This week, Georgetown’s president, John J. DeGioia, Issued a formal apology for the 272 slaves Georgetown sold in order to save the school in 1838. In doing this, he has given preferential admission to all descendants of said slaves. Unsurprisingly, this prompted some controversy.
Reparations: something that is done or given as a way of correcting a mistake that you have made or a bad situation that you have caused.
Georgetown made a mistake. Anyone who argues otherwise is blatantly bigoted. Selling human beings for your own personal gain is not okay, regardless of race, current societal sphere, or who attended, or founded, or loved, the institution you are trying to save. It was a mistake. Still, it was a mistake the people at Georgetown lacked the foresight to recognize at the time. They are taking steps now to repair what they have done. It is the right thing to do.
So from where does the controversy arise? College admissions has become a blood bath in America. A high school diploma means essentially nothing in most fields, and thus the need for a college degree is becoming more and more pertinent. Additionally, spots are limited. Thus, people worry when they hear that spots are being “given away”. Who’s spot is being taken when that child is being allowed admission to Georgetown?
No one's spot is being taken away. That is because no one is entitled to a spot.
Georgetown, as a place of higher education, made the active decision to offer a spot to those who might be suffering because of the school's past choices. They have decided that they, as a private institution, will offer preferential treatment to those who they have hurt. They are not giving away spots. They are making right their wrongs.
Poverty is hereditary. If your family was once enslaved, you are much more likely to be suffering financially than those who have a different heritage than you. College may be something you saw as unattainable. Georgetown is trying to make that untrue. It might just be for one kid, or ten or 100 who utilize this advantage, but for those kids it might be a life changing opportunity to attend a well regarded university in America’s capital. Might it mean that someone else qualified doesn’t make the cut? Sure. But that happens every year at every school with legacies and faculty children. It seems to me that people only really get mad about the inequality in college admissions when the scale for even a second tips the other way. Especially when race is involved. So, let me level with everyone who is put off by this decision.
Georgetown is a private university. It has a board, and a president, and the full, unobstructed right to offer admissions to whom they see fit. If you don’t like their policy, take your money and your students to a different school, because at the end of the day, this doesn’t have to be a political issue. Everyone deserves a quality college education. Georgetown just wants to address the injustice in their history and make that a little more attainable. Is that really such a bad thing?
