Learning About Berkeley

Hat tip Daily Californian and California Defender

Who says you can't learn anything by reading the Daily Californian? (UC Berkeley's campus newspaper).  In truth, the DC is one of the more ridiculous campus newspapers in the nation, with such delicacies as op-ed writers detailing their far out sexual practices in print and the usual left-wing garbage. I must admit, however, that I have learned a lot from the DC in the past two days.

Yesterday, I cross-posted this article concerning Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky's decision to remove the name of John Boalt from the school's building after 100 years. Not only did I not know that Boalt's name was affixed to the building, I had no idea who Boalt was to begin with. I do now. As Donald Trump might say, he was a bad hombre.

Today, I noted in the reader comment thread (because I made my own comment) that one reader (identified only as California Defender) had made a very salient point. It had to do with the man that the city of Berkeley and hence the university are named after. Turns out he was a British man named George Berkeley. Here is the reader comment:

"What about Bishop George Berkeley? The slave owner your entire university is named after?

In 1729, he wrote:

"It would be of advantage to their slave masters' affairs to have slaves who should obey their masters, not with mere eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, as like fearing God; that gospel liberty consists with temporal servitude; and so slaves would only become better slaves by being Christian."

If you don't call for Berkeley, university and town, to change their names, you are a hypocrite."

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Not knowing who Bishop George Berkeley was, I found this from the New World Encyclopedia.

"In 1725 Berkeley formed the project of founding a college in Bermuda for training ministers for the colonies and missionaries to the Indians, in pursuit of which he gave up his deanery with its income of £1,100, and went to America on a salary of £100. He landed near Newport, Rhode Island, where he bought a plantation—the famous "Whitehall." On October 4, 1730, Berkeley purchased "a Negro man named Philip aged Fourteen years or thereabout." A few days later he purchased "a Negro man named Edward aged twenty years or thereabouts." On June 11, 1731, "Dean Berkeley baptized three of his negroes, 'Philip, Anthony, and Agnes Berkeley'" (The bills of slave can be found in the British Museum (Ms. 39316); qtd. in Mason, 51).

Berkeley's sermons explained to the colonists why Christianity supported slavery, and hence slaves should become baptized Christians: "It would be of advantage to their [slave masters'] affairs to have slaves who should 'obey in all things their masters according to the flesh, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, as fearing God;' that gospel liberty consists with temporal servitude; and that their slaves would only become better slaves by being Christian" (qtd. in Berkeley, 347. See his sermon preached in Newport, October 1729)."

But if you really want to know why the town and the university bear Berkeley's name, consider this (from good old reliable Wikipedia):

"George Berkeley (/ˈbɑːrkli/;^[4][5] 12 March 1685 – 14 January 1753) – known as Bishop Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne) – was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose primary achievement was the advancement of a theory he called "immaterialism" (later referred to as "subjective idealism" by others). This theory denies the existence of material substance and instead contends that familiar objects like tables and chairs are only ideas in the minds of perceivers and, as a result, cannot exist without being perceived. Berkeley is also known for his critique of abstraction, an important premise in his argument for immaterialism."

(Maybe his true name was Bishop George Beserkly.)

I think the town and the university are now faced with serious quandary: Should they not only change the name of the UCB law school building, shouldn't they also change the name of the town and the university altogether?

Here's my suggestion: Why not change the name of both and name them after one of Berkeley's most famous native sons? I nominate none other than that great former Yankee player and manager, hard drinking, hard brawling, Billy Martin (number 1 below), born and raised in Berkeley.  

Billy Martinsville and Billy Martin University. Kinda have a nice ring to them, don't you think?