BREAKING: Elite Georgetown University to Give Preferred Admission to Slave Descendants [VIDEO]

BREAKING: Elite Georgetown University to Give Preferred Admission to Slave Descendants [VIDEO]

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Slavery is one of the worst injustices that was ever perpetrated in this country’s history. It’s a shameful chapter that people still grapple with how to atone for. Some people advocate for affirmative action; some say that reparations should be paid to descendants of slaves. And Georgetown University president John DeGoia has come up with a unique way to make up for the school’s troubled past: give preferred admission to descendants of slaves.

Georgetown was founded in 1789 and slaves worked on campus, both out in the fields and as servants to students and wealthy people. In 1838, the school was in debt, so the two priests serving as presidents for the school arranged for the sale of 272 people as a way to pay off the debt. Those people ended up working in plantations in Louisiana.

President DeGoia announced today that the university will seek out the descendants of these 272 people, who are believed to number in the thousands, and recruit them to attend the university, where they will be given preferential admission.

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But that’s not all DeGoia has planned. The school will also issue a formal apology, establish an institute to study slavery and will build a memorial to the slaves. The campus buildings named after the priests who sold the 272 people will also be renamed, to Isaac Hall, after one of the slaves sold, and Anne Marie Becraft Hall, after a Catholic teacher who founded a school for black girls in the 1800s.

In many cases, affirmative action can be a way to push a racial agenda and penalize students who deserve a spot, simply because their skin is the wrong color. That’s no less racist than denying someone a spot because they’re black or Hispanic. But that doesn’t seem to be what is happening at Georgetown.

By intentionally seeking out the descendants of the slaves directly victimized by Georgetown, it seems the university is righting a centuries-old wrong. It isn’t known whether the descendants will be offered scholarships, but the program is likely to cost the university quite a bit of money. However, when you’re doing the right thing, money isn’t what matters. Georgetown’s history with slavery is troubling and it’s good that they’re willing to openly atone for the mistakes made so many years ago. They aren’t trying to offer preferred admission to all black Americans on the off chance that they might be descended from slaves. It’s a specific program, and that’s something to be commended… not angry about.

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