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Yale Dishwasher Loses His Job After Smashing Stained-Glass Window That Showed Slaves Picking Cotton

In what he called “an act of civil disobedience,” Corey Menafee, a 38-year-old African-American dishwasher employed by Yale University, smashed a stained-glass window in a college dining hall with a broom.
Photo via Flickr user bnilsen

In what he called "an act of civil disobedience," Corey Menafee, a 38-year-old African-American dishwasher employed by Yale University, smashed a stained-glass window in a college dining hall with a broom. The reason? The stained-glass window depicted a scene of slaves picking cotton.

"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,'" Corey Menafee told the New Haven Independent.

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Menafee admitted that he slammed the "racist, very degrading" image twice with a broom handle in a moment of frustration last month. The university said that during the incident, glass fell on a female passerby, "endangering her," although she was not hurt. Menafee claims he didn't mean to hurt anyone, and the university has declined to sue him. As part of a longer statement, Yale told MUNCHIES, "The University has requested that the State's Attorney not press charges. Yale is also not seeking restitution." Menafee was charged with second-degree misdemeanor charge for reckless endangerment and a first-degree felony charge for criminal mischief; no word yet whether the State's Attorney will follow Yale's suggestion and drop the charges. Menafee voluntarily resigned from his position as dishwasher after being arrested.

Colleges nationwide are currently grappling with their past ties to slavery. Georgetown University, to cite just one example, is now trying to figure out how to deal with the legacy of 272 slaves, who were sold to save Georgetown in 1838, when its financial future was precarious.

The window in question at Yale was located in a dining hall in Calhoun College—named for John C. Calhoun, who was vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson and who was notoriously pro-slavery. Discussions had been taking place at Yale regarding re-naming the college, but in April, the president of Yale declared that the name would not be changed despite year-long protests.

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Concerning the windows in Calhoun College, Yale explains, "As part of President Salovey's initiative in April to review Yale's history with regard to slavery, the Committee on Art in Public Spaces was charged to assess the windows in Calhoun and other art on campus. The Committee recommended in June that this window and some others be removed from Calhoun, conserved for future study and a possible contextual exhibition, and replaced with tinted glass for the time being."

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Yale told MUNCHIES that an artist specializing in stained glass will be commissioned to design new windows, and that the Yale community, including students, will have input as to what should replace them.

Menafee smashed the window on June 13; it's unclear what, if anything, Menafee knew about these on-campus discussions. He has said, "When I walked into this job, I wasn't aware of none of that. And then you know, being there, you start hearing different things."

Menafee says he now regrets breaking the window: "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." He says, however, that he was caught up in the moment and just couldn't stand looking at that image any longer: "I didn't commit any acts of violence against anyone or any living thing," Menafee said. "I didn't be belligerent, or yell. I just broke the windows."

Should anybody be expected to feel comfortable in a workplace with art that depicts slavery in a positive light? That's a question a court in Connecticut may have to answer if Menafee's case does indeed go forward.