Good for the Jesuits, who understand how atonement works. From NBC:
Georgetown will offer an admissions edge to descendants of slaves as part of a comprehensive atonement for the university’s historical ties to slavery, its president announced Thursday.
Those ties go back nearly two centuries, when the Washington, D.C., school sold 272 slaves and used the proceeds to pay off debt.
Georgetown President John J. DeGioia offered a public apology Thursday afternoon for the 1838 sale and outlined what the university plans to do to acknowledge racism in its past…
In addition to offering descendants the same preferential status in admissions that Georgetown currently offers children of alumni, the university will develop a memorial to the enslaved and will rename two buildings — one after Isaac Hall, a slave whose name is the first mentioned in the 1839 sale documents, and another in honor of Anne Marie Becraft, an African-American who founded a school for black girls in Georgetown’s neighborhood in 1827.
The moves come a year after DeGioia asked a group comprised of faculty, students, alums and staff with coming up with ways to address the university’s history of slavery… A couple months after the group started its research, the need to address Georgetown’s history became more apparent: Students staged a sit-in last November outside DeGioia’s office calling for a dialogue about how the school benefited from slavery.
“The most appropriate ways for us to redress the participation of our predecessors in the institution of slavery is to address the manifestations of the legacy of slavery in our time,” DeGioia, who met with descendants over the summer, said in Thursday’s press release…
None of the usual ‘we’re sorry if anyone might have been offended by actions which may have taken place a long time ago’ boilerplate. Acknowledge terrible things were done (human beings were sold ‘down the river’ to save the university from bankruptcy), work with the victims (the families of those slaves) to take concrete steps towards reparation, and remember it’s a process not a single action.
Wish I could’ve found the clip from the evening news where DeGioia announced that the African-American families who’d first broght this history to national attention “were as much a part of the Georgetown family as any of our most storied alumni”…
Baud
Good news. Thanks, AL.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s incredibly moving. Thank you, Georgetown, and thank you for finding and sharing the link, Anne Laurie.
The phrase “comprehensive atonement” is shocking and moving.
Mnemosyne
I know I’m a broken record about this, but Donald Trump and his followers are out of step with American culture. They’re scary as hell, but they do not have a majority.
hovercraft
The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice. This is a great move, that is so much better than just an apology or the naming of buildings, both of which would be great. The opportunity for an education at top notch school is priceless.
Hal
Damn, Michelle Obama really hit a nerve.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Agreed, it was a good and important step. Kudos to Georgetown University for doing this.
Georgetown has a web page and a (dead) livestream video about today’s events.
I can’t find the video either.
His prepared remarks are here.
Cheers,
Scott.
hovercraft
@Mnemosyne:
We are at a real crossroad, who dod we want to be. I’m optimistic that the majority of us will be on the right side of history, and reject Trumpism soundly. Let them show themselves as the bigots they are, so that they are no longer hidden, that is the one thing I’m glad he’s done. People have been telling women and POC for years that it was all in our heads, but this year has brought it all out for everyone to see.
Baud
@hovercraft: Agree. This election will be clarifying.
Will R
Infuriating. The staff seems to be quite committed.
Major Major Major Major
Hey, cool, good for them. That’s super great.
debit
@SiubhanDuinne: Beautifully said.
RobertDSC-iPhone 6
Very nice.
Peter VE
Brown University did a several year long study of it’s relationship to slavery. In short, the money the Brown family earned from slavery convinced the leaders of Rhode Island College to change the name to “Brown”. The primary result of the study was a commitment to fund an endowment for scholarships for the children of Providence, and give free tuition to grad students who commit to teaching in the Providence Public schools. Meh.
They also commissioned a Slavery Memorial, a massive ball and chain, with the chain cut off. To me, the Memorial says that Brown has freed itself from the burden of the past with the Memorial.
amk
@Mnemosyne:
But POLLS!!!
Matt McIrvin
Aaaand cue the “reverse racism” lawsuits from rejected white students.
Jordan Rules
Wow. I hope this type of action catches on. Thanks AL!
Omnes Omnibus
Good for Georgetown for doing this and for doing it without getting mealymouthed.
Mnemosyne
@Will R:
As someone who works with giant masses of (mostly) paper, I can tell you that even if they were allowed to start digitizing that information tomorrow, it would take them decades to do it.
We’ve been working on our digitization project for 8 years and just got to our one millionth image. Only 64 million more to go!
Chris
As an AU graduate, I am contractually required to trash Georgetown at every opportunity, but this time, I don’t think I can find it in me.
Well done, Hoyas.
Lizzy L
Righteous. I am happy (not surprised) that they are using the word “atonement.” Slavery was a crime and a SIN. Treating people as if they are things is a SIN.
SiubhanDuinne
I have always appreciated the wordplay truth that ATONE-MENT = AT-ONE-MENT.
This is unifying.
rikyrah
Rev. Barber was on with Joy Reid (Chris Hayes) talking about the NC Voting Law Rulings tonight.
Dork
@rikyrah: what were the rulings?
SiubhanDuinne
@Lizzy L:
O/T, and please don’t say anything that your lawyers wouldn’t want you to say, but I hope you are healing well.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dork: IIRC the restrictions are toast.
amk
@Dork: SC ruled 4-4 that NC rethugs are anti democratic barbarians. Thank fsm, scaly scalia is still dead.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
They are now that Scalia is dead, and thank God for it.
Major Major Major Major
@Matt McIrvin: I’m sure Milo’s on it.
danielx
@Lizzy L:
Jesuits are very much atonement-oriented. They do Catholic guilt better than anybody else, too, in the sense of being Olympic grade guilt trippers.
Dork
@amk: I love that nobody has any doubt how Scalia would have ruled, based purely on this being a partisan issue and he was a complete partisan hack. Seriously, what kind of judge doesnt even need the facts before knowing how to rule? Oh yeah, the GOP kind.
amk
oscar ‘committee’ finally deigns to recognize Jackie Chan. sorta.
SoupCatcher
@hovercraft:
Truth.
lamh36
Good for Kaep…this is how you troll the haters, sit for the anthem, stand for the military personnel, it was NEVER about the troops anyway…
P.S. I’m jealous of the fro, I’ve had my hair in it’s natural state and my fro has never been big!
@BSO
Colin Kaepernick Stands & Applauds For Military Personnel
lamh36
Seahawks cornerback joins Colin Kaerpernick by sitting during national anthem
lamh36
Calouste
Melania Trump sues the Daily Mail over an article that claimed she was a sex worker. Brilliant plan by the Trump campaign to keep in the news that there is an article that claims that the candidate’s wife was a sex worker, because libel lawsuits in Britain, even if they are over an article that claim that the wife of a US Presidential candidate was a sex worker, are not going to be resolved in two months.
burnspbesq
@amk:
One of Georgetown’s best-known alums.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: She did Catholic guilt? Or is it that she was all world on the guilt front?
dmsilev
@Calouste: It’s …interesting how she’s vanished from the campaign limelight after that episode with her Convention speech.
Major Major Major Major
@Calouste: Now we just need some reporting on that seven-figure NAMBLA donation.
Villago Delenda Est
Have the vile shitstains of the alt-right begun crying about this yet? Because it’s been several hours, and the butthurt must be excruciating for the crybabies.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Well, then. Well done, her!
SoupCatcher
@efgoldman:
Did Trump deduct that NAMBLA donation on his tax returns? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Mike J
@burnspbesq:
Not as well know as the first president Clinton.
Peale
@Calouste: yep. And why should we believe her? She lied about her visa status. She stole her own life story from the First Lady. She made up her life story. While people refer to her as a former model, how do we know that’s true?
PhoenixRising
While I’m as interested in the contributions to NAMBLA on Trump’s tax return as they next person, what I really want to know is…
How is Georgetown going to let descendants know of this opportunity? My weird cousin the family history buff can be hired, probably pretty cheap, now that he’s retired from being a librarian…but they may need a fleet of weird cousins to get the word out on that.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: How much did he give?
Peale
@PhoenixRising: I support this weird cousin employment initiative!
hovercraft
OT and Strange. I saw this in the news crawl at the bottom of the screen. Police in Greenville SC are searching for a group of clowns in the woods who have been trying to lure kids into the woods with large a wads of cash.
Omnes Omnibus
@PhoenixRising: They seem to have records and have made contact with many of the affected people.
lamh36
@latimes 2m2 minutes ago
Colin Kaepernick takes a knee during national anthem in San Diego and is booed
PhoenixRising
@Peale: Seriously, though, what is the minimum n of cousins one must have to have the weird cousin who digs into 19th century obituaries and trading records and all that?
It’s a white thing, I understand, but most white people with more than [how many] cousins have that one who is interested in preserving family history and brings microfiche printouts to family reunions. I just don’t know what the how many cousins is. My BFF of 30 years IS that cousin; I’m not knocking it. But it is, for pragmatic reasons, largely a white thing to have that one cousin, so…seems relevant to whether this is a gesture or an initiative.
(Funny story: the weird cousin kept the photo-journal of our grandfather’s road trip to Santa Monica. From Cleveland. In 1927. The car had a crank on the front. But that’s not the cool part…the cool part is that I now live in an urban, walkable neighborhood in the desert that one of the pictures depicts. As desert. Without the weird cousins, you just can’t know these things!)
hovercraft
@dmsilev:
Aren’t we due for her press conference about her immigration status when she first came to America ? He said it would be in a couple of week, and it’s been at least three.
hovercraft
@efgoldman:
I thought it was him with the clown uhum ‘issue’, yes we should get him right on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My eyes are wide open, but my weaponry is insufficient. Swords, shotguns, and howitzers are really not enough. They are what I can offer. At most.
PhoenixRising
@Omnes Omnibus: That is great!
Communities in which some charitable person promises college scholarships to the entire 6th grade class–where they know they are eligible when they can shape their choices around that future–have shown some real impact. But that’s what makes it not a gesture. Not that I’m against gestures, I just like remediation better.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: Oh, sorry, I’m still new to speculating about Trump donating a million dollars (or more!) to NAMBLA.
dmsilev
@hovercraft: It’d be kind of ironic if Trump had to deport her.
Omnes Omnibus
@PhoenixRising: This wasn’t a gesture. Most elite colleges combine admission with a financial aid package that allow a poor kid to attend at no more than a state school would have cost.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@hovercraft: Clowns frighten me.
PhoenixRising
@Omnes Omnibus: I…am aware of all financial aid traditions at Jesuit universities, but thanks. Elites colleges and universities are actually more accessible financially than most state universities to kids from poor families, would be more accurate–a friend who is a dean at a state school can’t find budget to help her broke students buy tampons, but if she worked at Occidental or Princeton she would have a fund to tap.
The point was, if they’re relying on the prospective beneficiaries to know they are eligible, it’s a gesture. If they’re using some archivist and librarian and work-study hours to FIND the prospective beneficiaries, that is reparation. I’m really quite delighted. They’re setting a standard.
Omnes Omnibus
@PhoenixRising: You know more about this than I do. But, to me,a situation where the slave descendants are evaluated like alum kids and get financial aid based on family income seem like a good thing.
hovercraft
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Especially groups of them marauding through the woods. I find them creepy, but I’m nat afraid, no really I’m not. Seriously WTF?
Barb2
Donald Trump as cult leader
There is that hold that Trump has over his true believer followers. Whatever he says, no matter how outrageous, his followers accept.
The linked article focuses on the similarities between known cults and the Donald’s followers.
Donald is far more dangerous than Rev. Jim Jones, because Trump has wider out reach via socal media and the fawning media.
Mnemosyne
@PhoenixRising:
Genealogy used to be an all-white thing, but many slave records have now been digitized and made publicly available, so it’s easier than ever for African-Americans to build their own family trees.
One of G’s former co-workers who was IIRC Mexican-American started looking into her family history and was a little startled to discover that her grandfather (who died before she was born) was Chinese. You never know what you’re going to find!
Anne Laurie
@Peale:
Well, we’ve seen pictures of her performing as a model.
I’m not comfortable attacking Melania Trump, just because she made a decision to marry Donald. When she’s shanghaied into “helping” his campaign, yes; examining how Trump’s followers troll journalists who “diss” their “Empress Melania”, for sure. But there’s more crap than we have time to discuss when it comes to Donald himself, not to mention his official campaign staff & willing surrogates — why bother with throwing more shade at sex workers, whether or not Melania that much-abused caste ever included Melania Knaus not-yet-Trump?
Anne Laurie
@PhoenixRising:
It was an organized group of the original victims’ descendants that first contacted Georgetown, and they’ve been involved with this every step of the way. I’m assuming they have ideas on how to spread the word, also.
Not to mention: social media… such as this site. :}
Anne Laurie
@Mnemosyne:
True, that.
And I think the Hemingses would argue there’s been plenty of African-American families kept track of their own genealogies, whether or not the elite white “scholars” were willing to admit those against their own racist prejudices!
TS
@Peale:
The media do not care – she could be anything – including an illegal immigrant & the media are not going to mention her. Sec Clinton’s spouse however, gets special mention by the media and by the Republican candidate.
The democrats continue to refuse to stoop to the level of their opponents.
BR
Stupid question — where are comedians and actors and hollywood generally in mocking Trump? In 2008 there were tons of high profile and low profile videos being made about the election. Trump needs to be mocked mercilessly because it’s the only thing he understands (though not in a way that appeals only to MoveOn supporters). I’m sure there are folks out there capable of this and they probably don’t support Trump. Where are they?
Major Major Major Major
@TS: To be fair, Sec. Clinton’s spouse is a former President.
RadioOne
how many times will the media attempt to resurrect Donald Trump’s failed campaign? I’m guessing at least 16 between now and November.
Major Major Major Major
@RadioOne: I’d put the over-under at 13.
NotMax
Figured out DT’s immigration stance at last. It’s a job creation program.
After all, once those “millions and millions of illegal alien drug dealers” are booted out before the sun sets on inauguration day, those positions open up for Real ‘Murkins.
Two birds with one stone, don’tcha know.
Barb2
@Barb2:
Rats! Link to raw story article about Trump as cult figure failed – dang WP.
The name of the article is – drinking the orange koo aid cult expert says Trump is like Rev Jim Jones but far more dangerous.
Trump has access to huge media outlets. The main stream media is helping to build the Trump cult following.
Gretchen
@BR: @BR: Slate magazine does the podcast Trumpcast featuring an actor impersonating Trump to read his tweets.
JR in WV
@hovercraft:
What connection between Donald Trump and Scary Clowns trying to lure children can be found? Given that people are saying that Donald Trump’s donations to NAMBLA are why he can’t release his Tax Returns, surely there is a connection between Trump and Clowns.