Is Georgetown’s $400,000-a-Year Plan to Aid Slave Descendants Enough?

Many comments say that Georgetown's offer is not enough. What would be enough, and idealistically, is there any amount which would be enough?

Reparations, even for just cause, can breed resentment, remember the Treaty of Versailles

I find it ironic that Catholic institutions are voluntarily agreeing to 'restitution' for the sale of slaves - actions that occurred centuries ago - when that church is fighting suits filed by sexual abuse victims that are still alive and using the statute of limitations to avoid other suits. I'm confused. The Church is willing to admit to some sins (sins that were quite legal at the time) while refusing to recognize others that clearly ARE illegal?

Disgusting that Gergetown would give in to this extortion. Not one person alive today is responsible for or a victim of slavery. Hopefully this will not set a precedent. It is one more issue that will drive a wedge between the races in this country

I say any former slave or child of a slave should get free tuition oh wait slavery ended over 150 years ago get over it none alive today was slave or owned a slave

My son attends Georgetown. My family has no connections to slavery in any way. My German family came to the US in the 1890s. So the idea that I should be forced to pay extra tuition to Georgetown for the sole benefit of the descendants of their sold slaves is bit beyond my comprehension. Obviously, I'm happy the school is looking to do right by these families, but my son is trying to pay tuition, but pay reparations for slavery.

why is it up to GeorgeTown to pay this debt? Let the government do it. They allowed it in the first place.

$400.000/year is a poor attempt at equity. Georgetown might not even be in operation had they not engaged in the evil slave trade. The damages of 240 years of slavery, the Civil War, failed Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the slow improvement since 1965 live on. Much of the wealth that slavery created lives on to this day. To suggest that Georgetown students of today are punished by set asides really doesn't carry much weight.

Reparations are untenable for many reasons: 1. Slavery ended in 1865 and most non-black Americans are descended from immigrants who arrived after 1865 and were not slave-holders, and thus do not owe reparations. 2. Many blacks are descended from Africans who came to the US after 1865 and therefore are not owed reparations. 3. Many blacks are of mixed race; will their payments be pro-rated on the percentage of black/slave ancestry? How will such ancestry be measured? DNA? Historic or genealogical records? 4. Will blacks descended from African tribes that captured members of other tribes and sold them into slavery receive reparations? 5. Do all taxpayers have to pay into a reparations fund, or only non-blacks? 6. Will rich blacks (e.g., the Obamas) receive reparations or will there be a cap on recipients' income? 7. Will illegal immigrants receive or pay reparations? 8. Will payments to blacks be reduced by the amounts paid for welfare, affirmative action and other benefits they and their ancestors have received since 1865? 9. Will reparations mean the end of affirmative action for blacks? 10. What about reparations for Native Americans, who lost so much land and so many lives? 11. Poor blacks are far outnumbered by poor whites and Hispanics; won't they be eligible for guaranteed incomes and special payments, too? If reparations are part of the 2020 Democratic platform Trump will be re-elected.

Slavery was abolished 150 years ago. I don’t know how this would help anyone, other than people wanting money. Every person alive has had their ancestors miss treated in some form and you don’t hear us raising hell about it. We can’t go back and undo what has been done.

I am appalled by my country's history of slavery and racism. However, neither my forebears nor I, were directly involved. Have I and some of my predecessors benefited? Perhaps. But do I owe anyone anything? I don't think so. There is probably not one person in the entire world, not now or ever, who has not in some way benefited from such circumstances. Face it! This world has never been fair and retribution will do nothing to change this. But it will be sure to bring us one thing: more divisiveness. This is, quite simply, the *only* end that retribution will grant us. Is this really what we want?

Georgetown has a specific obligation to the descendants of the slaves it sold. Health clinics and schools benefit everyone and cannot be said to be reparations for the affected group. No one offered to build clinics and schools for the Japanese-American survivors of the internment camps. The survivors received cash payments. The $3.3 million present value of the profit of the sale is not a sufficient amount for the descendants who stand in the shoes of their slave ancestors. The descendants should receive cash payments and it is not up to Georgetown to determine how the recipients spend that money. No one placed any usage restrictions on reparations paid to Holocaust survivors or their descendants.

If Georgetown REALLY wanted to help the descendants of slavery, they should do it through admissions, not reparations. The key differences in this country in terms of both happiness and money start with education. Given a bunch of money is not the same thing as admitting 25 deserving additional students of color every year. All that they have to do is look a bit harder.

"But Shepard Thomas, a descendant of an enslaved couple sold in 1838 and a student leader who helped organize the spring referendum, criticized the decision to raise the money through charitable contributions instead of student fees." I fail to understand why current students should essentially pay a fine for decisions that occurred almost 200 years before they were born and that neither they, nor their distant relatives, had any role in.

I don't know if it will positively affect the decedents of slavery but it is the right thing to do. American economy soared in its infancy largely due to the owning of other human beings and that fact continues to divide America because a large portion of the population are a product of slavery. Own up to America and remember we are E Pluribis Unum.

$400,000 hardly seems worth all of the sustained whining that the purported descendants of slaves have been doing. I would suggest that those individuals instead apply themselves in their chosen vocations, direct their efforts to resolving actual problems within their communities, try to improve life for everyone around them, and otherwise aspire to be good, productive American citizens.

Attempting to identify descendants could be difficult given that family names were not always used by slaves and the frequency similarity of names in the population. Rather than trying to find individuals, setting up a scholarship fund for blacks might be better. Of course, blacks that immigrated to the US after the period of slavery might not be considered victims

This feeble attempt at "atonement" may be all well and good for the descendants of those 270 slaves that were sold! But how about the rest of us, Amen?

$400,000 represents the costs for 5-6 students to pay the $71,580 tuition, room and board, and costs for a year at the school. So the institution is now going to have the students pay for the restitution offer. Please note that the coach of the Basketball team, John Thompson, III is 3.6 million per year. Does anyone see a problem with their offer?

The problem with the Georgetown plan is that it seeks to compensate only the descendants of people they enslaved. This piecemeal approach suggests that reparations should follow a careful legalistic track to avoid paying too much or paying to those who are not deserving. Slavery was certainly the foundation of the system of racial subordination in America. But as a foundation it gave rise to many new forms of racial subordination long after slavery formally ended. Sharecropping, convict leasing, vagrancy laws, mandatory proof of employment laws all worked to take the newly freed African and transform them from slavery to a state of near slavery. The white man once there owner now became their boss. If Georgetown is serious about making amends for this damage they should find a way to make reparations to those who suffered from their racism, but also those who suffered in the entire system racial subordination. Even today, African American's who qualified for fixed rate loans to buy a home have instead been steered into high risk, subprime mortgages. This demonstrates that the process of reparations cannot be limited to institutions and families that have been able to keep careful genealogical records. It is the American system of capitalism that subordinated African labor then and that spurred on and takes advantage of racial subordination now. A check may indeed be in order for some. But becoming an ally in the long struggle ahead for racial equity is even better.

Georgetown, the college or property did not sell slaves. The people of the past did. How can anyone working today at the college, complete strangers to the slave sellers of the past, be help responsible. A persons legacy can be tarnished or held responsible for an act. A piece of land can not be.

Given the value of the original sale, $400k seems embarrassingly low. Given the wealth of Georgetown generally, it is also low. The only 'good' here is that the notion of reparation is finally getting traction. But I think we should expect more from institutions that claim to be morally informed.

This seems like a nice place to start, but it's not enough by far. Georgetown, and other institutions, have a huge scar on their reputations and need to pay restitutions to deal with it. A $400k fund to make up for a $3.3 million profit made centuries ago is but a drop in the bucket. And relying only on donations? I'd like to see the Jesuits start that fund by making a $400k donation and then for Georgetown to match it before asking the university community to cover any of it.

Making the payments based on voluntary donations is not really taking responsibility. Georgetown needs to do more.

And hopefully some Georgetown graduates will try to change the status quo and make real reparations.