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Comment by eviks | Hacker News Reader

> “At one point the fear was expressed that if we found too many descendants, it would bankrupt the university,” he said.

That doesn't make sense on its surface, what's the mechanism here? This is mentioned twice without any explanation

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My understanding is that they intended to pay reparations to the descendants. But if they truly identified 10k descendants at $1k each they would need $10M alone for an amount that, depending on their personal circumstances, ranges from "an insult" to "not much".

We have values. But only as long as they are inexpensive.

Isn't that how that always is?

not that i am defending the university, but “expensive” is somewhat removed from “an existential risk”. Such straw men tend to be easier to knock down.

Is the argument here that Harvard, an institution (not a human being), deserves to exist more than descendants of slaves (human beings all) deserve reparations?

It's tough because it's apples to oranges, morally, but I think it's a reasonable position to argue.

I think there is a middle ground. Families could be paid from a 20% “tithe” fund for the next 100 years for example.

Welcome to Harvard

But they are the ones setting that value per person , so there is 0 risk of bankruptcy - they can always adjust the value to fit whatever the non-bankrupting total they're comfortable with is!

The article nowhere mentions individual compensation to descendants by Harvard. I suspect the bankruptcy comment is an institutional fear of financial liability tied to large-scale identification of descendants.

How is the institution 'liable' for the slaves owned by the founders? I'm both confused that people expect the University to pay significant reparations to the many descendants of slaves and that it would be afraid of that expectation. Is a preferential entry or special scholarships not enough?

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