Harvard Crimson Op-Ed: “Harvard’s Endowment Is Political, We Know That Already”
On Thursday, The Harvard Crimson ran an op-ed authored our very own Amanda Chan.
Bacow claims that the endowment cannot be used to enact social change. He argued Harvard is already a leader in responsible investment, and that he receives many too divestment requests to comply with all of them. And above all, Bacow told us, the endowment is apolitical and that is the University’s policy.
But the systematic capture, caging, and oppression of black and brown people is not apolitical. CoreCivic officials made the purposeful decision to deny life-saving medical treatment to a Guatemalan toddler, for example. The decision to keep mentally-ill prisoners in solitary confinement and drive them to suicide is also a purposeful one. The decision to tase schoolchildren is a purposeful decision. These are all purposeful decisions that the endowment profits off of.
HMC’s website states that the endowment could divest from industries that are “deeply repugnant and ethically unjustifiable.” How can anyone claim that alleged mistreatment at CoreCivic detentions centers, which includes the report that the Guatemalan toddler was denied life-saving medical treatment, not meet this standard? How many more black and brown people must GEO Group and CoreCivic kill before Harvard recognizes it as repugnant and unjustifiable?
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