' well you will arrested for DISTURBING THE PEACE. But then, that is in TEXAS.

CWJ said...

Help, I'm a rock!
Help, I'm a rock!
Somebody helps me

Wow, man, it's a drag being a rock
(Help, I'm a rock)
(Help, I'm a rock)
(Help, I'm a rock)
I wish I was anything but a rock
Heck, I'd even like to be a policeman
Hey, you know what?
You know maybe if I practice, you know
Maybe if I pass my driving test
I could get a gig drivin' that bus that pick the freaks up
In front of Ben Frank's, right?

Help, I'm a cop!
Help, I'm a cop!
Help, I'm a cop!
Help, I'm a cop!
(Help, I'm a rock)
Help, I'm a cop!
(Help, I'm a rock)

It's a drag being a cop
I think I'd rather be the mayor

What can I say - truer words were never sung, particularly the last two lines!

Narr said...

Mark Monmonnier's book "From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow" looks at geographical nomenclature and place names, and how they are determined.

And boy will Nalah McWhorter be aroused when someone reads the humor section from the 1920 university annual to him!

Narr
Thimbles are for the thimble-minded




Fernandinande said...

"Old man yells at cloud."

walter said...

How's good ole Tommy Thompson doing these days?

JPS said...

Once again: If I were an actual white supremacist, as opposed to white supremacist by leftist syllogism, I would be rubbing my hands together in glee at the fragility being inculcated in these students; how they'll never be able to function in the real world, if the continued presence of a rock that people used to describe with a racial epithet is intolerable.

Assuming, of course, that the crybullies were sincere, which I doubt they are.

Gospace said...

Ann Althouse said...
"What if someone writes "Black Lives Matter" on the rock."

It was a traditional prank in the old days to paint and repaint rocks with fraternity letters.


last year was the old days? Water towers, rocks, under and overpasses, all get painted and repainted.

Drago said...

Is there any truth to the rumor the rock scored higher on the SAT than half the University students there?

Drago said...

I suspect very few WI-Madison students would have the grit required to visit the Rocky Mountains.

Birkel said...

I hope the accomplished academic recognizes what happens to people like her if the revolution really takes off.
First.
Against.
The.
Wall.
She had better hope the conservatives win or her life will be shortened a lot more than she would guess.

MD Greene said...

“I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part,” said Otter.

A lot of that going around these days.

walter said...

The college experience...

Anonymous said...

If it actually weighs 70 tons it takes a bit more planning, but most any Armor Captain can set of recovery for you. I think that the WI NG has the gear and the expertise below.

I'd want 3-4 M88A3 recovery vehicles, each with a hoist rated at 35 tons.

Why three? because you have to plan for a hoist cable failing and don't want a series of failure cascades. One piece of 2 inch steel cable flailing around is bad. add in a couple of multi-ton booms and it could get messy.

So anyway, with spades set, 3-4 recovery tracks on 3 sides. construct a harness, attach hoist cables. Lift your 70 rock straight up 2 feet. pull a sled under the rock.

lower rock.

use harness to tie down to sled.

drag sled up onto the bed of an M1A1 tank transporter. An M1 conveniently weighs 70 tons

drive away.

Once, when I was a LT in Germany, one of my tanks backed off a cliff at night, killing the Commander and landing upside down on the guy

I had to ascertain if he was dead and recover the body. We used 2 M88s to lift the 50 ton tank 6 feet in the air, under the headlights of vehicles. A medic and I got under the suspended tank and extracted the man. Trust me, I still remember 40 years later listening to every creak and engine noise from those M88s and their winches.

He was dead. SGT Terry Williams from Texas.

We zipped him in a sleeping bag and he and I flew to the Mortuary at Frankfurt before his plane ride back to Dover and Texas. And yes, I had to write "The Letter"

Leave no man behind. They aren't dead till a Doc says they are dead, Well, it stopped being a rescue when we saw how crushed his CVC was.

So yeah, if the WI NG needs help, call me. Ann has my number.

Narayanan said...

Meade said...
We live a stone’s throw from the Chancellor’s mansion. Last Friday morning around 7AM, I heard chanting outside. Turns out it was coming from a group of 20-30 protesters at her front door chanting, “Wake up, Becky and move the rock! Wake up, Becky and move the rock!”

It is despicable of the protesters to harass Chancellor Rebecca Blank anywhere but especially at her personal residence.
-----------==========
so Friday morning around 7AM,>>>>

kidding - should she not be up and running and taking photos of sun rising?

serious - as chancellor/educator with high IQ?! + pay check does she not consider herself able to talk them out of their idiocy? one by one with persuasion words and knowledge and perspective. clear dereliction of duty

Narayanan said...

""In collaboration with the Black Student Union at the school, University of Wisconsin-Madison leaders are discussing plans to remove a 70-ton boulder from campus grounds due to it once being called a racist name nearly a century ago.""
------------===============
the thought now crosses my mind that the Black Student Union is trolling/pranking the administration. (a form of enemy-head-hunting with appropriately chosen thimble)

Narayanan said...

citizen-patriot or spy? Intelligence Gathering at Protests

iowan2 said...

It is plain all such rocks need to be destroyed. Re-arranged, if you will. Split into into multiple pieces so they no longer look like n****rheads. I volunteer our home farm, there a three. I know for a fact the owner used the disturbing words to describe these geological pieces. After they get done at our place, their are thousands more in the area, that will need attention. Nothing much needs to be done. Just get the n****rheads reduced down to a size that can be managed with equipment owned by most farmers.
Glad to do our part to address this systemic racism. (Can we expect your protest to arrive on or before April 1st? Planting will start within weeks of April 1) (by October 1 will be better due to fall tillage operations)

iowan2 said...

Glaciers are racist with a sick sense of humor. "I know we'll form huge pieces of bedrock into large shapes that resemble the head of African Americans. Litter them through the midwest. The reaction we get from humans will be real hoot"

JAORE said...

Dear protestors,
We have established a free speech zone located at[ ]. You are welcome to peacefully gather there and say what you will.

Those committing ACTUAL threatening or violent acts in that zone will be removed as a student at this university. This does NOT include speech you may find threatening.

Protestors outside of the free speech zone that disrupt the University operations, classes or neighborhoods will be removed as a student at this university.

No refunds of tuition or fees will be made.

JAORE said...

The U is missing an opportunity. Fence in the rock. Then gather up those little geological hammers and eye protection. Let offended students take ten whacks at the rock for a dollar.

70 tons makes for a lot of dollars. Especially when attacked by tiny hammers swung by soy boy arms.

Aggie said...

Proof-of-worth of a college education. The university should refund their money and escort them off campus.

mikee said...

Student protesters harassing the university president are violating the code of conduct, and should be expelledd and removed from campus forever. What is so hard to understand about this?

RigelDog said...

Exactly HOW has it come to be (alleged) "common knowledge" that this rock was referred to in a nasty way in one article from 19-freakin'25?? Could it possibly be that no person currently living would know about this passing reference---unless it was being publicized and politicized by the very people claiming that the rock's history is so well-known that it has to be banished from sight?

Tommy Duncan said...

A bad day at Black Rock. (Spencer Tracy - 1955)

Lewis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGLGzRXY5Bw

I know John Lennon, my mum was his 'Artist model', I know his violence - it's us - but this song is good.

Lewis said...

[Intro: Geoff Emerick & John Lennon]
Take two
Okay

[Verse 1]
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all wanna change the world

[Pre-Chorus]
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out, in

[Chorus]
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right

[Verse 2]
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doing what we can
[Pre-Chorus]
But if you want money for people with minds that hate
Well, all I can tell you is, brother, you have to wait

[Chorus]
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right

[Verse 3]
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We'd all love to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free your mind instead

[Pre-Chorus]
But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anyhow

[Chorus]
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
[Outro]
All, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right
All right, all right, all right
About
3 Contributors

“Revolution” released in 1968 reflected the social movements and civil unrest of the 60s. The theme is that true revolution is not based on hatred and destruction. “Revolution” begins with a change inside yourself away from violence and toward peace.


Lewis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WS-TTNaLyg

Lewis said...

I didn't write that - you did - own it.

Lewis said...

Don't you know it's gonna be alright? Yeah, even I lost faith in that - but I'll get it back, even if I have delude myself, again.

Lewis said...

Politics has become a den of poisonous vipers - polarisation has reached the point whereby facts & the truth no longer count. The Chinese Cultural Revolution is being reignited & the willingness of people to hate the other is terrifying.
2 comments
Comments

Lewis Deane
Indeed - but calm down - 'we've' got to be sensible - the reason we hate and love the cops? Because they are ordinary working people like us, with the same follies and foibles. Have faith in something, like grabbing hold of a tree, it exists, it has roots, it has leaves.

· Reply
· 9 m · Edited

Lewis Deane
I grab hold of my coffee table - the legs are gone but I keep proping it up - I lean on it even though I know it's going to collapse - hence, faith, belief. It's a joke, an absurdity but it's all we have?

Lewis said...

'frederique Patterson' was the original comemtator - he's a kind a fanatical Israel guy - and I love him for it. I'm kind of 'Democrat', at least in spirit.

Lewis said...

There's nothing about - life - the tinnitus I will always suffer _ that's nothing I can 'ignore' or get rid off - that's life - like everything else - a 'stupidity' that your 'supermind' can negotiate. How fatuous is one?

Lewis said...

'Frederique Patterson' - sorry

Lewis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDNITzQb5zg

Lewis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXYodS0HGy0

Lewis said...


I know you think of me as that bastard - but within the little means I had I tried to respect her, your mum, love her. I still do, deeply.
Martina couldn't cope with my problems and I couldn't cope with hers - and, because, we were both 'supersmart' we made it worse. We were very good at hurting each other. We mortaly wounded ourselves. But I was the worst - I was so angry when she met me but suppressed, so I didn't know it and she was so angry and she didn't know it. I remember the first time she physically attacked me - I'd been saying some viscious words to her and, then, she grabbed my hair - then I lost it - at first I was kind of surprised, stunned, for the last time this happened was when I was eleven - so, oh yerh, mummy's here - but then, I just lost it - I pulled her arms away from my hair, put them behind her back, picked her up and threw her on the nearest car and screamed in her face "If you do that to me, again, I'll fucking kill you!"

She had that horrible swollen smile which I've seen many times since. Not in moments like that but when she had made a desicion to go into hospital, for instance.

Before you were concieved, when we were trying buy a house, at least I was, we were living in Sramkova, very near where you are now (that's why I keep going back to that pub), anyway, she ran away - it wasn't the first time - for ten days. First I thought "Well, this is ok, I can cope, she'll be alright." But after two days I had to find - was she ok, "I don't care about myself but I care about her". I looked and I looked - for ten days I looked and, eventually, I found her - she was sitting, lotus position, outside hlavni nadrasi, neuter, as skinny as a rake, lookng a bit like one of those North American Indians she fantasised about. So, I had to persuade her to come home. She didn't recognise me, for a while and I had to be very, very gentle for her even to agree to stand up. You know what I'm talking about - you've been there.
Anyway what had I done - before finding her, I'd phoned her dad, Jiri, and her mum, promising them I would tell them when and if I found her. So Martina is saying to me 'Don't tell my parents' and I'm no, I wont because I'm saying whatever is necessary to make her safe. At the same time I know I'm lying and I know she will never forgive me for it. But there one is.

So I persuade her to go the tram, I bring her back to Lesna, I give her tea and persuade her to have a shower. But what do I do whilst she's having that shower? Betray her - phone her mum only to tell her she's ok. I think there was a kind of egoism involved - I wanted to say "uh, I found her, you couldn't" - as if to say your a stupid idiot, Vera, I'm not.

She came out of that shower and she knew I had betrayed her - that smile and face. And she awaited the inevitability of Vera and Peiter coming to my home and taking my woman away - something I did not expect.

I could have brought her back to life - she didn't need the hospitable but I think she felt I had betrayed her - by phoning her mum!


So, thar was our life - even before you were concieved. And I don't to make more difficult - I just think you should know how your Dad sees things.

Forgive me for not being there, it wasn't intended.

I looked for you during the first ten years of your existence but, then, I admit it, I gave up. For I thought "I missed his crucial years, his 0-5, so what could I contribute now?" It's a good question and still valid.

But remember, this son - I never left you - she ran away - from our house, our family. With you, in her belly.

Lewis said...

 The Way
‘The way out is via the door:
how come nobody knows this?’
Confucius, The Analects

Neither to go far nor to come home
Is the point, they say:
To stay that distant fixation found
In their farmers fields
There to scare the crows. Others,
Across the years, from family
To friends, may beg benediction,
Proper words to confirm
What their presumptions will always presume,
But you that timid daring
Which says there is a way but I cannot find it
As the parameter of a town
Beyond which the road leads past the graveyard
But never past fear.