{"id":21541,"date":"2017-02-08T05:01:12","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T05:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=21541"},"modified":"2017-02-08T05:01:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T05:01:12","slug":"columbia-universitys-ties-slavery-taught-students-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/columbia-universitys-ties-slavery-taught-students-say.html","title":{"rendered":"Columbia University’s ties to slavery should be taught, students say"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tColumbia University's ties to slavery should be taught, students say<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
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\n\tColumbia University's ties to slavery should be taught, students say:-<\/strong> When most students enroll at Columbia University, they have no idea of the legacy of slavery that permeates the school’s history.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the history of Columbia — just like many other colleges — is full of connections to slavery.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Columbia and Slavery: A Preliminary Report” was published last month by Eric Foner, a history professor and researcher on issues surrounding slavery. It is the latest report by a major university detailing its past with slavery, and the report sheds light on how slavery and slave-owners helped fund and shape the trajectory of Columbia over time.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“From the outset, slavery was intertwined with the life of the college,” Foner wrote.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the 1700’s onward, many wealthy slave-holding New Yorkers provided substantial donations to King’s College — the predecessor to Columbia University.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of the school’s governors also were investors in the slave trade too.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tFor example, one of the governors of King’s College from 1754 to 1776, John Watts, invested in ships engaged in the Atlantic Slave Trade, and was the owner of at least one ship that brought slaves from Africa to New York.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother governor of King’s College, Nathaniel Marston, invested in at least 20 slaving voyages between 1716 and 1740, according to Foner’s report.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMany Columbia students strongly believe in the importance of learning about their school’s past.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tKeenan Teddy Smith, a junior at Columbia University, wasn’t surprised to learn about Columbia’s link to slavery. “It’s no shock,” Smith, who is black, told USA TODAY College. “Black students are made aware of slavery by our parents and family, who have heard these same stories for generations.”<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tBut many non-black students don’t know this, Keenan explained, which is why he believes it’s important for everyone to learn.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“This information on Columbia’s connection to slavery does nothing if it not taught to all of its students,” he said.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tDamon Hart, another black Columbia student, echoed Smith’s sentiments.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“We should learn about our university’s involvement in perpetuating the most morally bankrupt institution in our country’s history,” he told USA TODAY College.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLearning about Columbia’s history of slavery would help contextualize other recent and current forms of injustice enacted by Columbia, Hart argued. “For example, there are easy connections to make between this disgraceful history and Columbia’s former investment in the South African apartheid, its former investment in the private prison industry, or its continued gentrification of Harlem and the Bronx.”<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tColumbia’s expansion efforts have long been criticized, with many people concerned about the potential effects of gentrification on communities of color.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMany professors also stressed the importance of exploring Columbia’s roots.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tNatasha J. Lightfoot, a Columbia professor who often teaches about slavery, said, “It is of paramount importance for students to know that the history of slavery … bore clear connections to the institution from which they seek knowledge.”<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tStudents “should know that their education and the privilege they derive from it stand on a complicated legacy of African bondage,” Professor Lightfoot told USA TODAY College.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tMatthew Vaz, a professor who completed his graduate work at Columbia, noted the historical contingency of slavery related to Columbia’s past.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“The report reminds us that, while top universities often carry a presumption of enlightened progressivism, it is entirely possible that … these top universities may prove ready to avail themselves of whatever practices of exploitation and exclusion happen to be conventional at a given historical moment,” he told USA TODAY College.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Students should guard against that night and day,” Professor Vaz said.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe very first class on Columbia’s link to slavery was offered by Professor Karl Jacoby in 2013, and it’s a class that’s still being taught.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tOther professors now teach classes related to slavery too. At Columbia, this semester’s selections include an English class on American slavery and a class on the relationship between slavery and finance in the 19th century, among others.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tLearning about Columbia’s relation to slavery doesn’t just teach us history, it teaches us about morality too, said Professor Jacoby.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“One of the sobering aspects of studying slavery and Columbia is discovering how rarely students or faculty at Columbia pondered the morality of slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries,” Professor Jacoby told USA TODAY College.<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t“Rather than seeing the Columbians of the past as morally numb and ourselves as somehow enlightened, we ought to wonder what moral issues of our own day are we not grappling with. What will the historians of the future say about us? How will they judge our responses to the great moral questions of today?”<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tSource:- http:\/\/college.usatoday.com\/2017\/02\/07\/columbia-universitys-ties-to-slavery-should-be-taught-students-say\/<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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