One advantage to being rich is the ability to splurge needlessly. Want a fast car? Just buy it. Need a vacation? Just take it. Feeling bad about your privilege? Donate to #BLM.
Or, if you’re Harvard University, direct $100 million to a “Legacy of Slavery Fund,” created to “research and memorialize” the history of slaves associated with Harvard. The initiative announced Tuesday follows similar efforts from other top universities including Brown, Princeton, and Georgetown.
This won’t solve anything.
Each of these elite institutions, with theological origins, should know that the “sins of their fathers” are not to be visited upon them. Slavery was an evil, but the present generation of Harvard students, staff, and faculty bear no responsibility for it — moral or otherwise. They wielded no whip; traded no slave; bought and sold no proceeds of bondage. Harvard has changed since 1636. Of the slavery allegedly practiced by its initial officers, the present crop at Harvard is naïve and innocent. With this decision, they forgo their innocence for false guilt, and naïveté for foolishness.
Then again, Harvard is rich, and can afford to splurge. This amount is less than one-half of its 2021 operating surplus ($283 million). However, in its guilt rush, it could’ve spent that money more wisely. Put simply, $100 million is far too much for academic studies of slavery, some memorials, and partnerships with HBCUs — projects already well-funded. If Harvard truly wished to help African-American descendants of slavery, its funding could’ve been sent where it might make a real difference: e.g., black business owners in opportunity zones — a creation of Senator Tim Scott (R., S.C.) — which create jobs and incomes for other black workers, particularly in inner cities. Money spent this way actually improves black lives though market-based solutions. High sums shuffled around the college Monopoly board do nothing to help slavery’s descendants. They only line the pockets of those who profit off the guilt they cultivate in wealthy institutions.