The Josh Innes Show - JIS Classic: Renaming Buildings On College Campuses

Episode Date: December 14, 2022

Here's one from June 2020. I was on 97.5 in Houston. At the time Deshaun Watson and Deandre Hopkins wanted to rename a building on the Clemson campus. The building is named for a former slave owner. I let them know that they may want to look around the campus to see what else has ties to that era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Of course, DeAndre Hopkins and Deshaun Watson want to remove John Calhoun's name from a building at Clemson, which actually doesn't really bother me all that much. I mean, listen, basically people are going to bitch about anything that's named after someone that's associated with slavery. I get that. Here's the issue, though. I would argue that like 90-something percent of, it might even be a hundred percent, 99.9% of, of stuff that we talk about in terms of history has something to do with slavery, right? Like, so like, if you don't want to, if you want to sit there and, and, and hitch your wagons to change

the name of a building at Clemson, go for it, you know, because I think that's kind of what we've gotten to. It goes back to the white people rubbing black people's feet thing of like, hey, let's just see what they'll do. Let's see how many buildings they can take a name off of or how many statues can be torn down. At this point, it's a game because I don't know how many people that walk around the campus of Clemson. Now, I'm not at the University of Clemson or Clemson University or whatever the hell

you would call it. So I'm not at Clemson. I don't know how many people walk around Clemson and go, every time they pass a building with the vice president Calhoun's name on it, they go, oh boy, this is terrible. I don't know how many people care or don't care about it, but you got to hitch your wagons to something. So it's Calhoun, this is awful, racist, slave owner.

His name must be removed. Of course, he's also, you know, the founder or one of the founders of the university. And just to go down a little history of Clemson for you, and this is why, again, I don't care who buildings are named after. I'm not going to sit here and fight and say if they change the name of this building, that's absurd, right? Although it is a little bit absurd considering that he's the guy that was one of the founders of the university, right? But whatever. I mean, let's get into that here. Let me give you a few things here.

So Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins want the building name changed at Clemson, right? Well, if you want a building to change its name at Clemson because it's named after someone or it's named in honor of somebody who is a racist or a slave owner, well, friend, you'd have to change the name of Clemson University because Clemson University is named after Thomas Green Clemson. Who is Thomas Green Clemson? He was the land owner. The land was initially there for Calhoun.

It was left to Thomas Green Clemson, who was his son-in-law, and he took a piece of that land that he owned, which is slave-owning land right there, and turned it into Clemson University, and Clemson University is named after a guy who owned slaves. So if you're going to change the name of a building, which, hey, noble cause. We don't want any relics of the past. We want everything associated with slavery out of here, right? Well, then you'd have to change the name of the university in which you won a national title. So we'd have to get rid of that, right?

Like you would think if that's a fight you want to have, if you're going to fight over a building that only people at Clemson know exists, then you should fight to change the name of the actual university, which is named after a guy who is a slave owner and a Confederate officer. That's a double whammy. He fought for the Confederacy and was a slave owner. But we don't have to stop there, Nick. We don't have to stop there.

Now, obviously, if we want to change the name of buildings at Clemson because they're so offensive, and then we change the name of the University of Clemson. It's Clemson University, right? They say Clemson, yeah. Clemson. Is it University? It's Clemson University, right? They say Clemson, yeah. Clemson University. If we want to change Clemson University because Thomas Green Clemson

was a slave owner, a Confederate officer, then I think really, yeah, we should probably change the entire state of South Carolina considering that the first president of South Carolina, John Rutledge, owned slaves, and South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. So, I mean, if we're just, why stop at buildings?

Let's go in and change the name of the university. Then let's change the name of the state. But let's not even stop there, because where does Deshaun Watson play football right now? Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas is named after who? All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out pick six from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts,

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pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. Nick, you don't know who Houston's named after? Sam Houston? Sam Houston! Oh, I thought you said the team. Oh no, oh no. I was talking about the city. Sam Houston. The city of Houston is named after Sam Houston who owned 12 slaves at the time of his death.

Now, what does it now? Now, what would we consider playing football for the Texans would be what for Deshaun Watson? That would be his what? Job. That's his job, right? So Deshaun Watson's job. What do you usually get when you put in good two weeks of work at a job? What do you get on that Friday after that two weeks of work? Paycheck. A paycheck. What is paycheck? It's money, right? Who is on money? Well, Washington's on money. He owns slaves. Grant is on money. He owns slaves. Jackson is on money. He owns slaves. And of course, it's all about the Benjamins. Ben Franklin also owns slaves. Now, in fairness to Ben Franklin, at the end of his life, he denounced slavery and freed all of his slaves, allegedly. But he was a slave owner at one point.

OK, so if we're going to change the name of a building at Clemson, if we're that offended by it, if we're that bothered by the fact that this guy's name is on a building, then we would have to change the name of the university because Thomas Green Clemson was a slave owner and a Confederate officer. We would probably have to change the name of South Carolina in general because the first president slash governor of South Carolina, John Rutledge, owned slaves. We would have to also do that because South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union, which means they really wanted to fight for states' rights slash slavery, right? So there's that. Then, of course, you might just want to light all your money on fire because Washington, Grant, Jackson, Ben Franklin all were slave owners at some point, so let's light the money on fire. You may want to either leave Houston or fight to have the name changed in Houston because Sam Houston owned 12 slaves when he died. But I can go even farther than that. If you would like to change the name of a building at Clemson, which is fine with me.

I want to be clear. I'm not fighting like I give a damn about the name of this building. I'm just looking at sort of hypocrisies and selective virtue signaling that I want to look at here. Clemson Stadium is named Frank Howard Field. Death Valley, Frank Howard Field. Who is Frank Howard, you might ask? Well, Frank Howard was the legendary coach at Clemson from 1940 to 1969. Legendary coach at Clemson, right? The stadium is named Frank Howard Field, Clemson University,

Death Valley. Well, our friend Frank Howard, whose name is on the field in the stadium in which you played and competed for national championships for multiple years. Guess what, kiddos? Frank Howard opposed integrating the team. And that's not in the 1700s or the 1800s. That's 1940 to 1969. He was so opposed to integrating the team, in fact, that the university did not have a black scholarship player on the football team until 1969, which coincidentally was the last year that Frank Howard was the coach at Clemson. So if Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins

are virtue signaling, and they want you to know that they have signed a protest to change the name of a building at Clemson. They should also want to change the name of the university because, again, Clemson's slave owner Confederate officer. South Carolina was the first state to secede from the union. The football field, named after a coach who opposed integrating the team and allegedly was a staunch racist,

didn't have a black scholarship player until 1969. And to cap it all off, you've got to burn all your money because Washington, Grant, Jackson, and, of course, Ben Franklin all owned slaves at some point, so you might as well go outside and light your paycheck on fire if we're going to virtue signal a little bit. Light it on fire because the money has slaves on it, of course, or slave owners on it, of course. And not to mention, you play in in the NFL and the Redskins,

whether you like it or not, Redskins is a pretty offensive name. Doesn't hurt my feelings. I'm not Native American. Doesn't bother me. And I bet it doesn't bother a lot of people. But when we're talking about freedom and we're talking about equality, let us not forget that the people that want to change the names of buildings and the people that want to tear down statues and the people that want a virtue signal, those same people, a lot of them, look at when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl this year. They had their big parade in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, right? What was going on? Black men were out banging a war drum and a bunch of folks, including black folks, were doing a tomahawk chop, which is kind of a weird appropriation, is it not? So I tell you all that to tell you this.

When I see that Deshaun Watson and DeAndre Hopkins sign a protest to take down a name at the university or Clemson University and take a name off a building, that is 100% stone cold virtue signaling. And that is all that is, man. That is nothing more than that. Now, you want to talk a big game? Fight to have the name changed at your university. Fight that fight. That'd be a noble fight. The university is named after a slave owner.

So if a guy that was a racist slave owner has a name on a building, then you should be upset about Clemson. You should be upset about the state of South Carolina. You should be upset about the name of the field and the stadium. You should be upset about the state of South Carolina. You should be upset about the name of the field and the stadium. You should be upset about the people that are on the money. It shouldn't just stop at, oh, I forgot. There's just one guy on a building and we're upset about that. Shouldn't stop there. I feel like it's easier to change on currency than it is on campus, right?

Is it? I mean, to change money? They change. They update the way a $20 bill looks every so many years. That should be the next fight. Get rid of all the slave owners on the money. I just feel like it's harder to do than changing the name of your school, like you mentioned, for all the examples that you mentioned, like the championships and all that stuff. Well, all I'm saying is if you're going to fight, I'm not saying that's going to happen. They may not change the name of this building anyway because Calhoun was the guy that founded the university.

Like it was so it was his land or whatever. So like they may not change the building at all. Right. They want to rewrite history in this case. But if you're going to fight that fight, you might as well go big. If you're going to win, lose this one, it doesn't matter. Go fight big. Say take Clemson.

But they won't want to change the name of Clemson. You know why? Because they played at Clemson and their championships say Clemson University on them. They played at Frank Howard Field. Would they fight to change the name of Frank Howard Field for a guy that opposed integrating the team and didn't have a black scholarship player until 1969? Would they fight to have that name changed? Fight for it all at this point, right? See what you can get. Keep trying. Flirting with some girl on the internet, right? You ask her age, sex, location. Before you know it, you're asking what kind of panties

she's wearing. If she answers, you see if she keeps going if she doesn't answer you say jk it was a joke just kidding i'm just saying back in the day not like today she'll just tell you sir yeah she's just telling you what kind of panties she would wear today she would just be like her picture would be her in panties but back when it was you know aim days you would ask these kind of questions or chat room days you would ask these kind of questions when you're a dorky 14 year old kid like