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A statue of John Carroll, founder of Georgetown University, sits before Healy Hall on the school’s campus on Aug. 15, 2006, in Washington, D.C. Georgetown University was founded in 1789 and is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the U.S. Alex Wong/Getty Images
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Georgetown University has plans to atone

But those don’t include financial assistance for slave descendants

Clinton Yates @clintonyates
Topics:
All Day Slavery Education Georgetown Hoyas

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    1:00 PMHere’s the big problem with slavery: Without actual legal tender, there is no way to repay the damage done. It’s as simple as that. So when it was revealed that Georgetown University, the prestigious institution in Washington, D.C., once had to save itself by selling off slaves, many were prepared for not only an apology, but more. On Thursday, Georgetown has plans to do exactly that. Up to a point.

    University President John J. DeGioia will say sorry, create a major, throw up a memorial and rename a few buildings, according to The New York Times. Oh, and the school will allow an advantage in admission for the descendants of the slaves sold, sort of like a legacy status if your parents went to Georgetown. But you know what isn’t on the list of things? Money.

    Think of it this way: The kids of Georgetown graduates have parents who likely made actual money off the fact that they attended said institution. The prestige of being on campus there is not just the fun had whilst matriculating. It’s about being able to walk into an interview in America and command a job. It’s not the same to say to some kid, ‘Hey, great, you can go here because we sold your relatives back in the day.’ Those people NEVER made any money off their time there. Not that it ever could be, but the non-apples-to-apples solution is obvious.

    All this, mind you, after the school created a whole panel to work on this, who put out an 100-plus-page report along with recommendations. You know what wasn’t on those either? Scholarship and financial assistance. It took 20-odd people to sit around for a few weeks and tell people you didn’t plan to give any actual money to the families who need it? The message is: We profited off you, now you can be first to hand us more cash!

    Money talks and it appears that Georgetown University isn’t quite ready to align itself to the notion of reparations.

    Clinton Yates is a tastemaker at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B and remixes — in that order.