James Madison College Considers a New Name, Admits It's 'Riven by Policies and Practices That Disadvantage People of Color'

AP featured image — FILE – In this Nov. 19, 2013 file photo, a bust of Abraham Lincoln statue looks out over visitors at Lincoln’s tomb within Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Ill. The Lincoln Monument Association that is dedicated to supporting Abraham Lincoln’s tomb is rejecting a National Geographic author’s criticisms of the historic site. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)

In terms of our origins, it seems to me, America is being disassembled. Parts are being removed and discarded, as history itself is thrown into the trash bin of…history.

When all is done, what will be left?

Perhaps not fourth president of the United States James Madison, if some at Michigan State University have their way.

The prominent institution currently hosts the James Madison College — a residential school focusing on public affairs and liberal arts — and its interim dean has announced they’re considering a new name.

Why?

That would be, to promote “sustainable” racial change.

Current honcho Linda Racioppi and Assistant Dean Jeff Judge penned a letter to students, alumni, and associates laying out ways the school plans to address policies and practices which “disadvantage people of color,” a/k/a, all human beings except white people.

You would think they would’ve figured out how to not do that by now since that’s a lot of people. But — to hear Linda and Jeff tell it — negative, Ghostrider.

Apropos:

“We appreciate your letters and efforts to hold James Madison College accountable for advancing racial equity in the college. We recognize that the academy has been riven by policies and practices that disadvantage People of Color. We acknowledge the need for progress to meet the educational needs of all our current and future community members. While there are many changes that need to be made and we are committed to further efforts through ongoing dialogue, below are immediate commitments from the College’s leadership. … After the summer break, we plan to engage in reconsideration of the name of the college. The latter will need to incorporate the perspectives of students, staff, faculty, and alumni. If these groups should support a name change, we would then proceed through the University governance process.”

Of course, not all JM alumni are hip.

Speaking to The Washington Free Beacon, alumnus Spike Dearing (cool name) turned down his thumb:

“James Madison was an intellectual giant of his time. … His place in history is defined by his efforts to shape and craft the U.S. Constitution. Our college is named after him because we too value academic achievement, intense deliberation, and a liberal society where our differences need not be our undoing.”

Our differences need not be our undoing? Someone should look into that.

In the meantime, the perfect opposite appears to be a whole lot of people’s official motto…t-shirt…bumper sticker…tattoo…essence of being.

Back to MSU, as pointed out by the Beacon, the school ain’t alone:

College campuses across the nation have begun to reevaluate and remove names and statues that commemorate the Founding Fathers and other former presidents. Princeton University scrubbed Woodrow Wilson’s name from their campus, causing a domino effect at other institutions bearing the name of the Democratic president. Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are petitioning the school to remove a statue of Abraham Lincoln, citing its “racist origins.”

So where does it end? Not here. Not according to MSU’s Turning Point USA President Sam Larey:

“If this is the case, and we truly are seeking to become inclusive, we must … rename the Michigan State Spartans because Spartans enslaved, conquered, raped and pillaged … disavow the campus as we are on ‘stolen land,’ and ban international study to Egypt as those students visit the pyramids, which were constructed by slaves. This is, of course, ridiculous.”

Alumni student Anisa Dagher has a different perspective. It sounds as if she believes what offends her or doesn’t isn’t offensive or non-; that’s determined by what offends other people instead:

“I don’t think James Madison was a great person, but I can understand why the college was named that to begin with. I can understand why some may want it to be changed, and I would support that. It isn’t my place to decide whether or not the name is offensive because it isn’t offensive toward me.”

She’d like to know what’s offensive to everyone but any white people:

“I am curious as to what they would want to change it to that would represent what the college teaches while at the same time remaining inoffensive to students and faculty of color.”

So what should name should replace James Madison — otherwise known, per the Encyclopedia Brittanica, as the Father of the Constitution?

I’m at a loss. Honestly, maybe the whole thing should be discarded — given academic revisions and the destruction of relics recalling everyone from Lincoln to Frederick Douglass, history is being erased; on another front, English is being replaced by a language of wokeness; and people are talking of banning books, so literature’ll need to take a hike. Lastly, science? It no longer appears to be a science.

How about just convert the campus to a speedway? Open a concession stand serving roasted goose.

Call it a metaphor — we’re on a collision course, and our goose is cooked.

Ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with the single greatest visual representation of our times: