"the Virginia House of Delegates voted 61-39 to approve a bill (HB 1980) that would require the state’s five colleges and universities established before 1865 – the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, Longwood University, and the College of William & Mary – to offer four-year full scholarships and other grants to applicants who can prove descent from slaves who had worked as builders, maintenance workers or groundskeepers at these institutions. "
I'm pretty darn conservative, but I'd even support this bill. What?, had a great, great, grandpa that was enslaved and used for hard labor in the building of these five universities? Damn straight, give that grandchild a scholarship! What the heck. Get on ancestry, gather up the evidence.
Why? You didn't decide that. No one who is at that university decided to enslave their ancestors. Why would you accept responsibility for something that you had absolutely no part in conducting?
The reparations issue in general is used by the left for many bad political purposes. I also hate the broad brush strokes it paints on our white ancestors. For example, I had two direct ancestors (gr. gr. grandfathers) that died fighting for the north in the Civil War. These men lost their life (and left small children fatherless) so that their white descendants generations down the line could be shamed for their own skin color? And as I understand it, very few white people owned slaves. It was usually the ultra rich democrat plantation southerner. (granted, virtually most whites were guilty of going along with jim crow type stuff)
Anyways, conversely, say...if we shorten the timespan a little...pretend that your actual grandfather forced my grandfather at gunpoint to build your house that you are still living in today. This to me, is not some sweeping racist anti-white enactment. It always seems more like what could be in a civil law case. The college buildings still exist, (and with endowments they are hugely rich, they can spare making good for a few hundred? descendants).
TLDR -
"the Virginia House of Delegates voted 61-39 to approve a bill (HB 1980) that would require the state’s five colleges and universities established before 1865 – the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia Military Institute, Longwood University, and the College of William & Mary – to offer four-year full scholarships and other grants to applicants who can prove descent from slaves who had worked as builders, maintenance workers or groundskeepers at these institutions. "
I'm pretty darn conservative, but I'd even support this bill. What?, had a great, great, grandpa that was enslaved and used for hard labor in the building of these five universities? Damn straight, give that grandchild a scholarship! What the heck. Get on ancestry, gather up the evidence.
Why? You didn't decide that. No one who is at that university decided to enslave their ancestors. Why would you accept responsibility for something that you had absolutely no part in conducting?
The reparations issue in general is used by the left for many bad political purposes. I also hate the broad brush strokes it paints on our white ancestors. For example, I had two direct ancestors (gr. gr. grandfathers) that died fighting for the north in the Civil War. These men lost their life (and left small children fatherless) so that their white descendants generations down the line could be shamed for their own skin color? And as I understand it, very few white people owned slaves. It was usually the ultra rich democrat plantation southerner. (granted, virtually most whites were guilty of going along with jim crow type stuff)
Anyways, conversely, say...if we shorten the timespan a little...pretend that your actual grandfather forced my grandfather at gunpoint to build your house that you are still living in today. This to me, is not some sweeping racist anti-white enactment. It always seems more like what could be in a civil law case. The college buildings still exist, (and with endowments they are hugely rich, they can spare making good for a few hundred? descendants).