Good day all, in the category of “WTF, Over?” we have this little gem that has landed in the streets of Cambridge Massachusetts. Harvard University is being sued for using pictures of slaves.
The story revolves around some old Daguerreotype, (An early form of photograph) showing a slave. Some greedy sow saw and decided that she could profit from it. Here are the details from Fox News:
Harvard University is being sued for “shamelessly” making a profit from photos of two 19th-century slaves despite requests to turn the photographs over to the slaves’ descendants.
Tamara Lanier filed a lawsuit against the institution Wednesday for “wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation” of images she claims features two of her ancestors.
The suit demands the university turn over the photos to her, admit her ancestry and pay an unspecified sum in damages.
The legal action stems from a series of photos taken in 1850 that feature two South Carolina slaves identified as Renty and his daughter, Delia. The images are thought to be the earliest known photos of American slaves and were commissioned by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz whose theories on racial difference were used to justify slavery in the country.
“To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,” the suit reads. “The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.”
Times were very different back then. What we know now wasn’t known then. Slavery is disgusting, we all agree. (At least those of us in the West. Muslim countries still practice slavery) Trying to impose modern values on a 19th century system is stupid.
The lawsuit claims Harvard exploited the image of Renty during a 2017 conference and other through other uses, while charging a “hefty” licensing fee for anyone else to reproduce the pictures. The suit adds that Harvard also sells a $40 book with Renty’s portrait on the cover.
Yes, so? The story indicates that the pictures were the property of Harvard in the first place. They were taken at the request of Agassiz and I assume he paid the photographer for the work. In other words, they were never Lanier’s or her ancestors to begin with. Case dismissed, NEXT!
She argues she’s the rightful owner of the photos as Renty’s next of kin, while claiming that neither Harvard nor Agassiz could legally own the photos because they never received the subjects’ consent.
The woman’s suit also says Harvard’s continued possession of the images violates the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery.
Ok stupid, let’s review the 13th Amendment. It’s obvious neither you or that jackass lawyer you have ever did.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This amendment was aimed directly at real slavery, and was designed to ban the ownership of one human by another. Hate to tell you dimbulb, Photographs aren’t humans, they are inanimate objects. Sorry, Appeal DENIED! Next Case!!
“Renty is 169 years a slave by our calculation,” civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, one of Lanier’s lawyers, told the media. “How long will it be before Harvard finally frees Renty?”
No, Renty is dead and has been for over a century. In fact, the approximate date of the passing of the last living slave was somewhere between the 1950s and 1970’s. If Renty was still alive, medical science would be studying him almost nonstop. After all, it isn’t often that you get to meet a 200 year old man.
Crump said the case would allow Harvard to “remove the stain from its legacy” and show it has the courage “to finally atone for slavery.”
As far as I know, Harvard and it’s graduates were long part of the abolitionist movement. (There were exceptions no doubt) What I see here is nothing more then flat out extortion aimed at liberal guilt. Nice idea, going after the moonbats of Cambridge and hitting them right in their white guilt zone. No doubt you are trying to get them to settle the case.
Personally, I think Harvard should not only fight this case, (I think they have a good chance of winning), but once it’s concluded in their favor, go after Lanier and her lawyers and make them pay instead. Harvard has precedent on their side, Just take a look at the recent Texaco lawsuit. That one didn’t end to well for the plaintiffs. Slapping some greedy lawyers and plaintiffs upside the head with serious legal fees and damages might make other extortionists think twice.
Thatisall
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