Another Perspective

"Not only was this part of Roxbury much more exciting but I felt more relaxed among Negroes who were being their natural selves and not putting on airs. Even though I did live on the Hill, my instincts were never--and still aren't--to feel myself any better than any other Negro. --Malcom X, The Autobiography of Malcom X

This past weekend a group of Harvard Blacks staged probably the first public demonstration here against what they called the insensitivity of the Black Students Association (BSA) and other Black students to the plight of poor Blacks. They stood outside Currier House, where a cabaret was held in honor of Malcom X, held placards and discussed their views with those going inside. Amid the sometimes heated arguments between the demonstrators and other Blacks, an important point was raised: Harvard Blacks and specifically the BSA have made insufficient--at worst almost non-existent--efforts to help poor Blacks.

Many Blacks here have made sincere and important efforts in other areas, and some BSA members or other Blacks have pursued individual courses of action to become involved in community work such as tutoring Black youngsters or working with prison inmates. But the BSA has not concentrated on such efforts. In addition, the organization has had no success in dealing with issues of any real importance to Blacks as a whole. By engaging so often in empty rhetoric, it has undermined any potential effectiveness it might once have had by alienating many Black and other students in this community.

As long as Blacks are starving in the slums and I am eating well and using some of the best educational facilities in the country, my problems here will always seem trivial in comparison. There is racism at Harvard and there may be steps that Black students should take to combat it, but the real issue of racism is not behind these ivied walls; instead, it's on the streets of Roxbury and Cambridge and in other Black communities. It manifests itself through the serious economic deprivation and oppression inflicted on ghetto residents. If there is one Black child who goes to sleep with an empty stomach or one Black youth without access to a meaningful education, then it is the primary obligation of all Blacks to do what they can to help change the situation.

And so, no Harvard Black organization can have any legitimacy whatsoever unless the vast majority of its work is directed toward poor Blacks. This need not be its entire function--it must, however, by its paramount concern.

SOME MEMBERS HAVE argued that the BSA tried to set up community action programs but met with a poor response from the larger Harvard Black community. But I submit that if they really recognized the priority this work deserves and were truly serious about carrying it out, they would make membership in the BSA contingent on participating in or organizing programs aimed at poor Blacks. And more Blacks would probably get involved with Black groups should they declare firmly and clearly their commitment to community work. Some people may worry that those Blacks who simply do not want to participate in these programs would then be exculded. The Black community would then have to decide how great this loss would be.

A Black group can and should help organize serious and committed political efforts, and should as well sponsor meaningful lecture series or discussions. Even in these areas the BSA's efforts have been disappointingly lame, though. They have attempted to mobilize Blacks at no broader level than the Harvard campus and thus lost the potential mpact of a city-wide coalition of Blacks united on goals that would benefit us all--student and non-student. And over the past year and a half--the lenth of time I've been at Harvard--the speaker and discussion series I've seen have, for the most part, been unimaginative, repeating the same rhetoric about the need for action without providing a specific or meaningful focus.

Perhaps the greatest example of ineffectiveness has been the Black organization's "attempts" to combat violence and help relieve racial tension in the Boston area. We seem to be more concerned with the possibility of racial violence on campus than with its reality in Boston. No one at Harvard is swinging flagpoles at us yet, but the list of Black victims of race-related violence in the metropolitan community is growing steadily. We will get nothing significant done until we leave the plush Science Center and go down to Black neighborhoods to work with--and stand by--the residents. Some Harvard Black students have done these things; but their efforts have largely been done their own; there has been little leadership from the BSA. Where were our so-called campus Black leaders, for example, last year during the reaction to the killing of a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School when a voice representing a number of young Blacks might have done much to ease tensions.

SOME BLACKS HAVE told me I shouldn't write this article because it will foster disunity among Harvard Blacks or give whites who are racists ammunition with which to attack us. They say we are close to winning administration concessions on affirmative action and that solidarity is essential. This is a crucial time for Harvard Blacks, others say, citing threatening notes and calls directed at Black students, the Klitgaard report on admissions, and what they call attempts by the University to dismantle the Afro-Am department, as well as Harvard's lack of responsiveness to demands for a Third World center.

Any racist threats are deplorable--this is one area when on-campus demonstrations have the desired impact. But the other issues are more complex. Affirmative action has no doubt helped provide opportunities to those who have been deprived of them by our racist society. But it's time Blacks admit that, in some ways, affirmative action has diverted too much of our attention from the more important concern of making better educational opportunities available to all Blacks. Our primary goal should be to raise Black achievement to a level that makes affirmative action no longer necessary. Black campus organizations should stress the notion that because we now have access to better facilities, our responsibility to share what we learn with other Blacks--now and for the rest of our lives--is that much greater. True, we should fight against those who now want to backtrack on positive affirmative action steps, but our main emphasis should be on how to use the opportunities we have to help those who will follow us.

The Klitgaard report, too, is an interesting animal. I have not seen the statistical data, so I cannot question its substance. What I find most interesting is that Black groups and Blacks in general seem completely unwilling even to consider the possibility that we, as a group, may in fact be performing below expectation. This assertion is something Blacks should want to confirm or refute definitively--if it is, we could then take steps to remedy the situation. University officials, I am sure, would agree to have representatives of Black organizations work with them in evaluating the merits, or lack thereof, of the study. At the least, these groups could do so on their own. If Klitgaard's findings turn out to be fairly accurate, the first thing the BSA or others should do would be to arrange for older Black students to tutor younger ones. It's hard to understand why they haven't done so already. Instead of refusing to take a hard look at our performance by hiding behind cries of racism, we should try to find out the truth so that we can address it.

AND THE AFRO-AM department? I believe strongly in the need for more emphasis on and education about Black culture, and I think the University has not done enough to make the department strong. Harvard may not be consciously trying to dismantle Afro-Am; almost certainly, though, it is not truly committed to building it. Black organizations have done much to keep the University from destroying Afro-Am, but less to strengthen it. I would have expected the BSA to have drafted an in depth, comprehensive report outling in as specific detail as possible their recommendations on how to build an effective department. Perhaps such a report exists, but if so it hasn't been circulated widely enough for me to know of its existence. Students should watch the University's actions closely, but the emphasis should be on detailed, constructive suggestions rather than on noisy protests. Still, when it comes right down to it, if there were no Afro-Am department, Blacks here--with, admittedly, quite a bit of leg work--could acquaint themselves with Black culture and history; the same cannot be said about poor Blacks who in their day-to-day struggle for survival have little opportunity for a meaningful general, much less social, education.

The last sacred cow on any list is the effort to create a Third World center. Maybe a little more constructive planning would be useful here, too. If a Harvard Third World center is unfeasible now, maybe we should consider a Cambridge-wide Third World center located either at Harvard or elsewhere and open to all residents of the city. Financial support could come from the community, as well as many helping hands. The reason behind our inability to create a Third World center on campus may be racism, but this difficulty should not preclude our going elsewhere to try to make one.

Perhaps suggestions like mine foster disunity among Blacks, and there will always be some people looking for a reason to speak unkindly of us. But honest and open criticism available to the entire community is not detrimental to our cause--which, obviously, I define differently from some other Blacks here. Unity must exist behind misdirected efforts. To those who accuse me of hurting the image of fellow Blacks, I say I honestly feel that the constant and often poorly defined protesting, the rhetorical belligerency and excess, and the ineffectiveness of the present Black groups damage our credibility in the larger community more.

The economic oppression of the ghetto has created a vast reserve of wasted talent. There are street hustlers, criminals and a lot of plain working folk who would be at Harvard or a similar school if they had been given a chance. Considering the apparent lack of commitment to the struggles of our brothers and sisters in the slums, I wonder if we really believe that anything we face here can even compare to their day-to-day hardships. And if we think it does, can there be any other explanation than that we feel we are somehow more important or better than they and thus can be self-righteous about orthography and epithets.

The Black students here who have done what they sincerely thought would help Black people deserve praise. So do those honest and conscientious protesters who last Saturday brought to light our inexcusable neglect. Their demonstration was especially appropriate at an event commerating the life of our most brilliant leader--and, considering his ascetic lifestyle, a thousand times more appropriate than the party going on inside. But let us not forget the more important issue of our primary obligation to the Black poor. We have the education and the access to some power. We must use them to help our people.

Perhaps the greatest example of ineffectiveness has been the Black organization's "attempts" to combat violence and help relieve racial tension in the Boston area. We seem to be more concerned with the possibility of racial violence on campus than with its reality in Boston. No one at Harvard is swinging flagpoles at us yet, but the list of Black victims of race-related violence in the metropolitan community is growing steadily. We will get nothing significant done until we leave the plush Science Center and go down to Black neighborhoods to work with--and stand by--the residents. Some Harvard Black students have done these things; but their efforts have largely been done their own; there has been little leadership from the BSA. Where were our so-called campus Black leaders, for example, last year during the reaction to the killing of a student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School when a voice representing a number of young Blacks might have done much to ease tensions.

SOME BLACKS HAVE told me I shouldn't write this article because it will foster disunity among Harvard Blacks or give whites who are racists ammunition with which to attack us. They say we are close to winning administration concessions on affirmative action and that solidarity is essential. This is a crucial time for Harvard Blacks, others say, citing threatening notes and calls directed at Black students, the Klitgaard report on admissions, and what they call attempts by the University to dismantle the Afro-Am department, as well as Harvard's lack of responsiveness to demands for a Third World center.

Any racist threats are deplorable--this is one area when on-campus demonstrations have the desired impact. But the other issues are more complex. Affirmative action has no doubt helped provide opportunities to those who have been deprived of them by our racist society. But it's time Blacks admit that, in some ways, affirmative action has diverted too much of our attention from the more important concern of making better educational opportunities available to all Blacks. Our primary goal should be to raise Black achievement to a level that makes affirmative action no longer necessary. Black campus organizations should stress the notion that because we now have access to better facilities, our responsibility to share what we learn with other Blacks--now and for the rest of our lives--is that much greater. True, we should fight against those who now want to backtrack on positive affirmative action steps, but our main emphasis should be on how to use the opportunities we have to help those who will follow us.

The Klitgaard report, too, is an interesting animal. I have not seen the statistical data, so I cannot question its substance. What I find most interesting is that Black groups and Blacks in general seem completely unwilling even to consider the possibility that we, as a group, may in fact be performing below expectation. This assertion is something Blacks should want to confirm or refute definitively--if it is, we could then take steps to remedy the situation. University officials, I am sure, would agree to have representatives of Black organizations work with them in evaluating the merits, or lack thereof, of the study. At the least, these groups could do so on their own. If Klitgaard's findings turn out to be fairly accurate, the first thing the BSA or others should do would be to arrange for older Black students to tutor younger ones. It's hard to understand why they haven't done so already. Instead of refusing to take a hard look at our performance by hiding behind cries of racism, we should try to find out the truth so that we can address it.

AND THE AFRO-AM department? I believe strongly in the need for more emphasis on and education about Black culture, and I think the University has not done enough to make the department strong. Harvard may not be consciously trying to dismantle Afro-Am; almost certainly, though, it is not truly committed to building it. Black organizations have done much to keep the University from destroying Afro-Am, but less to strengthen it. I would have expected the BSA to have drafted an in depth, comprehensive report outling in as specific detail as possible their recommendations on how to build an effective department. Perhaps such a report exists, but if so it hasn't been circulated widely enough for me to know of its existence. Students should watch the University's actions closely, but the emphasis should be on detailed, constructive suggestions rather than on noisy protests. Still, when it comes right down to it, if there were no Afro-Am department, Blacks here--with, admittedly, quite a bit of leg work--could acquaint themselves with Black culture and history; the same cannot be said about poor Blacks who in their day-to-day struggle for survival have little opportunity for a meaningful general, much less social, education.

The last sacred cow on any list is the effort to create a Third World center. Maybe a little more constructive planning would be useful here, too. If a Harvard Third World center is unfeasible now, maybe we should consider a Cambridge-wide Third World center located either at Harvard or elsewhere and open to all residents of the city. Financial support could come from the community, as well as many helping hands. The reason behind our inability to create a Third World center on campus may be racism, but this difficulty should not preclude our going elsewhere to try to make one.

Perhaps suggestions like mine foster disunity among Blacks, and there will always be some people looking for a reason to speak unkindly of us. But honest and open criticism available to the entire community is not detrimental to our cause--which, obviously, I define differently from some other Blacks here. Unity must exist behind misdirected efforts. To those who accuse me of hurting the image of fellow Blacks, I say I honestly feel that the constant and often poorly defined protesting, the rhetorical belligerency and excess, and the ineffectiveness of the present Black groups damage our credibility in the larger community more.

The economic oppression of the ghetto has created a vast reserve of wasted talent. There are street hustlers, criminals and a lot of plain working folk who would be at Harvard or a similar school if they had been given a chance. Considering the apparent lack of commitment to the struggles of our brothers and sisters in the slums, I wonder if we really believe that anything we face here can even compare to their day-to-day hardships. And if we think it does, can there be any other explanation than that we feel we are somehow more important or better than they and thus can be self-righteous about orthography and epithets.

The Black students here who have done what they sincerely thought would help Black people deserve praise. So do those honest and conscientious protesters who last Saturday brought to light our inexcusable neglect. Their demonstration was especially appropriate at an event commerating the life of our most brilliant leader--and, considering his ascetic lifestyle, a thousand times more appropriate than the party going on inside. But let us not forget the more important issue of our primary obligation to the Black poor. We have the education and the access to some power. We must use them to help our people.