November 21, 2020

The 12-foot-tall Chamberlin Rock — in the news these days as racist — is featured as a climbing destination at Mountain Project.

It's one of the "the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area" — "UW Madison Campus Bouldering":

 

The route is marked:


There's "Chamberlin Rock East Arete":
Sit start and work your way up the arete using holds on both sides of the corner. Top out. In my opinion this is the best problem on this rock.
In the comments there:
Found some more routes on this little boulder. Hang below the plaque and climb and top out at top left corner. If you avoid using your feet on the ledge you started with it is a bit tougher V2-V3. You can also start on the southwest arete of the boulder and traverse right. If you avoid the top ridge until you top out in the center of the boulder I would rate it as a V3.
The climbers are looking for what they seem to call "problems." Ah, yes... in bouldering, a "problem" is the path you take up the rock. 


We also see this word — "problem" — in critical theory. From the Wikipedia article "Problematization": 
Problematization of a term, writing, opinion, ideology, identity, or person is to consider the concrete or existential elements of those involved as challenges (problems) that invite the people involved to transform those situations. It is a method of defamiliarization of common sense....

You can also look at the rock in a political/social-justice way and figure out the best problem. Indeed, that has been done, and the rock was determined to contain racism. This problem is not a route for climbing but something that requires people to say things about the rock until the authorities feel that their best route — their path for overcoming criticism — is to get rid of the rock. 

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

The 70-ton boulder is officially known as Chamberlin Rock in honor of Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, a geologist and former university president. But the rock was referred to at least once after it was dug out of the hill as a “n*****head,” a commonly used expression in the 1920s to describe any large dark rock. The Campus Planning Committee unanimously voted last week to recommend to Chancellor Rebecca Blank that the boulder be removed from Observatory Hill. Blank has previously indicated she supports the rock’s removal, though a timeline for removal has not been established. 
The Wisconsin Black Student Union called for the rock’s removal over the summer. President Nalah McWhorter said the rock is a symbol of the daily injustices that students of color face on a predominantly white campus. “This is a huge accomplishment for us,” she said on Wednesday. “We won’t have that constant reminder, that symbol that we don’t belong here.”... 

But the rock was referred to at least once... That one verified usage of the term was in The Wisconsin State Journal in 1925. Oddly enough, this new WSJ article has the word written out. I put in asterisks in the quote, above. Go to the link. They've written it out!

It’s unclear whether or for how long people on campus referred to the boulder as “N*****head Rock.”...

Whoa! They did it twice!

Kacie Butcher, the university’s public history project director, told the Campus Planning Committee... that the rock’s removal presents an opportunity to prioritize students of color and engage in complex conversations.

Complex conversations! If we can have complex conversations, why do we need to move ancient boulders?  

The rock’s next destination has yet to be decided. Options include burying the rock at its original resting place, breaking up and disposing of the rock, or moving the rock to the Ice Age Trail.... Carried by glaciers from perhaps as far north as Canada, the boulder was excavated from the side of Observatory Hill in 1925. Geochronology professor Brad Singer told the committee the department prefers it be relocated so instructors can continue using it as a teaching tool.

And here's a big complication: 

UW-Madison needs to secure approval from the Wisconsin Historical Society before removal begins because the rock is located near an effigy mound. The first step requires UW-Madison to submit a request to disturb a catalogued burial site. All Native Tribes of Wisconsin are notified during the process, which can take 60 to 90 days and includes a 30-day comment period.

A complex conversation topic: Do the Native American Tribes of Wisconsin have more moral authority on this question than the Black Student Union?

Officials estimate the cost of removal ranges from $30,000 to $75,000.

Another complex conversation topic: Is this the best use of the next $30,000 to $75,000 the University spends on racial harmony?

After the rock is removed, the Black Student Union’s focus will shift to generating ideas for how students of color can reclaim the space, such as installing a piece of art, McWhorter said. “So it becomes a way to celebrate instead of having it as an empty space reminding us of what it once was,” she said.

Oh, no! Public art! If only we could see the artwork before the rock is removed and vote on whether the rock is better than the art. It's unlikely that the artwork will be better than an empty unobstructed view, and the rock is highly aesthetically pleasing... except for the plaque. Here's my suggestion — maybe we can have a complex conversation about this — how about just changing the plaque on the rock? Of course, the plaque never said "n*****head." It was always just honoring Professor Chamberlin. Write something new. Use words. Don't destroy the rock. And don't disrupt the Indian burial ground. 

The main reason to stick to the demand that the rock be destroyed or carted away is that you have a demonstrable, physical result — you demanded, they acceded to your demand — and that sets you up perfectly for your next demand... presumably, to take down the statue of Abraham Lincoln.

115 comments:

Iman said...

Rock on.

Lurker21 said...

Good for a chuckle.

That is one rock I could probably climb, though.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Not a new take, but: telling students to stop wasting energy solving problems that exist only in their imaginations would serve them better.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Solving the problem of climbing a physical rock that doesn’t need to be climbed seems much more wholesome, though. I can’t condemn climbing something just because it’s there. The other imaginary problem seems like a perversion of the drive to tackle and conquer an obstacle, though.

David Begley said...

There’s an Indian effigy mound on campus? I’ve been on that campus and didn’t notice one. Also visited Picnic Point.

Owen said...

That rock may be from Canada. It came here with a dream. Why are the authorities rejecting it?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

We don't want to encourage rock climbing.

The woke army cannot climb it, so they must destroy it.

We want to encourage victim-mongering, woke-victimization, basement dwelling, nanny-state cradle to grave teet sucking, infused racism ->to inanimate objects, intersectional indoctrination victim-creating bullshit. The rock must die.

Fernandinande said...

“This is a huge accomplishment for us,” she said on Wednesday.

If huge means ridiculous, you spoiled moron.

Temujin said...

I cannot imagine paying $40k+ to send my kid to a school where they are about to remove a boulder because it's deemed racist and hurtful to those already on campus.

It's a rock.

I'd want my $40k back, thank you. If they can go through this mind twisting over a boulder, I would hate to read the actual syllabi from some of the professors. I think I'd be looking for an actual university. Not that there are any left these days.

D.D. Driver said...

The rock’s next destination has yet to be decided. Options include burying the rock at its original resting place, breaking up and disposing of the rock, or moving the rock to the Ice Age Trail.... Carried by glaciers from perhaps as far north as Canada, the boulder was excavated from the side of Observatory Hill in 1925

If we really hate racism we will nuke this rock. No half measures. No turning the Big Racist Rock into a lots of lil' racists rocks and spreading them around as if we just conquered racism.

I want this rock reduced to fucking atoms. And I want in on national TV so all the other racists rocks understand what will happen to them if they step foot on my alma mater's campus.

Paul said...

THAT ROCK IS RACIST!!!!

If it is a tough climb then it has to be discriminatory!

It must GO!

mockturtle said...

Wisconsin is topographically challenged. I remember laughing at what was seriously described as a 'ski mountain'. Sorry. You want to climb rocks? Go West, young man and young woman!

chuck said...

There is a legal tradition for dealing with such objects.

Before 1066, animals and objects causing serious damage or even death were called banes and were handed over directly to the victim in a practice known as noxal surrender.

Ann Althouse said...

@David Begley

There are a lot of effigy burial mounds — see the map here.

Bruce Hayden said...

I am not sure if I understand this. They are removing this “climbing” (I’m from CO) rock because it is racist? Is this because Blacks don’t climb as much as whites?

If they want to actually climb rocks, they should have gone to Boulder instead. Equally hard left, equally terminally hip. But much better climbing nearby.

Tommy Duncan said...

As I suggested in a previous thread, it's a fucking rock. It can't move. It can't communicate. It can't offend anyone.

If you claim this rock is offensive you are either a liar or profoundly stupid. Or possibly both. If you get rid of the rock the dishonesty and stupidity will endure and grow.

Iman said...

Scratch that rock and you’ll find cheese under that rocky outer coating...

Owen said...

chuck @ 9:20:

"There is a legal tradition for dealing with such objects.

Before 1066, animals and objects causing serious damage or even death were called banes and were handed over directly to the victim in a practice known as noxal surrender.

11/21/20, 9:20 AM"

Yes! Isn't the offending item called a "deodand"?

Harold said...

So they are removing a rock because at some point in past someone used a racist term to describe it, what ever will they do about Brazil Nuts?

walter said...

Boulder dashed

Bob Boyd said...

I say combine using the rock for education with removing it.
Turn the engineering students loose to design and build a device that can fling the rock from it's present location into Lake Mendota.

stlcdr said...

To paraphrase: Those without sin, cast the first stone.

Roger Sweeny said...

Modern American religion is all about love and being nice. There is no sin. Young people obviously miss sin to rant against.

jaydub said...

What a great university UW must be able to be able to waste so much effort, time and money on something so trivial! How proud the Black Student Union must be to have had such success in getting these richly compensated, highly educated, White administrators to dance a little jig for them. How well off the parents of the individual students attending UW must be to spend tens of thousands of dollars in tuition so as to facilitate this kind of theater.

Oh wait! The students can just take out a loan and Slow Joe and the Ho will reassign the loan payments to the taxpayers.

Is this a great country or what?

Mr. O. Possum said...

Truly we are living through the American Cultural Revolution. At least no one is being thrown out of third-story windows (like Deng Xiaopeng's son) or sent to communal farms....yet.

The son became paralyzed, and God forbid someone who not disabled plays him in a movie.

How will this madness end?

bagoh20 said...

So all they had to do for the last four years was call Trump a "n**erhead"? Man, that would have saved so much work and required so many fewer lies.

bagoh20 said...

Who exactly created this strange fifth dimension fantasy world on campus today. It doesn't resemble anywhere in the real world, except maybe Washington D.C. It's some kind of mix of Bizarro World, The Onion and a mental ward. Is this the Boomers' greatest legacy?

bagoh20 said...

This is a another perfect example of the rot of our times:

"Black Female Police Chief in Virginia Fired After Aggressively Investigating and Prosecuting Mob Violence"

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/11/20/black-female-police-chief-in-virginia-fired-after-aggressively-investigating-and-prosecuting-mob-violence-n2580370

robother said...

Madison could cut a plea bargain deal with Althea Bernstein on her false reporting/hate crime, sentence her to the community service of breaking up this racist rock.

"Breaking rocks in the hot sun, I fought the law and the law won."

bagoh20 said...

Burial mounds? Personally, if I was buried for hundreds of years, I'd want dug up. There is plenty of time to rest when you're dead, but at some point you're ready for some action again.

rcocean said...

Who cares? Let the Leftist crazies run the asylum. And if the "moderate" liberals don't like it, let them fight their leftist buddies for once.

Owen said...

Many of the posters here express amazement at this (one more modest) example of Campus Madness. But why? Madness is simply the behavior that results when impulses are disconnected from consequence. When you pack thousands of spoiled ignorant children into a hothouse “community” where their least whim is indulged and rewarded by virtue-signaling professionals whose careers depend on stacking one absurd ideological proposition on top of the next, how could the outcome be any less crazy than what we see? Literally billions of dollars are poured into this bacchanal without any meaningful check. Parents and taxpayers foot the bill but are (so far) almost powerless to demand a real accounting.

That is changing as we speak. I rather think Prof A retired in the nick of time.

Dave Begley said...

Ann:

What?! I didn't even notice them when I was there.

I think the only solution is to vacate the entire UW campus and move it to, say, Janesville.

Wilbur said...

Children love to climb trees and big rocks like this one. It's a natural impulse for kids.

Most of us moved on to other things.

rhhardin said...

It's not just rocks! Wikipedia

In several English-speaking countries, niggerhead or nigger head is a former name for several things thought to resemble the head of a black person (cf. "nigger").[1][2] The name is now taboo in normal usage.

The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including nautical bollards[3][4] and consumer products including soap, chewing tobacco, stove polish, canned oysters and shrimp, golf tees, and toy cap pistols, among others. It was often used for geographic features such as hills and rocks and geological objects such as geodes.[5][6] The term appears in several US patents for mechanical devices prior to about 1950.[7][8] Languages other than English have used similar terms to describe chocolate-coated marshmallow treats.

In 1955, the Aughinbaugh Canning Company of Mississippi renamed its "Nigger Head Brand" oysters to "Negro Head Brand" following pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.[9] More than a hundred "Niggerheads", and other place names now considered racially offensive, were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.[10]

In October 2011, while Rick Perry was running for president of the United States, controversial reports that his family leased a hunting camp once called "Niggerhead" caused his record on racial issues to be scrutinized.[11]

rhhardin said...

It needs some tie-in to nooses to escalate the situation.

rhhardin said...

Rename it nyjerhead.

rhhardin said...

It seems unlikely that Widi's explanation is right. Some other linguistic force produced niggerhead as a common name for stuff. It might just be being black.

Force from Latin, spanish, etc. It needs a text search of poetry essays etc to infer the forces around it.,

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

There is an excellent hike outside of Moab called "Negro Bill". The canyon is named after a mixed race man who settled there but was forced out based on accusations of a crime.

Here is the background on the name.

"As further rebuttal, the NAACP has advised that the term -- Negro-- is neither pejorative nor derogatory and as such, should raise no feelings of offense. "

Of course the woke white left want to change the name based on their stupid feelings. History should remain to honor Mr. Granstaff.

Rusty said...

Ann Althouse said...
"@David Begley

There are a lot of effigy burial mounds — see the map here."
So what you are saying, Althouse is the the pre-columbian native peoples destroyed their environment on an equal basis as we. Given their level of technical sophistication.

rhhardin said...

The Has-Been, Carl Sandburg

A stone face higher than six horses stood five thousand years gazing at the world seeming to clutch a secret.

A boy passes and throws a niggerhead that chips off the end of the nose from the stone face; he lets fly a mud ball that spatters the right evee and cheek of the old looker-on.

The boy laughs and goes whistling "ee-ee-ee ee-ee-ee." The stone face stands silent, seeming to clutch a secret.

mtrobertslaw said...

The rock can't help what somebody called it. It is innocent. The real racist is the Wisconsin State Journal. It is the one who first insulted the poor rock with that name. That newspaper should be shut down and its owners pay reparations to all those who have been offended.

Breezy said...

I have a bridge to sell you...!

Mr. T. said...

That incoherent word salad of bogus "problemization" is just more proof that universities are over priced, tax payer-extorted insane asylums.

JAORE said...

Rock (and roll) is here to stay.

I've seen several references to IQs by various races or ethnic groups. I don't know the validity of those comments.

But I'm pretty damn sure the Wisconsin Black Student Union members would score poorly on any test that accurately measured reason and logic.

Same for any guilt ridden white students who feel the pain of an off-hand comment from 95 years ago.

Lurker21 said...

In 1955, the Aughinbaugh Canning Company of Mississippi renamed its "Nigger Head Brand" oysters to "Negro Head Brand" following pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Good for a chuckle, but leaves you with a sickly feeling afterwards -- terribly, unconscionably wrong.

mockturtle said...

JAORE, don't blame the Black Student Union. Blame the spineless white liberals who bow and scrape to every little suggestion of racism. The BSU is just leveraging their clout and seeing how high the Left will jump.

mockturtle said...

Message to white liberals: Black people in general are contemptuous of you and your wokeness.

Sebastian said...

"Complex conversations! If we can have complex conversations, why do we need to move ancient boulders?"

Cuz complex conversations are just another form of prog coercion. Move that boulder, or else.

So now the fact somebody said something in 1925 ends any conversation.

Mike Sylwester said...

This is a consequence of universities enrolling far too many students who cannot read at the university level. They fail academically and so become full of resentment.

If the university enrolled just a few such students, then they might be helped along individually. When such students become too many, however, they become a pernicious presence on the campus.

Furthermore, the university hires a bunch of "diversity specialists" who develop intellectual arguments that blame the academic failures on imaginary racist distractions. Supposedly, the poor readers are distracted from their studies by racist building names, racist artworks, racist rocks and so forth.

However, even after all those racist distractions are eliminated, those students still will not be able to read at the university level and therefore still will fail academically.

WK said...

This rock has been doxxed. It is a doxxed rock. With all this publicity I doubt it will ever get a job at another college campus. Likely will be put in a field with all those destroyed statues.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Not related. But it could be.

rhhardin said...

Alas! even today I recoil in fright at the enormous boulder I should have to move to clear my doorway.

Francis Ponge, on the difficulty of writing

Drago said...

Tommy Duncan: "As I suggested in a previous thread, it's a fucking rock. It can't move. It can't communicate. It can't offend anyone."

We are literally just days away from dirt, metal deposits, asteroids, waves arriving at increasing frequency on beaches, etc., being labeled racist because the market demand for racist incidents exceeds availability by 100 Million annually.

robother said...

I remember folks on this site commenting at the time of the Yale Master Halloween brouhaha that the Black student screaming at them was risking her career viability in the "real world" after college, because the internet images are forever. How naive we all were then!

Nalah McWhorter will feature this in her resume, as she is applying for HR/ Affirmative Action Coordinator in any Fortune 500 company. "I forced a University to get rid of a 70 ton rock, I can strike terror into the heart of every white straight male not occupying a corner office in your organization. Hire me and I guarantee you will win the Woke Race with your Davos peers!"

Attonasi said...

What are the consequences of most university student graduates of the University of Wisconsin not having any useful skills?

Is Ann's pension tied to the success of the University in any way?

bagoh20 said...

I find "Ritz Crackers" deeply offensive. It's both classist and racist. I shall destroy them all, one at a time...with peanut butter.

WhoKnew said...

This is why the UW will never get a nickel of this alumni's money voluntarily and why I am urging my state rep to stop funding it entirely. To be clear, it isn't just this, there has been a steady stream of idiocy coming out of Madison for years now. And it's time the UW's administration paid a price for it.

gilbar said...

Today marks THE FIRST DAY, that i EVER saw the word "arete" used outside of a crossword puzzle
Thanx Professor!

stlcdr said...

Ah, but does this give us a reason to keep out the mexicans 'cos their language is racist?

gilbar said...

Owen said...
That rock may be from Canada. It came here with a dream. Why are the authorities rejecting it?


i thought you liberals were Okay with immigration?
Now you're CONDEMNING this poor rock, just 'cause people (OTHER PEOPLE!) called it bad names?
So, if a poor rock from mexico comes up to el norte, in the hopes of bettering itself;
and some RACIST(!) calls the rock a "wetback".. you'd kick The ROCK out?
YOU! You people are the RACISTS!!
LEAVE THESE ROCKS ALONE! LET THEM LIVE OUT THEIR DREAMS!!


My GOD! next thing, you'll be wanting to use the Rock to make a WALL!!!
RACISTS!!!

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Ritz Crackers. LOL!

Yancey Ward said...

There have been numerous gruesome accidents from climbing the rock, up to and including light bruising.

Jupiter said...

mockturtle said...
"JAORE, don't blame the Black Student Union."

But I think you can blame the McWhorter creature. It's a piece of work.

effinayright said...

Harold said...
So they are removing a rock because at some point in past someone used a racist term to describe it, what ever will they do about Brazil Nuts?
*****************
Call them Vitiligo Nuts and you'll be safe.

Yancey Ward said...

U of W keeps special rescue equipment available 24 hours a day to rescue climbers who find themselves paralyzed with fear on the rock face.

bagoh20 said...

So the University has a website for the eight "climbs" on campus.

My friends and I at nine years years old would have used such a list of "climbs" to insult each other. We climbed higher things just about every weekend. I climbed on a few girls in college that were more of a challenge, and that's with them helping me.

Arashi said...

So a non-sentient object can now be deemed 'racist' becasue one twatwaffle has complained about what some person in the past called the rock? Is the person who used the possibly 'racist' term in the past still alive, or are their decendents still alive? If they or their decendents are still around, then should not the UW do something to them and not the rock? Is the rock just a stand in for the actual 'racist'?

How many more jump the shark moments do we have to endure before either the entire human race implodes or the fairly normal members of society tell the yelly shouty ones to just STFU - with extreme prejudice? I think we are at the first option with no way to proceed to a state of normalcy.

Jeebus...

Yancey Ward said...

"I climbed on a few girls in college that were more of a challenge, and that's with them helping me."

I tried that- they kept telling me I needed to buy a permit and file a climbing plan with a national park.

Big Mike said...

I think the only solution is to vacate the entire UW campus and move it to, say, Janesville.

Or Siberia.

Indigo Red said...

It's not only Chamberlin Rock, it's the whole of geology. According to the University of Wyoming, the geosciences lack diversity. Everybody must get stoned.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

UW-Madison is itself a racist campus because it host a racist boulder. The whole campus must be removed to remove the stain of racism caused by that racist boulder. It's only fair. Nuking from orbit should be able to remove the campus and clean the stain of racism from the campus.

Extending this logic, the whole city of Madison must be nuked from orbit to remove the stain of racism from UW-Madison to remove the stain of racism from Chamberlin Boulder.

Etc.

Michael said...

The modern crop of peoples of color (see how I did that in the 1965 approved way?) is stunningly stupid. As rocks. There are big dark rocks all over the country that once had insensitive names that now offend. Deeply offend. Perhaps peoples of color would find it productive to acquire sledge hammers and traverse the nation lookin for them and reducing them to gravel. Is there a single person of color in the geology department or has that subject become Rock Studies.

RigelDog said...

When I read that they may decide to break the boulder into smaller pieces, the scenario that popped into my mind was a hilarious Monty Python-type skit:

Turns out that, no matter how many times they broke pieces apart, each piece upon scrutiny would be deemed to resemble something problematic. Like seeing the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast. One rock looks like MLK's ear; another is asserted to resemble a blade of grass and that's obviously racist because--well--reasons!

Eventually we are left with a pile of sand, which is problematic because sand reminds us of beaches--which minorities can't access due to white privilege--or of deserts, which have the association with the Sahara, which is in Africa. And really, the whole project of breaking rocks is just a dog-whistle of chain-gangs which is just a dog-whistle in an of itself.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

I invite Nalah McWhorter to get out her chisel and hammer and have at it. Don't stop until Chamberlin Rock is nothing but molecular silica (SiO2). Should take her only 20 years. No potty breaks, no sleep breaks, no food breaks.

Whiskeybum said...

Once they remove the rock from the field that it’s sitting in, contrarians can call it “N****head Field. What are they gonna demand then - the the University excavate the entire field? This is so ridiculous.

William said...

Well, it's a start. What they've really got to get after is Plymouth Rock. That smug piece of granite has been sitting there celebrating the arrival of Europeans to this country for hundreds of years. And not just any Europeans either. They were puritanical and I'm sure that it is their lasting cultural legacy that has led Jeffrey Toobin's sexual problems.....I don't mean to sound like a carbon based life form chauvinist but I'll say it frankly--the only good granite is the granite laid out on my counter top. All other granite forms are dead to me.

William said...

I have a further suggestion to resolve this conflict. Why not commission a sculptor to carve something celebratory of Negro life out of this boulder. It could be a bigger tourist attraction than Mt. Rushmore. I would like to see a bust of Beyonce. Who doesn't want to see a bust of Beyonce?...I suppose, though, the politicians will look to celebrate their own glory and try to make it a bust of Kamala Harris, but truly everyone really wants to see the bust of Beyonce.

Rory said...

"This is a consequence of universities enrolling far too many students who cannot read at the university level....Furthermore, the university hires a bunch of "diversity specialists" who develop intellectual arguments that blame the academic failures on imaginary racist distractions."

Pretty much the same people.

Howard said...

Make it the Beyonce bootie. Stone cold Twerkelicious.

Howard said...

They could assemble a Jim Crow style ersatz chain gang in black face to bust it up with sledge hammers and picks.

Drago said...

Arashi: "How many more jump the shark moments do we have to endure before either the entire human race implodes or the fairly normal members of society tell the yelly shouty ones to just STFU - with extreme prejudice?"

Oh, its not the entire human race involved here.

Its ONLY the West and its marxist lunatics pushing this with the full support of the establishment.

Nowhere else on earth are societies so idiotic and self-destructive as to allow the western left's lies to have any power.

In the land of the ChiComs, no one, anywhere, is being taught that gender/biology is malleable or any of the other lies the western lefties tell everyone.

Drago said...

Howard: "They could assemble a Jim Crow style ersatz chain gang in black face to bust it up with sledge hammers and picks."

Plenty of democraticals with blackface experience for that task.

Naturally.

Michael said...

I keep waiting for that moment where America has a moment of clarity in order to yell at these kids , "IT'S A F@CKING ROCK!"

Hanoi Paris Hilton said...

[reposted widely!]

I’d guess that most of the $75K will be to cover the cost of the mandatory environmental studies. Seriously!

Reminds me of the proposed irreversible overpainting at San Franciso’s George Washington H.S., now PoC majority, of the unwoke, triggering murals (created in the 1950s by a Russian émigré artist who eventually returned to Matushka Rossia/Матушка Россия after retiring from his studio prof gig at SF State U.), depicting President Washington’s slaves and later, the covered wagon pioneers trampling over the corpses of displaced First Nations people. Twenty bucks for a coupla gallons of white paint, $1,000 for a painters union crew for a day or two, and the remaining $65K for the EIS/EIA/SIA?

I proposed a panel, so focused, at last year’s International Association for Impact Assessment conf, on enviro documentation overkill; and on how “every noble calling eventually turns into a business, and thence degenerates into a racket” (close paraphrase of ex-longshoreman Eric Hoffer’s most celebrated aphorism). My moral and intellectual betters at IAIA (I’m a longstanding member) went berserk and told me to F…. off.

Oh yeah, also in my rather heartfelt IAIA conf session proposal was G. B. Shaw’s aphorism, “every profession is a conspircy against the laity”.

Hanoi Paris Hilton said...

[reposted widely!]

I’d guess that most of the $75K will be to cover the cost of the mandatory environmental studies. Seriously!

Reminds me of the proposed irreversible overpainting at San Franciso’s George Washington H.S., now PoC majority, of the unwoke, triggering murals (created in the 1950s by a Russian émigré artist who eventually returned to Matushka Rossia/Матушка Россия after retiring from his studio prof gig at SF State U.), depicting President Washington’s slaves and later, the covered wagon pioneers trampling over the corpses of displaced First Nations people. Twenty bucks for a coupla gallons of white paint, $1,000 for a painters union crew for a day or two, and the remaining $65K for the EIS/EIA/SIA?

I proposed a panel, so focused, at last year’s International Association for Impact Assessment conf, on enviro documentation overkill; and on how “every noble calling eventually turns into a business, and thence degenerates into a racket” (close paraphrase of ex-longshoreman Eric Hoffer’s most celebrated aphorism). My moral and intellectual betters at IAIA (I’m a longstanding member) went berserk and told me to F…. off.

Oh yeah, also in my rather heartfelt IAIA conf session proposal was G. B. Shaw’s aphorism, “every profession is a conspircy against the laity”.

Arashi said...

Drago,

Well Japan (my wife is Japanese) is doing a fairly good job pushing a lot of the west diversity BS these days. If you have cable, check out NHK. They really push the narative, as do most of the media in Japan. I do think a lot of the Japanese just ignore it all, but since it is pretty much 24/7 it has to be taking a toll.

I do agree about China - but they are all really busy working on their social score and making a buck, except of course for the millions deemed by the CCP to be useless wreckers and kulaks ripe for 're-education'.

And no, I am not a synic. Not at all. :)


MayBee said...

If it had once been called a KikeHead, or a MickHead, or a GuineaHead, or a WopHead, it would never be considered for removal.

You can tell how little UW thinks of its black students if it really is considering moving this glorious rock because of what some humans once labeled it.

Dude1394 said...

The rock contains racism. It is amazing how stupid that sounds. Lack people are really trying to bring on a race war.

Kirk Parker said...

Indigo Red,

It's worse than that; the whole field of geology is inherently suspect.

You think Gaia consented to being studied by white males? Res ipse loquitur.

mockturtle said...

Drago: It's not just the West. Gay Pride parades in Taiwan, Japan definitely into the Climate Change fraud, China believes that genetic engineering and AI will solve all the world's problems. The whole human race is headed for disaster of one kind or another. It may not be a race war but rather a war between Humans 1.0 and Humans 2.0.

mockturtle said...

I.e., humans vs. humanoids.

bagoh20 said...

"You can tell how little UW thinks of its black students ..."

Yep, that's the real thing they are doing, but are unable to understand it. They are saying a whole group of people are retarded children based on their skin color. Even the KKK wasn't that racist. There may be a few Blacks who are that stupid, but I bet most offense is manufactured by stupid Whites who imagine all Blacks are that stupid. Honestly, wouldn't they expect or even demand that all Blacks be offended? It's really the same mindset as plantation owners who justified slavery because they felt that Blacks were too stupid to survive on their own.

Rosalyn C. said...

I find blaming a rock for your emotional problems and removal of the rock as a solution kind of insane or at best childish. What struck me about this post was the quote:

"The Wisconsin Black Student Union called for the rock’s removal over the summer. President Nalah McWhorter said the rock is a symbol of the daily injustices that students of color face on a predominantly white campus. “This is a huge accomplishment for us,” she said on Wednesday. “We won’t have that constant reminder, that symbol that we don’t belong here.”...

Un huh...

The problem for Nalah McWhorter is that she chose to attend a predominantly white campus. And removing a big rock isn't going to solve that issue of being in the minority. She'd be more comfortable at a predominantly black college, imo, unless she actually likes the power trip of intimidating and bullying terrified white liberals. At a predominantly black college she'd have to focus on academics and she'd lose all that attention and ego satisfaction. According to her Linkedin page she aspires to a career in marketing, but isn't marketing a lot more complex than in your face intimidation and making demands?

The college administration should not be encouraging black students to be destructive and wasteful of their educational opportunities.

Jim at said...

When I first heard about this, I thought it was some kind of parody. And now I see some people are quite serious about it.

A rock is racist. A. Rock.

I want a divorce.

mockturtle said...

Most of you aren't getting it. It's not that the rock makes them feel anything. It's that it provides an opportunity to push that envelope and make them feel 'empowered'. After the rock is removed, you can bet it'll be something else. Was Chamberlain able to appease Hitler?

n.n said...

The rock is mostly gray, and is disqualified under diversity dogma... a rock, a cluster of minerals, deemed unworthy of being whole. #HateLovesAbortion

Howard said...

Technically that type of rock is known to white male geologists as an erratic. It's so unfair to the UWM Whimsical Students Union. Badda boom. I'm here all week.

Joe Smith said...

Just cover it with paper...easy and cheap.

Bunkypotatohead said...

"but truly everyone really wants to see the bust of Beyonce."

Then they can rename it niggertit rock and everyone will be happy.

Drago said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Drago said...

mockturtle: "China believes that genetic engineering and AI will solve all the world's problems."

Incorrect.

The ChiComs believe that genetic engineering an increase of 5 to 10 IQ points across the board in China only along with AI will allow for China to become the permanent dominant power on the face of the earth.

And given how the ChiComs have already come to dominate the west's establishment class even before all of that, its easy to understand their confidence.

Delivering a win for Biden is like a dream come true for them.

Crackhead and underage Chinese girl bopping Hunter wont even have to leave the board of the ChiCom military funded "investment" firm.

Happy days are here again for the ChiComs.

Skippy Tisdale said...

It's useful to learn that calling something “N*****head” means it must be made to disappear.

I'd be worried as hell if I were President-elect Joe “N*****head” Biden.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Can't believe you let this gem slide on by...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukbu9dmmzJg
Help I'm a rock. I think I'd rather be the mayor.

Skippy Tisdale said...

After the rock is removed, the Black Student Union’s focus will shift to generating ideas for how students of color can reclaim the space

Such are the spoils of war.

Iman said...

Long live rock!!!

bagoh20 said...

I didn't see that it was the Black Student Union before my comment at 3:09. Maybe I was wrong.

The rock could be known as "Bago is a dumbass cracker" rock, and I still wouldn't want it removed. I just wouldn't care.

Iman said...

“I was born here, an I was raised here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, and no sidewindin' bushwackin', hornswagglin' cracker croaker is gonna run me oft.”

—- the Rock

Tommy Duncan said...

Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

GingerBeer said...

When they find out Italians refer to Blacks as "moulinyan," the UW-BSU can reclaim the space Eggplant Parmesan occupies on the school's dining halls menu.

Earnest Prole said...

That rock is way too white.

Gotagonow said...

I kind of like the idea of taking the rock out and releasing it among other ice age rocks on the Ice Age trail. Sort of like when they take some lonely elephant down to Tennessee to live out its days among its own kind.

boatbuilder said...

There are a whole lot of actual people who were at one time or another referred to as the n-word. Should they be removed?
It is not the fault of the poor rock.
This is really, truly, deeply stupid.

JAORE said...

Hey, just found a 1916 article that referred to the University as N-word U.*

Go home kids. We'll level this unacceptable monstrosity of a school by spring.

By the way, MockT I do get your point. That's likely why the destruction in the name of ending racism rarely strikes close to home of the powers that be. And when it does, the calls to halt the madness are swift and clear.

mtrobertslaw said...

Once the Black Student Union denounces "Black Lives Matter", then we'll talk.