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Slavery memorials aren’t enough

The University should follow Georgetown’s lead on reparations

To atone for elements of its history of keeping and selling slaves in the early 19th century, Georgetown University announced a plan to ease admissions criteria for descendants of Georgetown slaves. This change accompanies a formal apology issued by the university, the creation of an institute dedicated to studying slavery and a public memorial dedicated to “the slaves whose labor benefited the institution.” While other universities such as our own have taken steps to address the role of slave labor in their histories, Georgetown is the first to offer reparations to descendants of slaves.

Erecting memorials and renaming buildings to honor the enslaved, such as the Gibbons dorm here on Grounds, is an effective way to remind students of those who built their universities. However, these gestures don’t do much beyond honoring and reminding. Making material amends by offering reparations, on the other hand, creates a measurable, positive impact for descendants of slaves.

In practice, offering reparations to descendants of University slaves would be a tall order. While Georgetown is focusing on a particular slave sale that occurred in 1838, the University’s first few decades were so deeply intertwined with the institution of slavery that it would be difficult to track down descendants of all of the slaves who built and maintained Grounds. Nevertheless, the University should look into the possibility of implementing a policy similar to Georgetown’s.

Regardless of whether the same kind of reparations would be possible here, we would do well to follow Georgetown’s lead: we should move beyond memorialization and instead consider actionable ways to address the effects of slavery at our institution.

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