University of Virginia suspends tours that had come under fire for mentioning Thomas Jefferson's ties to slavery

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought our UVA tour was awkward. We walked by one set of dorms, saw the inside of one building, then spent the rest of the time standing on the Lawn while the guide talked about how racist the community was. Learned very little about the school. The strangest tour we had.

You forgot the part where we had to acknowledge the indigenous people whose land we were trodding upon.

Why didn’t you want to acknowledge the land?

Performative.
And who are you acknowledging it to? Yourselves? Each other? With the point of what?—atonement? Forgiveness? Acknowledgment that you are benefitting from these evils of people you didn’t know pushing people you also didn’t know off of land that may or may not have belonged to them after THeY pushed other tribes off of the land? Super weird American practice.
Our history is so so young.
Are you really sorry that this happened?
If it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have your iPhone that you used to type out your outrage.

Would you rather be ignorant?

I love how woke people think others are ignorant because they aren't talking about something. They learned and thought it was inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

UVA alum here.
The University Guides serve a purpose to provide campus tours to prospective students which includes historically accurate info on the founding of the school. If your kiddos don’t like to hear that slaves built UVA, then perhaps they aren’t ready for the academic rigor of UVA and the growth that only comes from mature intellectual conversations based on the truth. You can’t shield them from it no matter how hard you try.

The tours at Monticello now finally tell the true story of Sally Hemmings. For decades, her quarters were closed off, and they only used part of it for public restroom, but they finally invested millions of dollars to restore back to the way it was because the story needs to be told.
https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/

The African-American History Museum in Washington, DC tells the true story of Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

What is UVA so scared off?
Oh maybe that the kiddos will form their own opinions on these topics?

[Anonymous]

Thomas Jefferson
-drafted the Declaration of Independence
-founded UVA
-called slavery an “abominable crime”
-was a lifelong slaveholder
-had 6 children by Sally Hemming, his slave (9 if you count the babies who died prematurely)
- UVA is a great school.

All of these things are true.
He was a complex man and there is no reason to censure any of this information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought our UVA tour was awkward. We walked by one set of dorms, saw the inside of one building, then spent the rest of the time standing on the Lawn while the guide talked about how racist the community was. Learned very little about the school. The strangest tour we had.

You forgot the part where we had to acknowledge the indigenous people whose land we were trodding upon.

Why didn’t you want to acknowledge the land?

Performative.
And who are you acknowledging it to? Yourselves? Each other? With the point of what?—atonement? Forgiveness? Acknowledgment that you are benefitting from these evils of people you didn’t know pushing people you also didn’t know off of land that may or may not have belonged to them after THeY pushed other tribes off of the land? Super weird American practice.
Our history is so so young.
Are you really sorry that this happened?
If it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have your iPhone that you used to type out your outrage.

Would you rather be ignorant?

I love how woke people think others are ignorant because they aren't talking about something. They learned and thought it was inappropriate.

+1
Not to mention, every single person alive today is living on what once was tribal land. Even the PP talking about indigenous people. We all know this and it does not have to be brought up over and over, especially on a college tour. How incredibly inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here.
The University Guides serve a purpose to provide campus tours to prospective students which includes historically accurate info on the founding of the school. If your kiddos don’t like to hear that slaves built UVA, then perhaps they aren’t ready for the academic rigor of UVA and the growth that only comes from mature intellectual conversations based on the truth. You can’t shield them from it no matter how hard you try.

The tours at Monticello now finally tell the true story of Sally Hemmings. For decades, her quarters were closed off, and they only used part of it for public restroom, but they finally invested millions of dollars to restore back to the way it was because the story needs to be told.
https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/

The African-American History Museum in Washington, DC tells the true story of Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

What is UVA so scared off?
Oh maybe that the kiddos will form their own opinions on these topics?

The fact that you continue to call college-aged students "kiddos" is so telling. Monticello is an appropriate place to tell the story of Sally Hemmings. A UVA tour might mention that the school was built by slaves. But to focus an entire COLLEGE tour on racism?? Sorry, no. That is incredibly misguided. Glad to see the pendulum is finally swinging back to the middle.

[Anonymous]

This is part of an ongoing struggle between Jefferson the man and Jefferson the myth.

Acknowledging that UVa has a troubled history is not only important but also shouldn’t have 0 effect on perspective students and their outlook on the university.

If you don’t like history, go complain to Mr Jefferson’s ancestors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Jefferson Council and Youngkin’s appointees on the governing board are doing gar more damage than just this issue.

Yeah but this kind of evens things out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought our UVA tour was awkward. We walked by one set of dorms, saw the inside of one building, then spent the rest of the time standing on the Lawn while the guide talked about how racist the community was. Learned very little about the school. The strangest tour we had.

You forgot the part where we had to acknowledge the indigenous people whose land we were trodding upon.

Ours required a moment of silence. People in the tour looked so confused.

Sounds like a few rogue student guides. Not our experience at all.

? It’s literally in the news that UVA adjusted their tours. I highly doubt it was a few rogue guides. Either way, my child isn’t applying. Damage done.

Why? The students there are not like this. Look at the Palestine protests there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cs3L-j7NxY People kinda wander in an wander out of the protests between classes to hang out with friends and stuff. Honestly, there are more people showing up to my kid's little league games.

For the most part the school administration is not like this. They fell victim to the same stuff that most of society fell victim to over the past few years. I mean it was funny for a while to watch 18 year olds asking us if we ever heard about slavery as if they uncovered something noone ever knew about before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here.
The University Guides serve a purpose to provide campus tours to prospective students which includes historically accurate info on the founding of the school. If your kiddos don’t like to hear that slaves built UVA, then perhaps they aren’t ready for the academic rigor of UVA and the growth that only comes from mature intellectual conversations based on the truth. You can’t shield them from it no matter how hard you try.

The tours at Monticello now finally tell the true story of Sally Hemmings. For decades, her quarters were closed off, and they only used part of it for public restroom, but they finally invested millions of dollars to restore back to the way it was because the story needs to be told.
https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/

The African-American History Museum in Washington, DC tells the true story of Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

What is UVA so scared off?
Oh maybe that the kiddos will form their own opinions on these topics?

The fact that you continue to call college-aged students "kiddos" is so telling. Monticello is an appropriate place to tell the story of Sally Hemmings. A UVA tour might mention that the school was built by slaves. But to focus an entire COLLEGE tour on racism?? Sorry, no. That is incredibly misguided. Glad to see the pendulum is finally swinging back to the middle.

For the most part these kids are all dependents relying on parents to pay their way through the world but it's one thing to pay 30K for your kids to be educated, it's another to pay that to have your kids be indoctrinated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here.
The University Guides serve a purpose to provide campus tours to prospective students which includes historically accurate info on the founding of the school. If your kiddos don’t like to hear that slaves built UVA, then perhaps they aren’t ready for the academic rigor of UVA and the growth that only comes from mature intellectual conversations based on the truth. You can’t shield them from it no matter how hard you try.

The tours at Monticello now finally tell the true story of Sally Hemmings. For decades, her quarters were closed off, and they only used part of it for public restroom, but they finally invested millions of dollars to restore back to the way it was because the story needs to be told.
https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/

The African-American History Museum in Washington, DC tells the true story of Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

What is UVA so scared off?
Oh maybe that the kiddos will form their own opinions on these topics?

The problem here is that enemies of human rights have manipulated you into presenting important ideas in an arrogant and offensive way.

At an emotional level, the subtext of your post is, “I’m a smart and enlightened person; you’re not.”

And that’s especially bad on DCUM, because you have no idea who you’re talking to. For all you know, someone here who seems to be to your right could be Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders or AOC.

It’s fine to include remarks about Native American land and concerns about Thomas Jefferson on this kind of tour, but it seems as if most of the tour should be about current student life, not history.

If a tour guide wants to acknowledge problems with student life, that’s great, but, if the tour is of a campus as pleasant as UVa, it seems as if focusing solely on racism, sexism and classism would give as incomplete a picture as ignoring those topics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought our UVA tour was awkward. We walked by one set of dorms, saw the inside of one building, then spent the rest of the time standing on the Lawn while the guide talked about how racist the community was. Learned very little about the school. The strangest tour we had.

You forgot the part where we had to acknowledge the indigenous people whose land we were trodding upon.

Why didn’t you want to acknowledge the land?

Performative.
And who are you acknowledging it to? Yourselves? Each other? With the point of what?—atonement? Forgiveness? Acknowledgment that you are benefitting from these evils of people you didn’t know pushing people you also didn’t know off of land that may or may not have belonged to them after THeY pushed other tribes off of the land? Super weird American practice.
Our history is so so young.
Are you really sorry that this happened?
If it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t have your iPhone that you used to type out your outrage.

Would you rather be ignorant?

I love how woke people think others are ignorant because they aren't talking about something. They learned and thought it was inappropriate.

It is just interesting the extent to which elements of the far left are inventing an almost pseudo religion complete with little prayers.

Yes, VA once belonged to other people, centuries before any of us were born. In that, VA is identical to essentially every other square inch of habitable dirt on earth.

Nobody doing a tour of UVA is going to be unaware that there were people in VA before the English arrived, over 400 years ago, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: It is just interesting the extent to which elements of the far left are inventing an almost pseudo religion complete with little prayers.

Yes, VA once belonged to other people, centuries before any of us were born. In that, VA is identical to essentially every other square inch of habitable dirt on earth.

Nobody doing a tour of UVA is going to be unaware that there were people in VA before the English arrived, over 400 years ago, under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I….

DP here. I don’t know about that. I look around today and see so many people that can’t agree on things like the earth is round and the moon landing so if you told me someone didn’t think people were in VA before the English arrived I would not be surprised. All it takes is someone to want to gain notoriety by making an outrageous statement and others either start to believe or feel free to admit it and it takes on a life of its own. I’m not even going to get into conspiracy theory alley and some of the things my kids have mentioned is out there on social media that is contrary to what I learned in school as being historical fact….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is part of an ongoing struggle between Jefferson the man and Jefferson the myth.

Acknowledging that UVa has a troubled history is not only important but also shouldn’t have 0 effect on perspective students and their outlook on the university.

If you don’t like history, go complain to Mr Jefferson’s ancestors

Yeah, UVA students used to be completely gaga for Jefferson. To an embarrassing degree, it was just how you were supposed to be—quoting him, wearing his face on a t-shirt, thinking “what would TJ do?” It was just another quirk that made UVA students feel superior to our peers at other state institutions, where no one knows or cares who the founder was.

Though this might seem like a correction to far in the other direction for some, it’s just part of a reckoning and in keeping with the times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA alum here.
The University Guides serve a purpose to provide campus tours to prospective students which includes historically accurate info on the founding of the school. If your kiddos don’t like to hear that slaves built UVA, then perhaps they aren’t ready for the academic rigor of UVA and the growth that only comes from mature intellectual conversations based on the truth. You can’t shield them from it no matter how hard you try.

The tours at Monticello now finally tell the true story of Sally Hemmings. For decades, her quarters were closed off, and they only used part of it for public restroom, but they finally invested millions of dollars to restore back to the way it was because the story needs to be told.
https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/

The African-American History Museum in Washington, DC tells the true story of Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-dark-side-of-thomas-jefferson-35976004/

What is UVA so scared off?
Oh maybe that the kiddos will form their own opinions on these topics?

The problem here is that enemies of human rights have manipulated you into presenting important ideas in an arrogant and offensive way.

At an emotional level, the subtext of your post is, “I’m a smart and enlightened person; you’re not.”

And that’s especially bad on DCUM, because you have no idea who you’re talking to. For all you know, someone here who seems to be to your right could be Michelle Obama, Bernie Sanders or AOC.

It’s fine to include remarks about Native American land and concerns about Thomas Jefferson on this kind of tour, but it seems as if most of the tour should be about current student life, not history.

If a tour guide wants to acknowledge problems with student life, that’s great, but, if the tour is of a campus as pleasant as UVa, it seems as if focusing solely on racism, sexism and classism would give as incomplete a picture as ignoring those topics.

Exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But let's get real here, no conservative parent in Virginia is going to tell their kid not to apply to UVA if the tour is completely woke and does nothing but talk about the evils of slavery, and no liberal parent in Virginia is going to tell their kid not to apply to UVA if the tour uses a script written by Ron DeSantis that says blacks benefited from slavery.

The content of this tour literally Does Not Matter At All.

Good. UVA doesn’t need conservatives. They’re generally not smart enough to keep up with the classroom rigor anyway