A prestigious university has proposed a plan to force students to pay a fee that will be allocated to the descendants of black slaves. However, just as activists were celebrating this proposal, a major flaw in their plan surfaced.
In the era of the “#woke” generation, schools of higher learning have been overtaken by social justice. America’s young people are growing up with the idea that a person’s color, sexual orientation, gender, et al. are supreme indicators of victimhood or oppression. Georgetown University is no exception.
Instead of reigning in this flawed logic, colleges are cultivating it, perpetuating the perverse religion of identity politics. Unfortunately, students are buying into a narrow-minded, one-sided view of the world yet are never taught to question their musings.
At the top of the latest trends is the idea of financial reparations. This agenda has spread across college campuses, including our capital city’s once prestigious Georgetown University. The idea gained traction when it was uncovered that the campus sold 272 black slaves in 1838 to pay off the Georgetown Jesuits’ debt and save the university from financial ruin.
Per a recent proposal, 66 percent of the school’s undergraduates voted to force all present and future enrollees to pay reparations to the descendants of these slaves in the form of a $27.20 fee added to their tuition each semester, The Washington Post reports. The initiative would raise a whopping $400,000 the first year and increase with inflation each year after. The money would then be given to an estimated 200 descendants of said slaves.
Once the proposal was passed by the majority of the student body, supportive students and staff praised the movement as if it would somehow magically remedy the effects of generations of slavery. However, while they were patting themselves on the back for forcing others to pay for the mistakes of long-deceased individuals, a little problem — or many — was soon brought to the forefront.
Although most of the current students voted to pay for the reparations, there are quite a few issues with their social justice initiative that apparently never crossed their minds. In fact, the flaws in their logic are so porous, the very basis for their proposal quickly falls apart:
Who exactly will pay the reparations? Will the descendants of slaves not sold by the university still be forced to pay? Will low-income, single-parent household, disabled, LGBTQ, Latino, Muslim, or other perceivedly oppressed students be forced to pay? Will the students who are graduating before this proposal can take effect be required to pay once they leave college, or will they get away with voting to force their younger peers to pay? Why will descendants who have lighter skin (possibly affording them white privilege), more wealth, both parents in the home, are cisgender, or enjoy other privileges receive the same amount as the less privileged descendants? Will students who have 2 slaves in their lineage receive double the reparations? What about students who have a slave and also a slave owner in their family history? Why are the students paying for the university’s past sin and allowing the university to further benefit from it?
There is an infinite number of factors that blow holes in the reparations argument, yet the eager students have never thought to discuss them because they’ve never been taught to do so. Instead, they have been taught that feelings determine reality, words equal violence, and the truth is subjective.
Still, the university and mainstream media, which once were the epitome of logic and reason, refuse to consider these questions. Disgustingly, they praise the fallacies their own students create, failing to guide them back to the ultimate truth.
“As students at an elite institution, we recognize the great privileges we have been given, and wish to at least partially repay our debts to those families whose involuntary sacrifices made these privileges possible,” the sponsors wrote in the referendum. “As individuals with moral imagination, we choose to do more than simply recognize the past — we resolve to change our future.”
Although the proposal has passed among the current student body, the university must implement such a policy before it will take place. However, with the way that the Georgetown administration is speaking, it’s a likelihood that it will become policy. After all, what college would turn down the opportunity to have its students pay for its past mistakes?
“We value the engagement of our students and appreciate that they are making their voices heard and contributing to an important national conversation,” Todd Olson, vice president for student affairs at Georgetown, said in a written statement. “The Descendant Community, the Society of Jesus, and Georgetown are working together towards reconciliation and transformation regarding the legacy of slavery.”
There have been transgressions against every group of people in history by every group of people in history, and unfortunately, we cannot remedy the past. However, we can prevent the same cycle from happening by living without holding these wrongdoings against those who haven’t committed them and treating everyone as an individual. Hopefully, the universities will return to this idea soon.
