THE GUISE OF LIBERALISM

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

It is always amazing to see the kinds of things that are said and written under the guise of being liberal; your editorial of March 19th ("hiring Blacks") is a curious source of amazement because its assumptions, like those of many liberals, are incredulous, naive and simply condescending.

While Harvard has cornered a great deal of the market in terms of qualified academic professionals, it still has a long way to be before its faculty may be considered Olympian. Harvard's standards like those of many other schools are unique and peculiar unto themselves; the fact that men make standards does not necessarily imply that they are lived up to here any more than they are anyplace else. What of the Kenneth Clarke's, John Hope Franklin's, Ralph Bunche's and James Farmer's? And before them, the E. Franklin Frazier's, Sterling Brown's and Horace Mann Bond's? All are and were top-notch academics besides being spokesmen for the Negro struggle in America. And each of them in turn know and could name scores of qualified academics who could teach even at Olympian Harvard. Of course much of Harvard's standard of competence is related to the prolific and compulsive turning out of books and to publishing in the prestigious academic journals. Does the fact that most Negro academics do not fall into this category make them out of bounds of Harvard or make them any less qualified?

Kenneth Clark commented just this week that in the area of Social Sciences, for example, there is certainly no paucity of qualified blacks.

But beyond this point, the statement that "black communities are demanding that black faces present the questionnaires" leads one to believe that all Harvard needs is black faces to do its bidding in the ghetto. If there were no ghetto or need for correlations about urban unrest would there then be no need for black faculty members?

What self-respecting black academic would entertain thoughts of coming to Harvard upon reading that "Harvard (has been) forced to lower traditional academic requirements to benefit from black assistance?" Upon reading this, his "barometer of white racism" would be running red. Any black's would. The implication of a double-standard, Harvard-styled, smacks of this same racism you attack.

It is unfortunate too, that those who read and agreed with your editorial are in many cases the same ones who, upon reading in the newspaper about racism, still look over their shoulders to see who its talking about. Your editorial, with all its liberal intentions, would have Olympian Harvard take up the black man's burden without really knowing what it's all about. Charles Jordan   Managing Editor   The Harvard Journal of Negro Affairs