Rutgers confronts ties to slavery in groundbreaking report

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Updated 2:07 pm, Sunday, November 20, 2016

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Rutgers University is confronting its historical ties to slavery.

The New Jersey school founded in 1766 has compiled research that sheds new light on its beginnings, including an untold story of a slave who helped build the university's iconic Old Queens administration building.

The detailed report released Friday is published in the book "Scarlet and Black." It shows how intertwined slavery is with the early history of Rutgers, a common theme among America's colonial colleges.

The book combines previously documented history with some new details to paint a vivid picture of the university's relationship with slavery, a history school officials say was largely unacknowledged by Rutgers until this year. It also examines the displacement of Native Americans who once occupied land later transferred to Rutgers.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Rutgers-confronts-ties-to-slavery-in-10626461.php

[ericson00]

1. I'm sorry, but how does this help any present and important issue?

I think most Americans know how brutal and evil slavery was. There does come a point where so much delving into the dark past just creates more division and distracts from the present, which is a lot more important.

[JI7]

2. WTF

[JonLP24]

3. 1

[Judi Lynn]

4. What proof do you have that learning what has happened is a drawback?

You're possibly the only person I've seen posting the view it's wrong to learn more.

Consciousness is not your enemy.

[ericson00]

5. this election has soured me on identity politics

and given how what Rutgers discovered can't be reversed or changed, the only thing I fear it will do is to make people (of all races, including white progressives) more militant about rectifying the past that the Democratic Party will seek to please/woo them even more in terms of rhetoric, people who would vote Democrat or Green or abstain anyway, and continue to ignore the white portion of the electorate, which is still a majority, votes we really need to eject Trump in 2020.

[JI7]

6. obama lost the white vote both times

[ericson00]

7. yes but he had a black/youth turnout that proved to be unsustainable for a boring white candidate

which meant once the black/youth turnout Obama got stopped coming out, our nominee got screwed. Bernie might have done well with youth, but he wouldn't have done well with black turnout either, and he'd have lost suburban middle class/upscale voters.

Also, 2016 was part of a downward trend; Obama's numbers with all demographics fell from 2008 to 2012, and this year only continued the trend. It needs to be reversed.

[JI7]

8. Hillary would have won if she had actively campaigned in the 3 midwest states that usually go blue

[ericson00]

9. even then, the Dem nominee's share of the two-party vote has dropped from 2008 to 2012 to 2016

and a lot of Democratic weakness in House/Senate seats as well as statewise is because of increasing weakness among white voters.

[JI7]

10. only way to win those white voters is to turn on minorities. and minority vote will increase

Hillary won the popular vote by a huge amount.

this isn't 1980s

[ericson00]

11. she won the popular vote by 1%. the only pop vote winners with a smaller margin than hers

in the last 50 years are Al Gore 2000 (0.5%) and Richard Nixon 1968 (0.7%). The next closest are Jimmy Carter 1976 (2.1%) and GW Bush in 2004 (2.4%). So she did not win the popular vote by any huge amount. These are all margins of victories that if these election final results were a poll result, it would be called a "dead heat" as the MoE is usually 3%.

No one needs to "turn on" minorities or actually "walk back" anything. Dem nominees simply tone down some of the "white privilege"/"implicit bias" talk as well as ideas harping about America's past on race. The demographic changes Democrats are expecting aren't gonna just happen in one, or two cycles. 70% of the country is still white, and many hispanics are choosing to see themselves as white as generations/time passes.

[JonLP24]

12. Now is not the time to pretend racism doesn't exist especially

Especially since we elected a man with dangerous, clueless, and reckless racist rhetoric.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Thank you so much for that comment. Perfect. n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

15. 'I think most Americans know how brutal and evil slavery was."

They don't. As generation after generation is born, more and more with the thinking that you have, push to remove historic context from the American curriculum in order to continue to celebrate European hegemony.

Those who are ignorant of the past are doomed to repeat it.

How this "helps the present" is to explain to the children today that there is a reason why some are not as well off as others explicitly because of the past-practices of previous generations - e.g., not allowing certain people to go to certain schools or live in certain neighborhoods or work in certain industries.

I.e, there was no "level playing field" and thus you cannot broad-brush certain cultures as being "inferior" or "lazy" as the reasons for their PRESENT failures.

To address the NOW - i.e., "the present" - having this knowledge of what came before should then justify the reason why there needs to be a level playing field for all.

[wishstar]

14. History matters- enlightens us to our past struggles as Americans for equality

Especially considering the recent school textbooks where slavery/segregation was glossed over or covered with barely a footnote.

I don't think young people know enough about the pervasiveness of injustice and the hard fought struggles for equality and civil rights.

I hope college campuses remain the forefront of educating and motivating young people to become advocates of civil rights and justice.


(I do genealogical research and recently found out I have ancestors who owned slaves (both Native and African American) in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. I am sure most Americans, especially those who like me were born and raised in the North do not realize this aspect of our history. The earliest slave owning ancestors I discovered were Mary Chilton Winslow (Mayflower passenger) and her husband John. But their descendants in my ancestry in later generations were Quaker abolitionists and women's rights advocates beginning in late 1700's. I also have documented Native American ancestors and recent immigrant ancestors who experienced prejudice, so it especially troubles me to know that close relatives of mine voted for racist misogynist Trump who seems determined to erase progress.)