Corey Menafee lost his job as a dishwasher at Yale and got arrested after breaking a stained-glass image in Yale’s Calhoun residential college.
The image depicted two slaves carrying bales of cotton.
Corey said he used a broomstick to shatter the panel to the floor because he was tired of looking at the “racist, very degrading” image. He’s since been charged with a felony.
via NHI:
His actions provide the latest chapter in a contentious debate over the racially charged symbolism of the college, named for slavery advocate and former U.S. Vice-President John C. Calhoun. The debate gathered steam last summer with a petition demanding a name change, and has since grown to encompass the slavery-themed paintings, artifacts, and stained-glass tiles displayed in the college. In April, Yale President Peter Salovey announced that Yale will keep the Calhoun name despite a year-long campaign by students and faculty calling for it to be changed.
Menafee, who is 38 years old, said he wasn’t motivated by allegiance to student activists when, while helping clean the hall on Monday, June 13, he decided on a sudden impulse to knock the panel down.
“When I walked into this job, I wasn’t aware of none of that,” Menafee said. “And then you know, being there, you start hearing different things.”
“I took a broomstick, and it was kind of high, and I climbed up and reached up and broke it,” he said. “It’s 2016, I shouldn’t have to come to work and see things like that.”
“I just said, ‘That thing’s coming down today. I’m tired of it,’” he added. “I put myself in a position to do it, and did it.”
Yale Hospitality, Menafee’s employer, declined to comment on a personnel matter.
Last week, “Head of College” (the new title replacing “master”) Julia Adams announced in an email to the Calhoun community that a set of stained glass panels depicting various moments from the statesman’s life would be removed from the college common room.
In the email, Adams said the impetus for their removal came from a study conducted by Yale’s Committee on Art in Public Spaces “following damage to one of the windows” in the dining hall. In an interview, she declined to confirm that the window in question was the same panel broken by Menafee, referring further questions to University spokesman Tom Conroy. Conroy told the Independent that Menafee’s status is officially “not employed by the university.” He said he may not disclose any further information about what’s a personnel matter.
Yale Vice President for Communications, Eileen O’Connor, addressed the incident in a statement.
“An incident occurred at Calhoun College, a residential college on the campus of Yale University, in which a stained glass window was broken by an employee of Yale, resulting in glass falling onto the street and onto a passerby, endangering [her] safety. The employee apologized for his actions and subsequently resigned from the University. The University will not advocate that the employee be prosecuted in connection with this incident and is not seeking restitution.”
Corey now faces a second-degree misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment and a first-degree felony charge of criminal mischief. He regrets his actions and is remorseful, saying:
“There’s always better ways of doing things like that than just destroying things. It wasn’t my property, and I had no right to do it.”
Let’s be honest — do you blame him?
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