Racism on Campus

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I have encountered a lot of ignorance, narrow-mindedness and malice in my college peers. Yes, I am talking about ignorant Harvard students, and no, that phrase is not oxymoronic. What I refer to is not academic but worldly knowledge, specifically knowledge about people.

I am a Black junior at Harvard. I have been within these Ivy walls for over two years now and during that time I have been repeatedly judged by my skin color and not by my character. These judgments have come in the form of racial incidents, the last and most virulent of which occured last week. I had left one of my disks in the computer room of my house about a month ago. I was distressed over my loss since the disk contained many important files including my resume, cover letters to different employers and various letters to scholarship sponsors. I had hoped for its return since teh disk had my name on it along with my address and phone number of my freshman year. However, I received nothing until this past Wednesday. I left my room to find my disk on my threshold. Needless to say, I was pleased at its return. However, when I was about to place it in its box, I noticed that someone had written a note to me. It consisted of one world and was written like this: "NIGGER."

I was numbed by what I saw, not because of surprise but due to disbelief. This had happened to me!--a former member of the Race Relations Advisory Committee of Harvard College, the former chairman of the Educational and Political Action Committee of the Harvard-Radcliffe Black Students Association, the person who had worked to improve race relations on my campus and who had addressed incidents of racial harassment of others to the administration. Then I looked at this within the "Big Picture." That picture contained the recently dedicated memorial to slain civil rights activists in Montgomery, Ala.; and, closer to home, it consisted of the upcoming A.W.A.R.E. Week, which lasts from Dec. 4 to Dec. 8. Lastly, that "Big Picture" included me. Twenty years or so ago, the Civil Rights Movement ended, leaving a legacy of increased opportunity and legal justice for the millions of African-Americans who have been enslaved by the racism of America. I see myself as an heir to that legacy, but I have yet to see the realization of the Dream for which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and many others died. Lamonte Lucas '91