It’s all about the Tubmans, baby.

The United States Department of the Treasury announced last week that the faces on U.S. currency would be revamped in 2020. These changes come after the Treasury’s initial proposal to place a woman on the $10 bill was met with much disapproval by feminist organizations who did not want the just denomination of $10 for a woman: they wanted the full $20.

The Treasury listened to public opinion and compromised. After deliberation, it was determined that the $20 bill would have abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the front, with slave-owning, Native American-oppressing President Andrew Jackson on the back. The department also decided that the $10 bill will feature Alexander Hamilton along with various suffragettes on the back and Abraham Lincoln will remain on $5 bills with Eleanor Roosevelt, Marian Anderson and Martin Luther King Jr. on the flipside.

The Treasury’s decision to make U.S. currency more inclusive is admirable in that it acknowledges the social justice movements that are often under-recognized and underappreciated. Yet just because there will finally be women or people of color on the currency does not mean that oppression can be solved by merely throwing money at a problem. Updating currency is not the final destination, but it hints at a country that society can look forward to in the future.

Essentially, placing a minority woman like Tubman, who resided in Syracuse’s neighbor of Auburn, New York, upon arrival in the north, on currency is forward-looking, but the irony remains. Women only make a fraction of a man’s dollar: 79 cents on average, with black women making 60 and Latina women making 55, according to a 2015 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. Unless men will suddenly tell women to keep the change, the true problem of institutionalized inequality remains unsolved.

“The question of who’s going to be on our money is sort of a historical question and occurs with our perception of history at the time,” said Mark Schmeller, associate professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

While the Treasury Department is attempting to right past wrongs, Georgetown University, an SU peer institution, is unsatisfactorily working toward change as well. The school is grappling with its payment of reparations to the descendants of the black slaves who kept the school afloat during financial hardship. After consulting its records, it estimates there are thousands of descendants whose lives have been forever impacted by the school’s slave labor. The university has not made many strides in the public eye toward redressing this problem and stagnation will not create forward movement. Justice requires ceaseless action.

Students advocated strongly last fall for Georgetown to change the names of buildings dedicated to slave-selling priests. And they got what they wanted. The fact that students on campuses all over the country have the power to make historic and landmark change in their educational environments, as reflected by Georgetown, should be taken as a motivation to create history and to reflect on the past.

It seems that the ameliorating of the past has become the U.S.’ means of moving on. The concern of the people demonstrates a shift in mentality from history preservers to social activism and progressive thinking. Millennials especially have proven to be the most firm in their ideology of establishing a society enveloped in creating a brighter future of equality and one free from the shackles of the dark side of former generations.

It’s undeniable that the lives of those who have descended from the slaves in question have been entirely shaped, in some form, by the fact that they descended from slavery. Nothing is ever going to change that family story. The giving of money is more of a symbolic gesture on the part of the university as a means of acknowledging its wrongs. At Georgetown, paying the descendants of slaves won’t change the fact that slavery has burdened the lives of these descendants. Nothing will, but there’s nothing to lose in trying.

Tubman was an interesting choice for the bill. In present day, she is pretty uncontroversial: very few still believe that slavery is a source of American pride and she doesn’t fit the mold of a political figure. However, because she was considered currency during her time as a slave, this statement a hugely political one. In this way, putting Tubman on the bill is not a great change within itself, but it serves as a model for promoting discussion about further advancement.

“Tubman was illiterate and had to struggle for all she had after she freed herself. She had to support her family,” said Carol Faulkner, a professor of history in SU’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. “In many ways, she’s a shock for others, as those on the bill are very literate, very elite, very white and very male.”

The patriotic sentiment that America is and always will be amazing is nuanced and extremely relative. We can look at any event in history and at some point in time, it was thought of differently. In the 1960s and 1970s, Jackson’s reputation fell from being a respected American figure among historians to being associated most with his mistreatment of Native Americans as he spearheaded the Trail of Tears, surprisingly many people will know not what this is. Addressing that in order for justice to be realized, society needs to continue to recognize injustice and not put those who perpetuate it on a pedestal.

“Having pictures that represent Americans taking collective action moves us away from thinking about our history as just a series of presidential administrations,” said Kristi Andersen, a professor of political science in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at SU, in an email. “Ordinary people or groups make history, too.”

There will come a time when the triumphant bravery of Tubman, the under-recognized valor of the suffragettes and the laborious efforts of Roosevelt, Anderson and King will be prevalent in wallets across the nation. There is a sense of responsibility given to us as citizens to uphold the legacy of these historical figures. In times of trouble and confusion when it comes to the push toward future social progress, these bills can serve as a beacon of hope in motivating prosperity and equality.

Joanna Orland is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at jorland@syr.edu.

Published on April 28, 2016 at 12:55 am