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The hashtag #CancelYale trended on Twitter this past weekend as users highlighted Yale being named after a slave trader.
Former Republican Congressional candidate and Iraq War veteran Jesse Kelly started the trend by pointing out that Yale University was named for Elihu Yale, a former slave trader.
Yale University was named for Elihu Yale. Not just a man who had slaves. An actual slave trader. I call on @Yale to change it’s name immediately and strip the name of Yale from every building, piece of paper, and merchandise. Otherwise, they hate black people. #CancelYale
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) June 20, 2020
Kelly’s spotlighting of Yale’s namesake is in response to statues being torn down or removed across the country including statues of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant, Francis Scott Key, Theodore Roosevelt and Junipero Serra. In Boston, the statue of Christopher Columbus was beheaded.
Per the New Haven Register, Yale has declined to comment.
Even Wikipedia updated their Elihu Yale page to reflect #CancelYale trending.
Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) was an American-born British merchant, President of the East India Company settlement in Fort St. George, at Madras, and a benefactor of the Collegiate School in the Colony of Connecticut, which, in 1718, was renamed Yale College in his honour. On June 21, 2020, #CancelYale trended online after it was pointed out its founder Elihu Yale was a slave owner and trader.
Do you support removing/tearing down statues? Renaming universities tied to slavery in America?
I don’t support canceling Yale, they can keep their buildings and endowment, but I think its name should be changed. Another gesture is to redistribute some of their $30 billion endowment to blacks as their institution WAS built on white supremacy.