Malcolm X

To the Editors of The Crimson:

This letter is written in response to the article written on February 22, 1977 entitled "Black Group Remembers Malcolm X." It is the opinion of the writers of this letter (as representatives of the Student Committee on Afro-American Studies--SCAAS) that the article totally misrepresented the major theme and intentions of the forum given in honor of Malcolm X, primarily through faulty journalistic practices. We would first like to criticize the haphazard journalism, and then clarify those ideas which we wanted to communicated through the forum.

First of all, the reporter seemingly missed all the critical portions of the forum. She failed to hear any of the introductory speeches, which served to clarify the ideological basis of the forum; she didn't see the film short on Malcolm X; she didn't attend any of the scheduled workshops; she didn't even interview the moderator, or request a statement of purpose from him or the SCAAS. In fact, the few people she spoke to, some of whom were not directly involved in the organization of the forum, claim to have been misquoted. This last error led directly to the misplacement of responsibility concerning the organization and implementation of the forum.

The SCAAS is a sub-committee of the Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association (HRBSA), and is chaired by Peter Hardy. It was the SCAAS that organized the forum. The student committee's reasons for presenting the forum were two fold: first, to commemorate Malcolm X, and second, to highlight the similarities between the struggles which Malcolm confronted and those which confront Third World students, with a special emphasis on a particular fight here at Harvard--that of the Afro-American Studies Department (AAS).

In January of 1975, Eileen Southern became chairperson of the AAS Dept. Under her guidance, the department has strayed far from its original guidelines. Delineated in these guidelines were student participation in the Executive Committee of the department, and the organization of a Student-Faculty Search Committee to acquire tenured faculty for the department. Each of these practices has been abolished by Dr. Southern. The department has radically changed its curriculum to de-emphasize the political and socio-economic aspects common to blacks in Africa, the Carribean, and the Americas. Along with this de-emphasis, Dean Rosovsky has declared that African Studies are not relevant to Afro-American STudies; therefore, the department has denied tenure to Professor Ephraim Isaacs, world-renowned scholar on African Civilization and Languages.

The SCAAS, therefore, has presented certain demands to the department. First, that it return to the structure outlined in the original prospectus (i.e. allowing for student participation). Second, a re-broadening of the curriculum to include African Studies; and third, the immediate tenuring of Ephraim Isaacs.

We recognize that it was not The Crimson's responsibility to delineate so specifically the problems and demands stated here, but we do feel that these things are representative of a much greater struggle: that of student self-determination in education at Harvard. The relationship of our struggle to those of other groups was clearly stated at the forum--each of several groups (The Coalition of Asian Americans, The Committee for Women's Studies, The Committee Against Racism, and the Task Force on Affirmative Action) presented statements of solidarity--but this was not mentioned anywhere in the Crimson article. This omission was critical enough, we feel, to have undermined our entire effort by misrepresenting our aim to The Crimson's wide readership.

We hope to have made our aims clear, and concommitantly to have made The Crimson more aware of its journalistic responsibility if it is to honestly attempt to report student activities. Tony Butler '80   David Harris '80   Michael Washington '80