Minority Group Self-Segregation

IT seems to me that Harvard minorities tend to group themselves in cliques. This is especially obvious at the Union, where the long tables are lined with groups of Blacks, Asians or Chicanos. Of course, there are perfectly good reasons why minority students who share a common cultural bond form support groups, either informally or through the various minority organizations on campus.

But while these campus organizations, including the Black Students Association (BSA), the Koreans of Harvard-Radcliffe (KOHR) and Raza, sometimes offer programs that provide minority students with an opportunity to express their cultural identities, many of them seem to be losing their focus.

More and more of these organizations are serving social, rather than political or cultural functions. By emphasizing the social aspects of minority life, they encourage their members to cluster together excessively, instead of taking advantage of the diversity around them.

It has been said that the two places where minorities band together most are ghettos and colleges. An unlikely pair, to be certain. Ghetto minorities--in Chinatown, say--gather together simply because they live in dense, racially uniform communities. Yet Harvard, with a more diverse population than most other communities, is no ghetto. The Admissions Office prides itself on its percentages, only to have minority organizations steal their meaning.

IT is quite alright for groups with a common heritage to band together to celebrate their culture and pursue their political objectives, but race alone seems an indefensible means of dividing students in the social setting.

These minority groups may claim to have membership open to all groups, citing a caucasian president of two years back or a very active white member of today. But with mailings targeting specific minority groups and, in the case of the KOHR, non-members not being permitted to participate in organization-sponsored sports, how can these groups claim social inclusiveness?

No one has any objections when the Minority Student Alliance lobbies for minority faculty recruitment, the BSA supports an Afro-American cultural center or the Chinese Student Association hosts a Chinese New Year festival for all students. But when minorities use these organizations strictly as social tools, they begin to isolate themselves from the rest of the campus.

Unfortunately, it seems that Harvard's minority organizations are heading in that direction. This weekend, Asian students from Harvard and Tufts will collaborate on a production of A Chorus Line. Not only is the script inappropriate for an all-Asian cast (recall Christine Wang, who is "never wang, always right"), but the project is an unnecessary networking of a particular minority.

A more blatant example took place at the beginning of the year, when Asian-American organizations from Harvard and Wellesley co-sponsored a Blind Date Banquet, pairing students from each school for an evening of dinner and dancing. Although the banquet was open to members of all groups, few non-Asian students participated. The result was that the event became just another retreat from normal, integrated activity.

AT other colleges, minority organizations operate much differently. For example, Brown's Third World Coalition recently organized an immense protest against the lack of representation of Third World issues in Brown's curriculum. Film clips of the protest, as well as interviews with the members of the Coalition, will be aired this month on 20/20.

In contrast, look at what Jerome Chao '90 and Stanley Lai '91, candidates for the Asian-American Association copresidency, had planned for their organization. Here is what they wrote in their position paper, which they mailed out before the election: "Perhaps we need a sports team. Let us form a team to be proud of... How about card game nights for rummy, poker or bridge? Pictionary?"

Although Chao and Lai did not win the co-presidency, their proposals give a taste of the spirit which drives many of our minority organizations. While minority groups at other colleges collectively and effectively combat racism and insensitivity, Harvard's minority groups are busy match-making and planning long nights of Pictionary.