"Harvard University is committing intellectual Seppuku. The university has committed $100 million to expose its own historical ties to slavery and other racist, benighted, and unspeakable thoughtcrimes."
I'm going to defend Harvard here in general here for coming clean with its ties to slavery and how the educational institution benefited from the institution of slavery. There's a VERY conservative argument to be made that at a minimum, slavery constitutes a huge theft of labor from an unwilling class, and although the original victims of that theft cannot be made whole, their inheritors should be, in the same way had something been stolen from my great grandfather and recovered after his death.
The usual argument against this is that no one "living" committed the theft, and consequently, shouldn't be held to account for the sins of their ancestors. However, Harvard, as a non-profit organization that WAS around during slavery, and an institution that benefited from that theft of labor, SHOULD be responsible for redressing the harms it caused and returning the benefits it reaped from those harms. If we're going to be serious about the notion that corporations and other organizations - as their own distinct entities - enjoy rights such as freedom of speech (Disney) and freedom of religion (Hobby Lobby), those non-human perpetual entities should also have responsibilities to go along with those rights, since they existed and benefited from practices that we cannot hold flesh and blood humans responsible for due to the basic facts of mortality.
So, good on Harvard for taking responsibility for its role and benefiting from an involuntary massive labor theft committed when it was "younger". Let's hope that its redress is meaningful.
Agreed on the motive though I’m sure there’s an element of virtue signaling here because benefactors and donors like that. However that doesn’t change the fact that they’re walking into a moral historical trap.
Only if they opened up their admissions and expanded their student body significantly.
One underappreciated fact about the Ivy League is that if your family isn't wealthy, the financial aid is extremely generous WITHOUT any additional reparations cash. Princeton kicked off the financial aid arms race back in 2001 replacing loans with grants to be a more competitive destination for their prospects[1]. Harvard followed suit a few years later[2]. (I was the beneficiary of Princeton's policy - enacted after my sophomore year - and paid off my own loans from my first two years within two years of graduation.)
One area I think this money might be put to good use is investments and small business grants in their local minority communities and entrepenuers. I don't know if Harvard's situation is as bad as Yale's was[3], but the communities that surround Ivy League institutions are entirely different worlds than what you see on-campus. Given that the current labor that keeps the University running is pulled from these communities, a lot of good can be done bootstrapping and supporting local businesses, such as replacing large multinationals dining hall like Sysco and Aramark vendors with labor and resources rooted in the local communities. (I don't know if Harvard uses either of these - Princeton used Aramark when I was there, which is the basis for my suggestion.)
To the extent that these Universities can use these funds to tear down the "town/gown" walls to raise the standards of living in their surrounding communities, those might be the most impactful actions that they can take to put those funds to good use.
"Harvard University is committing intellectual Seppuku. The university has committed $100 million to expose its own historical ties to slavery and other racist, benighted, and unspeakable thoughtcrimes."
I'm going to defend Harvard here in general here for coming clean with its ties to slavery and how the educational institution benefited from the institution of slavery. There's a VERY conservative argument to be made that at a minimum, slavery constitutes a huge theft of labor from an unwilling class, and although the original victims of that theft cannot be made whole, their inheritors should be, in the same way had something been stolen from my great grandfather and recovered after his death.
The usual argument against this is that no one "living" committed the theft, and consequently, shouldn't be held to account for the sins of their ancestors. However, Harvard, as a non-profit organization that WAS around during slavery, and an institution that benefited from that theft of labor, SHOULD be responsible for redressing the harms it caused and returning the benefits it reaped from those harms. If we're going to be serious about the notion that corporations and other organizations - as their own distinct entities - enjoy rights such as freedom of speech (Disney) and freedom of religion (Hobby Lobby), those non-human perpetual entities should also have responsibilities to go along with those rights, since they existed and benefited from practices that we cannot hold flesh and blood humans responsible for due to the basic facts of mortality.
So, good on Harvard for taking responsibility for its role and benefiting from an involuntary massive labor theft committed when it was "younger". Let's hope that its redress is meaningful.
Agreed on the motive though I’m sure there’s an element of virtue signaling here because benefactors and donors like that. However that doesn’t change the fact that they’re walking into a moral historical trap.
And they'd likely be better off using that $100mil for scholarships for disadvantaged applicants.
Only if they opened up their admissions and expanded their student body significantly.
One underappreciated fact about the Ivy League is that if your family isn't wealthy, the financial aid is extremely generous WITHOUT any additional reparations cash. Princeton kicked off the financial aid arms race back in 2001 replacing loans with grants to be a more competitive destination for their prospects[1]. Harvard followed suit a few years later[2]. (I was the beneficiary of Princeton's policy - enacted after my sophomore year - and paid off my own loans from my first two years within two years of graduation.)
One area I think this money might be put to good use is investments and small business grants in their local minority communities and entrepenuers. I don't know if Harvard's situation is as bad as Yale's was[3], but the communities that surround Ivy League institutions are entirely different worlds than what you see on-campus. Given that the current labor that keeps the University running is pulled from these communities, a lot of good can be done bootstrapping and supporting local businesses, such as replacing large multinationals dining hall like Sysco and Aramark vendors with labor and resources rooted in the local communities. (I don't know if Harvard uses either of these - Princeton used Aramark when I was there, which is the basis for my suggestion.)
To the extent that these Universities can use these funds to tear down the "town/gown" walls to raise the standards of living in their surrounding communities, those might be the most impactful actions that they can take to put those funds to good use.
[1] https://paw.princeton.edu/article/twenty-years-later-princetons-visionary-financial-aid-program
[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna22186316
[3] https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2009/09/15/safety-in-new-haven-a-tale-of-two-cities/