Descendants of slaves sold to benefit Georgetown call for a $1 billion foundation for reconciliation
Source: Washington Post
A group of descendants of slaves sold by Jesuits in the 19th century to benefit Georgetown University called on both the university and Maryland Jesuits to do more to promote reconciliation after the horrors of slavery, asking to create a charitable foundation.
The descendants proposed a $1 billion foundation and announced that they had raised $115,000 in seed money, an amount equivalent to the 1838 sales price for the 272 people sold to pay off a debt. That amount is equivalent to about $3 million in today’s dollars.
Last week, Georgetown’s president announced that it would apologize for the university’s role in the slave trade, give an admissions preference to descendants of the 272 slaves, name two buildings in honor of those enslaved people and create a memorial. Georgetown was responding to a report from a group of faculty members, staff, students and alumni that examined the university’s historical ties to slavery.
But leaders of the nearly 600 descendants who signed on to the GU272 statement said they asked to be included in that panel but were not — and they called on the university and the Jesuits to do more for the public good.
Read more: Link https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/09/08/descendants-of-slaves-sold-by-georgetown-call-for-a-1-billion-foundation-for-reconciliation/#comments source
This is a wonderful idea. What Georgetown proposed is way too little and way too late.
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bucolic_frolic
(55,133 posts)to help these communities and the descendants
In an era of .5% interest rates it's a good time to get it going
Lithos
(26,638 posts)The actual history of Georgetown was probably never top of mind by anyone there. As such, I'm willing to grant the current administrators some leniency. I'm glad they are doing something to help, though I do think they do need to do much more. I think the failure of this country to address slavery and the social aftermath is astounding and now that they are aware, they need to be leaders here with new programs and outreach.
L-
TipTok
(2,474 posts)Abouttime
(675 posts)As a nation it is imperative that we make reparations to African Americans not only for slavery but for centuries of individual and institutional rascism by the white majority.
It's really that simple, almost 4 centuries of rascism by the white majority to peoples of color has a cost, to repay that debt will take reparations, in other words wealth redistribution.
Until this debt is payed our country cannot and will not move forward. Best we do it sooner rather than later, if we fail to act the price we pay, God forbid, might be in blood.
For instance if trump is elected we will probably see mass riots and the beginnings of a new civil war.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)Let alone the boondoggle that such a policy would actually look like in written form....
No one alive today was born a slave. How many generations would reparations go for? Until perfect equality is achieved?
Abouttime
(675 posts)You are the voice of white privilege.
Reparations could be accomplished easily through our tax system much like the earned income tax credit. Those paying the reparations would just pay an additional tax, it's really no big deal.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)Who exactly would pay?
Who exactly would receive?
Descendants of slaves would receive reparations. Anyone who isn't a descendent of slaves would pay a tax above a certain amount, $75,000 for instance.
It would just be another tax, it's a simple solution, I don't see how anyone could oppose it.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)Down the line...
- At what ratio? Single drop of blood?
- Which records will prove it?
- What about someone who had a great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparent who was a slave owner and is also a descendent of a slave?
- When do you draw the line in time? Slavery was practiced for hundreds of years prior to the founding of America.
- Recent arrivals to America?
- Does this just go on forever?
- An interracial couple (or maybe not even) is married and files jointly. One is a descendent of plantation slaves, one is not. Do they cancel each other out?
-How much? $10 a month? A poverty line income? A middle class income? Upper middle?
- What do you think the benefits will be of removing an entire class of people from the working pool if the income supplement is high enough?
- What do you think the results will be by flooding a huge portion of the population with income in the first place?
- Why do you think this would do anything but reinforce the racial divide in America?
- What would you put in place to keep the program from expanding out of control over time as the population grows and the genes become ever more intermingled?
- Would you tell a PoC who, for whatever reason, that they need to pay an outwardly appearing white person because they don't have the requisite amount of records?
24601
(4,142 posts)our family reparations should be quite substantial.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Why should I pay for it? My ancestors had nothing to do with it.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)... then you are guilty from having benefited from the forced labor of their great, great, great, great,great, great grandparents and thus need to cough up some dough.
Shame on you... You monster...
Coventina
(29,730 posts)I'm 1/4 descended from slave-owners (on my paternal grandmother's side).
But the other 3/4 of me come from recent immigrants.
Do I pay a partial tax?
on edit: correction....
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)'I don't see how anyone could oppose it'
But forgot to add the sarcasm thingy. Because surely you do not truly believe this. Not only would a majority of Americans oppose it, a majority of democrats would oppose it. Hell, I would not be surprised if a majority of DU members, a sample of the most liberal wing of the party, would oppose it.
The whole idea is an electoral death sentence.
Adrahil
(13,340 posts)That's just a ridiculous way to deal with the issue. I fully support making amends through a variety of means, but reparations are right out, AFAIC.
Sand Rat Expat
(290 posts)While slavery was in existence in the United States, my ancestors were drinking beer, wearing lederhosen, and making cuckoo clocks. They didn't own any slaves, nor did they oppress anyone, nor have any of the subsequent generations who were born in America.
Why, then, am I to be taxed today to right a wrong that my family didn't participate in, and couldn't have done anything about?
snooper2
(30,151 posts)TipTok
(2,474 posts)I thought this was super simple?
Guess not...
demosincebirth
(12,826 posts)TipTok
(2,474 posts)'The whites'... Sheesh
Which 'whites' would that be? Anyone appearing outwardly Caucasian on a paint swatch scale?
Would that be current whites from the south or anyone with an ancestor from the south ( who met the right skin tone on the swatch scale of course)?
Sins of the father and all that.... This place is getting downright Old Testament...
demosincebirth
(12,826 posts)GummyBearz
(2,931 posts)They were running the slave trade. And while they are writing reparation checks I want a billion dollars for what they did to my scott/irish ancestors. I also want a billion from italy on that note. Everyone else jump on board
christx30
(6,241 posts)settlement for 300 years of slavery the Hebrews endured? How far back do you want to go?
adigal
(7,581 posts)Georgetown has an alumni endowment of $1.529 BILLION dollars. Last I looked, Vassar, my son's smaller college, had 800 million; I believe Yale has $2 billion. Yes, with a B. These schools are awash in alumni money. The least they could do is $1 billion.
I'm sure you'd be all about it if someone's great great great great great great grandchild showed up and demanded 2/3rds of your business and assets because of an offense that your distant ancestor had committed against their distant ancestor.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)Every problem made by humans may be solved by humans... except for the "I'm no expert, but I know enough" contingent, we may have already solved it by now. 
No doubt, you're no expert yet know more than enough...
TipTok
(2,474 posts)... it sneaks it at the end.
Such a shame...
In any case, any problem should be approached with common sense.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)Voluntary private donations, what's the problem?
TipTok
(2,474 posts)from the article...
It sounds like they want their billion from 10-15 schools which comes out to 70-100 million a piece.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)I didn't see anything in this part that would lead me to believe the schools would be forced to participate.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)... but if I had a student there, I would seriously question if that was the best use of $100,000,000.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)The parents and students always have the choice to go elsewhere if they want.
mahatmakanejeeves
(69,848 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)doesn't give them any rights to make decisions for the university. I'm sure the university will take upset donors into consideration when making a decision, though.
TipTok
(2,474 posts)
Calista241
(5,633 posts)A university can't give away 2/3 of its endowment and expect to stay operational.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)Perhaps they could raise the money. They have a very wealthy alumni base.
Igel
(37,535 posts)Had they held onto the slaves, they'd have been freed a few decades later and, like other such institutions, owe nothing.
The slaves' lives on their plantations were miserable--the caretakers there were rebuked for their harsh treatment even at the time. And the plantations were disposed of because they were losing money. Georgetown was in debt because of a lot of building that had just been done, but also because they were subsidizing the plantations. Had they freed the slaves--the moral thing to do--it's unclear where they'd have wound up. (Some would pick best case scenarios as the Only Possible Result, others the worst case.)
Of course, in between the sale of the slaves and now a lot of things happened--a number of panics and depressions. If Georgetown had survived their immediate fiscal problems, odds are they'd be no better or worse off than they are now. It's the same with other businesses that owned slaves then. Many are now parts of larger corporations because those businesses failed or were failing and were bought up in the economic mess after the Civil War, in various bank panics and depressions, in the 1929 crash, in social and structural changes in between the economic downturns. All the vast profits from slaves yielded nothing in many cases, and in the cases where there's continuity often the results from slavery were kept only due to financial or business acumen.
It's the same with families. We point to wealthy branches of families that benefited from slave-derived money. We act like their money's entirely due to slavery. We studiously avoid the poor branches of those families, which benefited to the same amount. Deep pockets attract attention; turned-out pockets, not so much. The point being that something else is also at play, and to ignore that is to ignore something important; to not ignore that, though, is to severely undercut the claim and the argument being made.
Even non-profits like Harvard, dependent in part on its original endowment on slave-derived money, has had a lot of cash influx since then and a lot of setbacks. It's simplistic, in a very self-serving way, to somehow extrapolate in one step from the original funding to the present state and declare that everything now is due to one thing over 150 years ago. This, however, is the state of the art for some sorts of rhetoric. The only way to justify it is to think of the people who benefited from Harvard education and ties as somehow the ROI on the original funding, but that's getting very close to thinking of people as product again.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)for what he did to my family at Ludlow...
GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)Apparently it was not enough for some people.
philosslayer
(3,076 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)philosslayer
(3,076 posts)no offense intended, but their opinion matters. Yours does not
TipTok
(2,474 posts)They weren't there...
They weren't even close to there...
The slaves themselves? Sure...
Kids... Probably....
Grandkids... Stretching it...
Great great great great great great grandkids.... Doesn't really concern them...
Sand Rat Expat
(290 posts)You know, the ones who are paying lots of money in return for an education? Their educational experience would be significantly compromised if, as one poster pointed out upthread, Georgetown gives away two thirds of its endowment. Why should the students suffer because of something they had nothing to do with? At the very least, should the students' opinions count, in your view?
Xithras
(16,191 posts)They want the endowment to be funded by a large number of modern companies and institutions that benefited from slavery. They are simply asking Georgetown to kick in some seed money to help establish the endowment (the exact amount they are hoping for isn't disclosed in the article). They have even kicked in some of their own money as a show of good faith.
ucrdem
(15,720 posts)If it raised its own money it wouldn't be that burdensome and it would be a credit to the university and probably the first of several like it.