The Loss of Pietas at Skull and Bones
By W. F. Twyman, Jr.
I am the only person under my roof right now who is not of Yale. That is not a humble brag. It just reflects the foreseeable consequences of choices in life. One vows to marry a Yalie and one meets one’s future wife two weeks later. One has a child and one day the child vows to attend the same school as Mom. While in New Haven, the teenager becomes an adult and is tapped into a secret society. And before one knows it, one is surrounded at home by women from Yale.
“If you don’t believe in Yale, don’t apply to Yale.” — Simone Collins
I believe in the power of tradition as a force for good. None of us are blank slates. We come into the world on the shoulders of ancestors who thought of us before we existed. I grew up in Tidewater Virginia and the past reminded us of our blessings as we strove towards the coming of a better time. A portrait of a great grandfather on the wall at church inspired us, gave us virtue as the ancient Romans understood virtue. A Call for Pietas The Virtue of Pietas
Could it be that my love of pietas is due to a hereditary dynasty mindset in my childhood? That I embrace generational achievement over a century or two as the most natural way for elevation of a race? That the venerable Skull and Bones should revere families of achievement over execution of dogma and slogan words, the squeezing out of white males as retribution for generational success? It all strikes me as wrong.
I am not a joiner. My readers know my dim views of secret societies. But if you are going to have secret societies, don’t trash portraits on the wall of your founders. That conduct, that mindset is wicked and immoral in my view. If you don’t believe in Skull and Bones, don’t accept the tap into Skull and Bones. If you can only see black people as marginalized, spare the association your distorted view of reality.
Great achievement over generations in families is blind to race. There are so, so many black Americans who come of parents, grandparents, and great grandparents of accomplishment.* Don’t destroy a secret society that developed over centuries in a spasm of race resentment and grudge holding. Campus leadership is blind to race, at least it should be. Let me rephrase upon reflection — campus leadership and the tap should be indifferent to skin color and race.
Leave the portraits of founders alone. Portraits of the noble in our past give us heart.
In the Class of 2020, Skull and Bones had a totally non-white class. How does that happen in a country that is around 65% white? Just asking questions, a heretic among black Yale women this afternoon. Our country is about 35% conservative and there are zero conservative students in Skull and Bones. How does that happen? Has pietas been sacrificed on the alter of dogma and slogan words?
“If we can’t change Yale, we have to tear it down!” — Student
Good afternoon and God Bless Skull and Bones!
The Secrets of Skull and Bones
*Some examples of hereditary Black American Family Dynasties: (1) The Robinson Family of Richmond, Virginia — Great Grandfather Spottswood William Robinson Sr., Saloon Owner; Grandfather Spottswood William Robinson Jr., Lawyer and Law Professor; Father Spottswood William Robinson, III, Chief Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; Spottswood William Robinson IV, Lawyer and Businessman, (2) The Houston Family of Washington. D.C. — Great Great Grandfather Rev. Thomas Jefferson Houston; Great Grandfather William LePre Houston, Lawyer and Law Professor; Grandfather Charles Hamilton Houston, Dean of Howard Law School and Architect of the Brown Litigation Strategy, Father Charles Hamilton Houston Jr., Lecturer at Morgan State University; Charles Hamilton Houston III, Attorney, (3) The Wilkins Family of Chicago, Illinois — Grandfather J. Ernest Wilkins Sr., Undersecretary of Labor for Department of Labor in the Eisenhower Administration; Father Julian Wilkins, Partner of a Major Chicago law firm; David B. Wilkins, Harvard Law School Professor, (4) The Powell Family of New York City, New York — Grandfather Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Sr., Founder of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York; Father Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Congressman for Harlem, New York; Adam Clayton Powell III, University of Southern California’s Vice-Provost for Globalization, (5) The Ford Family of Memphis, Tennessee — Great Grandfather Lewie Ford founded the Ford family funeral business; Grandfather Newton Jackson Ford expanded the Ford funeral business; Father Harold Eugene Ford Sr., Congressman from Memphis, Tennessee; Harold Eugene Ford Jr, Congressman from Memphis, Tennessee. There are many more examples of leadership in Black American families across generations. To perceive black Americans as marginalized and worthy of a black preference at Skull and Bones is a falsehood.