Nov 19, 2015 2 min read

Yale is just one of many college and university campuses where protests have erupted recently over racial insensitivity and discrimination. It’s not a coincidence that these events have come soon after the uproar over the appalling treatment and killing of black suspects by police in Missouri, New York City, Cleveland and many other places around the country.

To be sure, racial injustice exists, at all levels of society, and it is right to combat it. But frivolous complaints about perceived racism are counterproductive to that fight.

Take, for instance, the umbrage expressed by some Yale students over the use of the title “master” for those members of the faculty living on campus as dormitory supervisors. “Master,” they complain, is too painful a reminder of slavery.

Sure, “Master,” was what slaves called their owner, but the word has dozens of other uses in our language that have nothing to do with that horrid institution. What would happen if, for fear of insensitivity, that word were scrubbed from our lexicon?

What would we call the postmaster? And how about the Old Masters, like da Vinci and Raphael? Senior persons of antiquity extremely adept with paint brushes?

If we could not “master” a musical instrument or use the word to describe an original from which copies can be made, we would subject ourselves to some equally ridiculous verbal gymnastics. The court-appointed juvenile master would need to find another title as would some comic-book heroes: Imagine “Administrators of the Universe.”

Some of the protesting Yale students might need to change their plans about pursuing graduate degrees. After all, how offensive to be a Master of Business Administration or a Master of Science.

Let’s tackle the real problems of racial injustice, not the imagined ones.