Jesse Jackson Criticizes Aims Of Harvard's Black Students

Rev. Jesse Jackson, executive director of People United to Save Humanity (PUSH), called many blacks at Harvard "counter-revolutionary" as he spoke before a racially-mixed audience of approximately 300 last night in Sanders Theatre.

"As opposed to organizing to fight Babylon, you people sit around and babble," Jackson said. "You sit around and say 'the man, the man, the man' and you do not realize you can be the man."

Jackson said he felt young blacks have placed too much emphasis on conditions in Africa and have stopped trying to fight conditions in America. He said, "If people stop hoping, they stop hopping. If the enemy can kill your will, he can put you in Harvard but you will not learn."

He criticized black students by saying "we need something out of your generation that isn't coming back fast enough, because somebody told you we needed black history."

History on Your Own

Jackson told black students to "pick up history on your own time. We need your skills. To have been at Harvard and to have been educated at Harvard are two different trips."

Jackson said he "does not believe in the system," but he likened it to a car going toward a cliff. "Just as I would try to take over that car and save myself, we must try to take over the system and put it on the right course," he said.