Right-wing pundit Jesse Kelly kicked off the hashtag on Saturday by noting that Yale University is named after Elihu Yale, a British merchant and slave trader.

“Yale University was named for Elihu Yale. Not just a man who had slaves. An actual slave trader. I call on @Yale to change its name immediately and strip the name of Yale from every building, piece of paper, and merchandise. Otherwise, they hate black people,” Kelly tweeted. 

The tweet may be satirical, but it uses the same basic logic applied to other recent examples of cancel culture promoted by Black Lives Matter activists amid the ongoing protests across the nation over the death of George Floyd. 

Numerous companies have promised to change their logos for being insensitive, historical monuments have been ripped down by protesters, and even country band Lady Antebellum shortened their name to axe any connections to the Confederate South.

The growing frustration over “cancellations” fed into Kelly’s hashtag, as thousands joined in on targeting Yale. 

“Yale’s entire campus is a monument to slavery,” one user tweeted.

Kelly also targeted a Juneteenth — a day celebrating the end of slavery in the US — tweet from Hillary Clinton, an alumni of Yale, to demand she “renounce” the school immediately.

The hashtag even got the attention of former Rep. Katie Hill (D-CA) and other liberals.

“Though #CancelYale is coming from right wing trolls, I’d be fine with cancelling the people who say ‘I went to Yale’ every other sentence,” she tweeted.

Though Yale is considered a fairly liberal establishment, some pointed to a 2018 incident where a white student earned headlines for calling the cops on a black student sleeping in a common room on campus.

Yale University has not responded to any of the tweets, but a Saturday tweet about students “honoring” black lives through art — a tweet with comments from non-followers blocked —was honed in on by Kelly and others.

“Did they pray for the soul of Elihu Yale who traded in slaves and who you named your university after? Why have you not changed your name and ripped down every statue with ‘Yale’ on it? Stop being racist.”

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