On Thursday's CNN Newsroom, host Brooke Baldwin devoted a segment to the decision by Georgetown University to grant what Baldwin referred to as "reparations" to make up for the school's history of owning slaves, with the school planning to enact several plans, including offering admission to descendants of slaves who were owned by the university.
As Baldwin spoke to her guest, Maxine Crump -- who is a descendant of one of these slaves -- the CNN host did not take the time to question whether the development does harm by encouraging black Americans in general to feel that they are owed payback that would have to be acquired from their fellow Americans, many of whom do not even have ancestors who ever owned slaves. At one point, after recounting what Georgetown is offering, Baldwin sympathetically asked, "Is that enough?"
For her part, Crump seemed to believe that blacks who are descended from slaves are owed special treatment indefinitely as she seemed concerned that calling the school's offerings "reparations" might be perceived as paying back a debt in full that would not be revisited for additional redress in the future.
Referring to Ta-Nehisi Coates's writings in The Atlantic, Crump explained:
I've read Ta-Nehisi Coates on that, and I like him a lot. I think he has a concern that reparation would pay us off and be done with us. But, as I understand Georgetown, they are saying this is a beginning. And I think reparations mean in this case to be ongoing. And if part of the reparation is correcting the history, getting the truth out there, and having us, getting the truth out there to educate America though its system and through its connection with other universities and getting a lot of people on board to understand that this history didn't end. It has continued, and we're not done fixing the problem.
A bit earlier, she seemed to fret over many Amrericans thinking of slavery as being in the past:
Recently and for a long time, I think most of America thinks slavery was the past, and what happens now to those descendants, it doesn't even exist. We're being told we should be over it. However, Georgetown is recognizing that this is a continuum, and we are a part of it. And that it's a legacy of America that this was sanctioned, legal in America.to have humans as chattel to build an economy, which did happen. And so the American economy rests on the free labor of the humans.
Below is a complete transcript of the segment from the Thursday, September 1, CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin:
3:38 p.m. ET
BROOKE BALDWIN: I want to get now to this story about Georgetown University today. Have you heard about this? Where the school's president will formally announce a big change. Actually, he's doing this minutes from now, what arguably could be called "reparations" for the university's history. The university now plans to give priority in admissions to the descendants of about 300 slaves. So Georgetown only exists today because the Jesuit priests who ran it way back in 1838 sold 272 slaves to keep its doors open.
Nearly two centuries later, the school has come up with a list of recommendations to try to heal some of those wounds. In addition to the preferential treatment here with admissions, it will also rename two buildings that were named after the presidents who organized the sale. One will now bear the name of a slave shipped to Louisiana, the other a free woman who started a school for black girls.
The university would also develop a public memorial, create a new institute for the study of slavery, and offer an official apology. Joining me now, a direct descendant of one of those slaves Georgetown sold to keep Georgetown open, Maxine Crump. She is also the first black woman to become a TV news anchor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Your great-great-great-grandfather was sold to save Georgetown? My goodness, what did you think when you heard the news?
MAXINE CRUMP, DESCENDANT OF SLAVE SOLD TO SAVE GEORGETOWN IN 1838: I was overcome. i was driving at the time, and I felt like my car was going but I had stopped. It just took over my whole being. It was a door that had opened that I never expected would have opened in my life, so this whole year has been just adjusting to having this new part of my life opened up and realizing how much is connected to all of us. All of America is a part of this heritage.
BALDWIN: So, with this door opening, and I can't even begin to imagine what that feels like for you as far as the day the university itself. We just ran through everything they're doing now. Is that enough?
CRUMP: Well, I don't know that "enough" would be an answer. I don't know that we can say, "Oh, this is enough." It's just this is a great beginning. What they're doing as a university, as a prominent university, that was saved by the horrific idea of human as chattel. And their stepping up and admitting that that was wrong, and that they are researching it to see how it all played out, and to continue to look all the way to its descendants so that that impact can be seen.
Because recently and for a long time, I think most of America thinks slavery was the past, and what happens now to those descendants, it doesn't even exist. We're being told we should be over it. However, Georgetown is recognizing that this is a continuum, and we are a part of it. And that it's a legacy of America that this was sanctioned, legal in America.to have humans as chattel to build an economy, which did happen. And so the American economy rests on the free labor of the humans. And one was my great-great-grandfather Cornelius. And what you need to know also, the one that the building is being named after, Isaac, is Cornelius's grandfather.
BALDWIN: My goodness. My goodness. Wow, Maxine, let me quote a really well-respected prominent journalist for The Atlantic. I'm talking about Ta-Nehisi Coates who tweeted about this news: "Folks may not like the word 'reparations,'" he tweets, "but it's what Georgetown did. Scope is debatable. But it's reparations." How do you feel about that word?
CRUMP: I've read Ta-Nehisi Coates on that, and I like him a lot. I think he has a concern that reparation would pay us off and be done with us. But, as I understand Georgetown, they are saying this is a beginning. And I think reparations mean in this case to be ongoing. And if part of the reparation is correcting the history, getting the truth out there, and having us, getting the truth out there to educate America though its system and through its connection with other universities and getting a lot of people on board to understand that this history didn't end. It has continued, and we're not done fixing the problem.
If America can get that, and that's called "reparation," I'm all for that because there's not a stopping point, there's not a payoff. There's a continuum to do everything that needs to be done continuing.until there are no more barriers to those who are descendants of slaves, that that's clear that if you are an American, you get all the full rights and privileges of an 'American. If that's reparation, that's reparation I'd like.
