Kilson: Out of Touch

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Professor Martin Kilson, in a letter to The Crimson [February 25], refers to Black students who engage in certain cultural and political activities as "parochial" and "ethnocentric." He intimates that Black students, specifically those who are members of such group, as the Black Students Association, the Kuumba Singers, and the Third World Alliance, are narrow-minded. The dimensional, separatist and even racist.

Professor Kilson demonstrates how out of touch he is with Black students, both at Harvard Radcliffe and around the country, Harvard Radcliffe and around the country. He fails to realize that Black students who sing in Kuumba gospel concerts, participate in Association of Black Radcliffe Women cultural show, organic classes in Swahili, or perform plays with Black C.A.S.T.-enrich the cultural and social life of the entire University. These students help educate as to the fact that the university, like the real world, is great quilt of diverse patterns and colors, held together by the common thread of the learning experience which is Harvard Professor Kilson dismisses the proposed Third World cultural Center as parochial, as he does the Church of Latter Day Saints and Hillel House. Blacks and other Third World students would not be the only beneficiaries of such a center, as Professor Kilson suggests, for the whole university community would stand to gain from the wealth of knowledge and understanding that the Center would provide. Third World students do not claim such a center as their "right," as Kilson would have the reader believe, they claim it only as a constructive suggestion that would improve the quality of our common life at the University.

Professor Kilson also attacks the Black Alumni Weekend, scheduled for March 1-3 and sponsored by the Black Students Association, the Association of -Black Radcliffe Women and the Afro-American cultural Center. Professor Kilson received an invitation to attend the activities of the Weekend, and to learn more about its purpose. He made no attempts to either speak with the student organizers or respond to the invitation. The Weekend was not funded by Black graduates, as Kilson wrongly states, but by the Undergraduate council, the Harvard Foundation for Race Relation, and numerous fundraising events (partics) among the students of all backgrounds will have the chance to learn a great deal about Harvard-Radcliffe and the opportunities available upon graduation. It a sad commentary that Professor Kilson did not brother to learn about the community service and activism panel or attempt to understand that the building a stronger Black alumni network for recruiting we will be to increase the number of students forms underprivileged backgrounds who decide to apply to Harvard or for that the matter who consider attending college at all.

Racism is the child of ignorance, of gross generalizations and oversimplifications, of labelling and stereotyping individuals Professor Kilson is guilty of such generalizations. For him there exist two types of Black students, "parochial," and "cosmopolitans," the former being wrong and the latter right. We reject this artificial dichotomy. What Professor Kilson denigrates as parochial, we celebrate as the much needed expression of the beauty of our culturally diverse Harvard community.

Kilson raises the question of leadership in the Black community. As university students, we make no cliams to this "global" leadership. We only hope to steer our organizations so that our experience at Harvard and the experiences of other students may be enriched. Kilson's in situation that we do not have a commitment to the Black community and the Black poor is unfounded Among the activities that Professor Kilson fails to the activities that Professor Kilson Fails to mention are those of social service. The Academy Homes Project, intergenerational Outreach, Colprep, and the Seymour Society are just a few of the groups will train to make a dent in the problems or Boston's and Cambridge's impoverished Professor Kilson should be aware of these.

We feel that Blacks student activities help to raise the consciousness of our fellow students to the economic and social inequalities stiff extant for Black people Further, these activities, rater than being parochial instill in us a sense of Black pride and create in all people a healthy respect for differences and individuality. Anthony A. Ball '86 Vice-President Black Students Association   Kenneth Johnson '87 BSA Afro-American Cultural Center Liasion   Darryl Parsons '87 BSA General Organizational Liasion   Brian Stevens '88 BSA Third World Student Alliance Representative   Timothy A. Wilkins '86 President Black Students Association