Bill de Blasio says his son, Dante, has joined protests over racial issues at Yale

Mayor de Blasio said his son Dante has been active in protests over racial issues at Yale — and they both agree the school should drop the name of a prominent defender of slavery.

Dante, a freshman, is assigned to Yale’s Calhoun College, named for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. vice president and South Carolina senator who vehemently backed slavery as a “positive good” for the nation.

“He’s very concerned, and he certainly notes the fact that the college he’s in, Calhoun College, is named for someone it shouldn’t be named for,” de Blasio told reporters Monday. “

That’s quite evident to him, and you can understand as a young man of African descent, that it doesn’t feel particularly appropriate to live in a place named after the chief segregationist leader of the South.”

 

De Blasio said Yale should “absolutely” change the college’s name to strip away the honor for Calhoun.

Students have protested at Yale in recent weeks over a host of issues including a frat party that allegedly turned away black women, and broader claims the school is unfriendly to students of color.

“He has certainly been involved in the discussion on the campus. He’s active in the Black Student Union, and he’s been to some of the protests,” de Blasio said of his son. “I don’t want to speak for him. Dante has a very strong voice of his own.”