Legacy Admissions Are Not Just a Minority Issue

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Recently, The Crimson editorial board ("Is Harvard Really Innocent?" October 10) expressed its disgust with the University's legacy admissions policy. As leaders of campus minority organizations, we find The Crimson's characterization of this controversy as a minority issue inappropriate. Also, the portrayal of minority students as embracing legacy admissions for selfish reasons is insensitive and uninformed.

If the legacy policy is unjust as the editors contend, then the primary issue is elitism, not the differential impact on minorities. Unless legacy tips are racially biased, they will eventually also work in favor of children of minority alumni. Considering the experiences of Jewish students, there is no reason to believe that a previously oppressed group will be discriminated against by legacy policy. Over time, then, it does not discriminate racially.

Of course this does not in any way justify it, but does show that the issue concerns students of all backgrounds equally.

Whether or not legacy admissions is a minority issue, The Crimson makes the unfounded claim that minority students sit smug and self-assured with the knowledge that their children will some day be favored. Minority students do not revel in their future progenies' expected privileges, as Joshua Li's out-of-context quotation seems to imply. There is a vast difference between joyously embracing the legacy policy and making the observation that the legacy policy will play a part in our future.

Perhaps minority organizations are the most convenient targets at which to level criticism. If there is any guilt for self-interested complacency to be found, it should be found among all students. The Crimson's singling out of minority groups for blame is simply unnecessary and mistaken. David Shim '91 and Joshua Li '92   Co-presidents, Asian American Association   Mecca Nelson '92   President, Black Student Association   Tere Riera-Carrion '92   President, La O   Erich Fox Tree '91   President, Native Americans at Harvard-Radcliffe   The Steering Committee of Raza