In 2019, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow formed a 14-member committee to determine the level of Harvard’s involvement in slavery and racial inequality.
Three years later, the group released a 100-page report describing the ways Harvard benefitted from the oppressed.
As a result, they committed $100 million of their $53 billion endowment to reparations.
Reuters explains:
The report laid out a history of slaves toiling on the campus and of the university benefiting from the slave trade and industries linked to slavery after it was outlawed in Massachusetts in 1783 – 147 years after Harvard’s founding. The report also documents Harvard excluding Black students and its scholars advocating racism.
While Harvard had notable figures among abolitionists and in the civil rights movement, the report said, “The nation’s oldest institution of higher education … helped to perpetuate the era’s racial oppression and exploitation.”
They are going to spend the $100 million with he following recommendations:
Engage and Support Descendant Communities by Leveraging Harvard’s Excellence in Education
Honor Enslaved People through Memorialization, Research, Curricula, and Knowledge Dissemination
Develop Enduring Partnerships with Black Colleges and Universities
Identify, Engage, and Support Direct Descendants
Honor, Engage, and Support Native Communities
Establish an Endowed Legacy of Slavery Fund to Support the University’s Reparative Efforts
Ensure Institutional Accountability
If nothing else, it appears these Harvard WOKEs are going to do very little with a small portion of their endowment. Recommendations 4 and 5 have value but the rest of the recommendations are lip service.
Harvard is all talk and little action. Somehow, this is supposed “to close the educational, social and economic gaps that are legacies of slavery and racism.” Welcome to the world of the WOKEs.
If they really wanted to help the descendants of enslaved people, why not just give them scholarships?
We don’t think reparations are a good idea. There is no way people today can atone for the sins of people long dead committed against innocent people long dead. However, if you are going to do it, be sincere.
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