There was an article published 7-19-2020 by Amir Vera, titled ‘Here are seven things you probably didn’t know were connected to slavery’. All information contained below comes from that article except for where I offer my own personal thoughts and opinions at the end. Of course, that immediately caught my eye, I am always fascinated by the things we don’t know or fully understand about our past.
The article goes on to talk about organizations who have a past tainted with a touch and sometimes a lot more related to slavery. Some of the items mentioned in the article:
New York Life had a predecessor company called Nautilus who sold polices on the lives of enslaved people from 1846 to 1848
Yale University is apparently named after a slave trader Elihu Yale; Georgetown University sold enslaved people to pay off debts and keep the school running
Jack Daniel whose names his Tennessee Whiskey after himself learned to make whiskey from an enslaved person named ‘Nathan “Nearest” Green’
The Wall Street stock exchange thrived as a slave market between 1711 and 1762
The White House and the US Capitol building was constructed with labor of enslaved people who were often rented from their owners. The White House also use freed slaves as well for labor
So, here is my question to everyone, what do you do with this information? I have seen articles attempting to shame black students who apply to and get accepted to some of the aforementioned Universities, but really is that the right answer that once we discovered a slave past that we can never associate or is the flip side that students should go there since it was built on their ancestors blood, sweat and likely tears.
New York Life has admitted their past and talked about ways they are supporting the black community. Yale, while refusing to change the school name has changed the names on other buildings on campus. Jack Daniels has installed an exhibit to honor the man who without whom their whiskey wouldn’t have been possible. New York’s Mayor has commemorated a marker on Wall Street for the enslaved who laid the foundation.
Is it enough? What is enough? When is it time to stop paying for the sins of the past and work into the future?
I would like to propose, that we look at whether the institution is ready to admit to their past, accept it fully and look at whether it’s changed anything about the way they operate. If it’s a company, has it changed the way they do business? If it’s a learning institution, are they really ensuring that black students have real opportunities to take advantage of what their forefathers built? What do you think?