Editorial: A lesson in handling slavery

This past Thursday, Georgetown University made headlines for its decision to “atone” for its past involvement in the slave trade. The university’s president stated that the selling of slaves in 1838 had saved Georgetown from financial crisis. As part of a process to recognize and reconcile with its past, Georgetown instated the Working Group on Slavery, Memory and Reconciliation. The group's efforts have led to both the establishment of an institute for the study of slavery and a new policy directed toward granting descendants of slaves an advantage in the admissions process.

The debate on reparations for slavery is a long-standing and heated one. The first notion of reparations came from General William Tecumseh Sherman, not long after the Civil War, with an attempt to provide freed slaves with 40 acres of land. This measure was quickly quashed, and since then, there has been no other serious or systematic attempt from the government to provide reparations for slavery. Today, it seems reparations for slavery have not occurred simply because it has been so long since slavery's abolition. It has therefore become difficult for the American public – and the government for that matter – to agree on who is responsible for providing reparations and how these reparations should be distributed. This is where elite universities come in.

For many years, institutions of higher education have been significant players in the fight against racism in this country. They have been at the forefront of racial discourse, have implemented affirmative action and have been a platform for students of color to express their racial discontents through movements like Black Lives Matter. Elite universities, however, are also notorious for being built on traditions and imagery rooted in slavery, a trait that has been exposed by students' requests across several college campuses to change the names of buildings named after slaveowners or notable racists.  Among these are the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the building formerly known as Saunders Hall at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Furthermore, elite colleges are the institutions where the racial gap is most evident in the United States. In 2015, 40 percent of white people aged 25 to 29 had received a bachelor’s degree while only 20 percent of black people in the same age group had. Universities were built on slavery, and the repercussions of it are felt widely throughout college campuses. For this reason, universities make strong candidates to deliver some form of reparation for slavery.

Georgetown University has taken the first step. Although it is a small step (seeing as the university did not offer financial help or committee inclusion to students descending from slaves), it is progress — progress that should be mimicked and expanded throughout the country, including at Tufts University. Our campus is situated on what used to be a slave plantation, a fact that is not nearly as widely known as it should be. It is time that the university openly acknowledges the role slavery played in its history and join in the fight to mitigate the repercussions as best it can.