NEW WORKSHOP GROUP STUDIES RACE PROBLEM

The recent Detroit race riots emphasized the importance of the investigations being carried on by the Harvard Summer Workshop in Intercultural Relations. Located in Lawrence Hall, in the School of Education, and headed by Clifford R. Bragdon, this group is studying the problem of prejudice on the assumption that the best solution is a more effective use of the public schools to teach a more real democracy.

Says Bragdon, the recent race riots are "volcanic eruptions of underlying heat and pressures of hate and fear of hate. They can not be blamed on the war, and we can't, by making subversive groups the scapegoats escape our social responsibility." As for the schools solving the problem of inter-racial tensions, he reminds us that "the public can't expect the school to combat prejudice by itself, but at the same time, the school does have a part to play."

Two Other Solutions

Other means towards the solution, as advocated by the director of the workshop, the first of its kind in the history of the University, are: one, allowing the Fair Employment Committee to reward violations of their codes with suitable punishment, and second, voluntary co-operation on the part of the two dissenting parties, whether it be capital and labor, or white and colored.

The Workshop, though, is not looking for solutions, but is rather trying to find promising approaches for school efforts in the interest of inter-racial adjustment, "going at it in as cautiously realistic and experimental a way as possible." Besides examining current practices in schools, and engaging in frequent discussions, they have heard from many experts in other fields, such as Dr. Allport, associate professor of Psychology.

Unfortunately the public can't listen in on the interesting discussions of the workshop because it would be so easy for one hearing only one part of the program, to get an entirely wrong idea of the nature of the work this group is doing. The director warned that the topic of interracial tensions is not one that can stand "sentimental action. We can't use weak stomachs and soft heads."

The Workshop is sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Service Bureau for Intercultural Education, who have underwritten a number of scholarships to the Workshop, but otherwise have nothing else to do with the functioning of the group. The policy and procedure are determined by the University and the School of Education.