Harvard Apartheid

To the Editors of The Crimson:

We appreciate your fair coverage on November 18 of the forum on "Southern Africa and Racism in the U.S. and Harvard" sponsored by the Committee Against Racism (CAR), with Professor Ephraim Isaac of the Afro-American Studies Department and Ken Carstens of the International Defense and Aid Fund for Southern Africa as principal speakers. We want to make one clarification to prevent a possible misunderstanding. You state that Dr. Isaac "cited the language departments as one example of racism at Harvard." It should be emphasized, as you indicate later in the article, that Isaac spoke very highly of the value of teaching languages. He at no time criticized Harvard's language and literature departments and teachers. It is not them he identified as racist: it is the university system as a whole, which has unfairly omitted any serious teaching of the languages and literatures of black peoples, thus perpetuating what Isaac calls a cultural apartheid.

While Dr. Isaac never referred to himself at our forum, CAR believes this university's highly controversial and irregular refusal to grant him tenure is a blatant example of Harvard's racism. Professor Isaac is a world-renowned scholar with excellent teaching credentials. His specialty is classical Ethiopic and the history of its literature. The dismissal of this popular teacher, and the virtual end of indigenous African language-literature teaching it represents, speaks loudly of Harvard's prejudice against the interests and cultures of black people.

In 1972, Harvard black students led militant protests against Harvard investment in South Africa. In 1976, CAR research shows Harvard Overseers are still profitably interested in South Africa. There black labor costs even less than it does in the U.S., since racism is formalized by apartheid there but it not here. If Harvard quite literally has a stake in South African apartheid, is it any wonder that apartheid prevails in the administration of languages and literatures in this institution?

In view of growing racism in the U.S. and around the world, we urge concerned students, faculty and staff of whatever color to unite to oppose racism in all its forms. Nancy Bancroft   Harvard-Radcliffe   Committee Against Racism