University of Edinburgh Re-Names Building Over Namesake’s 260-Year-Old Comments on Race

University of Edinburgh Re-Names Building Over Namesake’s 260-Year-Old Comments on Race
A street performer plays the bagpipes next to a statue of Scottish philosopher David Hume on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland, on June 25, 2016. Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images
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The University of Edinburgh has renamed a building that was dedicated to an 18th-century philosopher due to his “comments on matters of race” that “rightly cause distress today.”

Campuses should reflect “contemporary and historical diversity” and there are “sensitivities” around asking students to use a building named after David Hume, one of Scotland’s most lauded philosophers, the university said in a statement on Thursday.