The University of Florida has named a study room after Communist Manifesto author Karl Marx, who the university calls a “philosopher, radical economist, and revolutionary critic.”
Karl Marx, who the University of Florida has labeled as a “philosopher, radical economist, and revolutionary critic,” has been honored with the naming of a study room in the Library West according to a report by Campus Reform.
Library West is part of the George A. Smathers Libraries system of the University of Florida.
Below the name of the study room is a sign which credits Marx as being the “founder of scientific socialism,” whose “reputation as a radical thinker” emerged during the rise of the socialist political parties in the 1870s and 1880s.
“The unique extent of the influence of Marx’s materialist explanation of the workings of society, economics and history, inevitably saw Marxist theory extend its influence to literary criticism,” the plaque reads.
Marx is also credited with laying the foundation for the rise of “socialist and communist movements throughout the world.”
Karl Marx Group Study Room is reportedly one of 14 spaces that students can reserve and holds the largest occupancy available.
Each study room is reportedly named after a different influential individual. Names of other study rooms include Benjamin Franklin, Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights activists Frederick Douglass, and authors William Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Jane Austen.
Many, however, might consider naming a room in honor of Marx to be a bizarre move, given that international communism — which has left 100 million people dead over the course of 100 years — is grounded in the late philosopher’s ideas, known as Marxism.
While the University of Florida props up Marx’s name, schools across the country are tearing down American figures, such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Revere.
Last year, the San Francisco Board of Education voted to rename 44 of the city’s schools, claiming that prominent figures from American history were tied to racist incidents. The committee also based their decisions on Wikipedia and other wildly inaccurate information to source its claims.
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