Yale students say a title for certain professors on campus is racist

In fairness, I’m not sure anybody at Yale is really saying that this use of the term “Master” is racist, or really that it’s offensive in the way a slur is. I think the argument is that black kids in particular feel uncomfortable calling another person “Master.” It is weird–I can remember a black kid in my year who joked about it–hey, that’s my Master over there. But to some it may not seem that funny. I still think that somebody with the smarts and drive to get admitted to Yale should be able to get past this, but I don’t find it to be totally ridiculous.

There’s a much more interesting discussion at Yale, over whether to rename a residential college named after John C. Calhoun. That one has some pretty good arguments on both sides.