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University moves 70-ton rock off campus after student backlash
- version_five 5y agoWhen I was at (a different) university, I know it was common for the geology 101 courses to have labs that used rock formations on campus to learn about [whatever it is geologists use to identify and classify rock, not pretending to know about the field]. This rock seems a lot cooler geologically than whatever we had on our campus. "Canceling" this rock could have a material impact on the education students receive.
- HWR_14 5y agoThe rock wasn't destroyed. It was moved to other university property that, according to the reports, is close enough to still be used in classes.
- fegu 5y agoIt is difficult to make one's mind up on the matter without knowing what racial slur it was named after. The topic is so heated the article didn't dare mention it.
- oh_sigh 5y ago"n****r head". Also a commonly used term in early 20th century America for any large black rock
- polartx 5y agoAlthough I’m color blind, black is one of the few colors I can confidently identify—based on the pictures, this is boulder isn’t black?
- MBCook 5y agoNope. It’s pretty light in color, basically a light gray.
- Fezzik 5y agoBasically ‘N-word-________’ was used to describe anything that was a shade of black well into the mid 90s. ‘N-word paper’ was used to refer to the tar paper that goes on roofs; ‘n-word toes’ was used to describe a darker toned edible nut. People were (and many still are) pretty ignorant and hateful.
- mikeblackson 5y agoRacists are so uncreative and unintelligent. Non-white students paying good money for an education should ask for this garbage to be removed. Anything that is racist and still celebrated is fair game. Locals and staff that got comfortable with this nonsense obviously need to learn the lessons that they missed.
- krapp 5y ago>It is difficult to make one's mind up on the matter without knowing what racial slur it was named after Why would that matter? A racial slur is a racial slur.
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- enriquto 5y agoIt is apparently impossible to google search for the actual nickname of the rock. In duckduckgo you can find it easily, which suggests that google forcefully removed the search results that mention that word in many natural searches for it. I'm a bit proficient at google-fu and pages containing the stupid word just do not appear. I'm not from the USA and I feel ignorant to say anything about the racial issues there. But the technical depth of this thing is, to say the least, curious.
- nimbius 5y agoSpeaking as a blue collar guy, they missed an excellent opportunity to make 70 tons of racist gravel for backfill or rainwater control
- doit4thebitties 5y agoRock canceled because it has a nickname. The color red will be canceled next for being sexist, racist, and antisemitic.
- grawprog 5y ago>It was referred to as a derogatory name in a Wisconsin State Journal story in the 1920s >In a statement released Thursday, the university explained, “[r]emoving the rock as a monument in a prominent location prevents further harm to our community >Chamberlin Rock, which is believed to be over two billion years old, was described by the university as a large pre-Cambrian-era glacial erratic. It was named for Thomas Chamberlin, a geologist who served as university president from 1887 to 1892 So, a 2 billion year old glacial erratic was removed because some time 100 years ago someone referred to it using a racial slur...and its existence was causing harm. I can see why people get upset about things like Confederate statues and such...but this, I mean really...come on...it's not like it was officially named after a racial slur, the article doesn't seem to imply there was problems with people today referring to the rock by the racial slur. This just seems so ridiculous at this point. They are claiming a giant rock causes harm because someone 100 years ago used a terrible word to describe it in a journal article. If you choose to be offended and upset because someone used a word 100 years ago to describe a rock, that's probably on you at that point.
- brenschluss 5y agoIt’s called a name, and names have real meaning, because they’re created with social agreements. Paper money, too, is valuable only because we agree to do so. Ergo, Saying “all this hullabaloo over a bunch of green paper” about money is… both true in a physical sense and misses the mark in a sociopolitical sense. Saying “a giant rock causes harm” is both true in the physical sense and misses the mark in a sociopolitical sense.
- grawprog 5y agoIt's name is Chamberlin Rock. It wasn't given the other name, it was called it one time in a journal article in 1920.
- Overton-Window 5y agoCapitulating to the lowest common denominator is a recipe for disaster. The self-anointed who feign outrage over an inanimate object are just chasing power.
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- MeinBlutIstBlau 5y agoI wouldn't expect anything less from UW Madison. Overpriced school riding on the coattails of previous generations who actually gave a damn about science.
- fourseventy 5y agoNow rocks are offensive to people?
- analognoise 5y agoIs there more to this story, or is this as dumb as the surface reading of it implies?
- aaron695 5y agoNiggerhead Rock is a island off Tasmania - https://au.geoview.info/niggerhead_rock,8179399 https://au.geoview.info/niggerhead_rock,8179399 (And many other places) Article: This rock was called that once in 1920 when it was common and had nothing to do with the KKK, but we'll mention them anyway. "It was referred to as a derogatory name in a Wisconsin State Journal story in the 1920s, at a time when the Ku Klux Klan was active on campus"
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- mensetmanusman 5y agoWhat if someone pointed to the university and called it the slur?
- antiquark 5y agoCall in the wrecking crew....
- hackitbored 5y agoIt is getting harder and harder to differentiate HackerNews from 4chan/fox news. Was the Ycombinator world always a bunch of right wing frat bros getting together to bitch about how much you hate liberals, education and california while comparing activists to ISIS? Or did this just happen in the trump area. Hacker news? Nah bra, Maybe hacker noise.
- radu_floricica 5y agoIf it helps, I left hacker news a couple of times because it was too much of a left wing echo chamber. Experiences differ, I guess.