These days I prefer short messages — abstracts rather than long detailed essays, so I’ll try to say this as simply as possible. If people still think they have no responsibility for the system that has pressed people of color down, then they haven’t taken the time to examine history — or even realize how we have been living it. I confess I didn’t “get” it when I was part of a very large class of Master’s candidates at Boston University in 1951-52 where the size was made up mostly of men there on the GI bill — white men, because black vets were denied access to the advantages. That’s just one small piece in a history of red-lining, lynching, destruction of successful black communities … . Okay. I said I’d keep it simple. So here’s the simple statement. I do believe people of color deserve reparations for the factors that have prevented their gathering family wealth. And I’ll look for ways to support systemic change in that direction.
But right now I want to do something in my individual small way of supporting what has carried me through my life — academia. Realizing that black colleges don’t get the large endowments that support traditional white colleges I’ve decided to donate to the United Negro College Fund the same [very small] contribution I make to my own Connecticut College. Maybe if other people were to support my move with their own small contributions we could make it into something worth while. So here’s the address:
United Negro College Fund
1805 7th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
800-331-2244
United Negro College Fund Home Page
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