Campus Group Demands Harvard Drop the Term 'Overseer' From Its Board...Because of Slavery

Brittany M. Hughes | July 24, 2020
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If, over the past several weeks, you’ve ever found yourself thinking, “Good grief, it couldn’t possibly get any stupider than this,” please stop. Because apparently, the universe – and the leftists in it – are taking it as a challenge.

Weeks after a realtor’s association in Houston decided to drop the word “master bedroom” from their advertising materials over concerns that the word “master” has some vague association with slavery, Harvard may soon do the same to its “Board of Overseers.”

According to Campus Reform, the Coalition for a Diverse Harvard is calling for the school to rename its Board of Overseers due to the word “overseer” having some past connection to the person who was tasked with “overseeing” slaves working on a plantation.

The group claims that “[t]he continued use of a word characterized by such deep-rooted racism is a testament to Harvard's failure to confront our country's history."

Yes, really.

"'Overseer' also refers to men hired by plantation owners during that same time period to violently control and abuse enslaved people,” CDH said. “Plantation overseers were paid to elicit the most work out of enslaved people, and they often resorted to violent disciplinary tactics and brutal torture. Narratives from enslaved people are filled with accounts of mutilations, burnings, & whippings at the hands of overseers," the group stated, claiming that "the term 'overseer' cannot be separated from its historical context and connotations." 

The University of Louisville has already dropped the word “overseer” from its student government bodies, claiming that the word "hearkens back to American slavery and reminds us of the brutality of the conditions and treatment of black people during this time,” per Campus Reform.

At this point, it’s a wonder we’re allowed to say words at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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