Kilson and the New Black Elite

NOTHING has brought more unfavorable attention to black students at Harvard than Professor Martin Kilson's recent article "The Black Experience at Harvard." While the article raises some important questions, it never succesfully proves its points. As a black professor, Kilson attempts to mediate between black students and the University, admonishing the former for their "militant solidarity" and begging the latter for policies which would help assure that black students will be adequately prepared for their future role as an elite class. For two reasons, Kilson fails to convince either party.

First, Kilson incorrectly interprets the meaning of the statistics he presents, making assertions about the status of black students which are either inaccurate or misleading. The difference in black and white students' grade point averages--52 per cent of black undergraduates have honors academic averages compared to 80 per cent of the white students--is taken as proof that black students are anti-intellectual, anti-achievement and academically prostrate. Observing that blacks enter Harvard with a mean SAT percentile score of 93 while the white students' mean is 98, Kilson concludes that Harvard favors admission of low-income, academically unprepared blacks and that blacks are in need of remedial courses.

Not only does Kilson's interpretation of the statistics do harm to every black student--those doing well and those doing poorly--but it misrepresents the character of Harvard's black student community. Black students are not anti-intellectual, anti-achievement, or in need of remedial attention. Indeed, their individual fights to "escape" to Harvard stand as proof of their desire to achieve.

Secondly, Kilson assumes, without reason, that lower test scores correlate with lower income. The remedy for academic malaise among blacks, according to Kilson, is to admit a higher percentage of middle income blacks--students who, like their white peers, are "born" to attend Harvard. But statistics from Harvard's Office of Tests indicate that minority students with low income backgrounds have higher grade averages than their middle-income class mates. If Kilson were not contradictory, he would advocate a decrease in the admission of middle income black students, and favor--for achievement's sake--the admission of the lower income students.

But Kilson's inaccuracies were inevitable in light of his own misplaced emotionalism. As a black professor, he has an emotional commitment to black students, forcing him to act as a paternal adviser whenever he disagrees with the methods employed by black youth. Presently, Kilson and black students are involved in a debate over the issue of black solidarity. Black students have the option to adopt the predominate culture of the Harvard community or to preserve the Afro-American culture which they brought with them to Harvard. Kilson advocates acculturation, substituting Ivy League culture for the culture of Afro-America. His argument is influenced by the success and status which he and numerous other blacks of his generation have enjoyed by using acculturation tactics. But students are turning a deaf ear to Kilson, saying that he mistakenly confuses their rejection of Harvard's culture with a rejection of Harvard's academics and incentives to achieve. Failing in his attempts to influence young blacks, Kilson published his opinions apparently hoping to get support from a third party. The reader intrudes into the debate, completely unexpected by the black students, ushered in and out by Kilson, just in time to hear Kilson's harsh rebuttal of the black students' case for cultural preservation.

Kilson is certainly mistaken in linking acculturation with academic success. Afro-American culture does not inherently reject academic achievement. Though any culture can be shaped to promote anti-intellectual and anti-achievement values, black students at Harvard have not promoted either. Their cultural activities are grounded in their commitment to maintain links between themselves, as future members of professional classes, and other rungs of black society.

THIS IS AN ISSUE which Kilson and older blacks have failed to confront. The black elitist has always positioned himself as far away from the remainder of the black community as he possibly could. Acculturation accomodated this lifestyle quite well. Younger blacks have realized that the aloof professional is of no service to the community. Black students' commitments have been reaffirmed as blacks have penetrated racist blockades by collective effort held together by cultural solidarity. The elite that Kilson envisions is an aloof group that does not fit contemporary needs and therefore offers no attraction for students.

Many critics of Kilson have charged him with trying to play the role of the omnipotent black professor. Actually it is Kilson's emotional involvement with the students that obscures his arguments. He is so concerned about "the future of the black elite class" that he goes to extremes to make his point, giving one-sided interpretations of some statistics and ignoring others.

To the black student he is a harsh adviser, holding youth completely responsible for whatever shortcomings exist. The University will not comply with Kilson's request because he fails to demonstrate the need for either of his policy recommendations--remedial courses and an increased percentage of middle class black enrollment.