Jordan Peterson on history: what the evidence says · JRE #877
SUBJECT: HISTORY
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
the student who screamed up a storm about the male professor, who was the husband of the woman who wrote the pro-Halloween costume letter, it turned out she was on the bloody hiring committee that hired him.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Peterson's claim refers to the November 2015 Yale University Halloween costume controversy: Erika Christakis, then associate master of Silliman College, sent an email questioning administrative guidance discouraging culturally insensitive costumes, prompting student protests against her and her husband, Nicholas Christakis, the college's master. A widely circulated video from a November 5, 2015 courtyard confrontation shows Yale senior Jerelyn Luther '16 angrily addressing Nicholas Christakis, including the line "who the fuck hired you." Yale's own February 2015 announcement naming Nicholas Christakis the incoming master of Silliman College lists an eight-member search committee that selected him, and "Jerelyn Luther '16" appears among its student members, meaning the student widely identified in press coverage as the one confronting him had indeed served on the committee that hired him. Yale's December 2015 statement on the Christakises' status corroborates the broader timeline of the controversy, though it does not itself name Luther. The core factual assertion, that a committee member later confronted the man she helped select, is corroborated by Yale's official committee roster; the identification of Luther as the specific student in the viral video rests on contemporaneous press and commentary rather than a Yale-issued statement, but was widely and consistently reported at the time. Status: well-supported.