Interpreting Inflation: Mansfield's Response

I was glad to see that Zaheer Ali, in his letter of February 24, 1993 to Dean Jeremy Knowles, comes out against grade inflation, for so I interpret his meaning. Although he favors affirmative action for Blacks in admissions, he opposes affirmative action in grading. Grades should be earned, he says, and not given by "some benevolent white teaching fellow or professor."

Sad to say, when Black students first arrived at Harvard in the late 60s, many white teaching fellows and professors were unable to make this distinction. They passed easily from one kind of affirmative action to the other, overlooking the difference that Ali sees between them. Of course, other ignoble influences were also at work then: the desire of some professors to ensure that Harvard students would keep their draft deferments, and an opinion (which is part of the reasoning behind affirmative action) that self-expression is diminished by being held to a standard of excellence.

How one assesses the relative weight of these factors I cannot say precisely, and I do not know what anyone can. If I am right, professors, over-graded all students to justify, and obscure, their overgrading of Blacks, so the phenomenon, like so much having to do with affirmative action, was concealed from the beginning. Perhaps one could compare the grades of Blacks when they are identifiable as such with the results when they are graded anonymously, as at Harvard Law School, but these figures are not available, and so I have to rely on my observation and others'. I join Ali in calling upon the Harvard administration to make public all facts concerning admissions and relative performance that might enable us to judge better how well affirmative action has worked here.

Meanwhile, I urge Ali to entertain the idea--which I know will be shocking to him--that Black students are being hurt more by the inept good will of whites than by lingering racism. He himself is on the right track when he scorns being dependent on "some benevolent white teaching fellow or professor." All he needs is to add to this, "or some benevolent white admissions officer."

I want to thank Dhananjai Shivakumar, in his letter of March 6 to the Crimson, for pointing out that I did not imply that all Black students deserve C's. Witching Mr. Ira E. Stoll (in the Crimson of March 5) defend the integrity of his newspaper and freedom of the press to Ali, I couldn't help wondering: if he were a professor, would he ever give Black student a C?

I know that Ali did not mean to intimidate me by appealing to the authorities, but he should be warned that his action might inadvertently have that effect on others. There is little enough frank speech on race as things stand. My remark--and it will not be the last--was intended to widen the range of things that can be said publicly at Harvard. At present there is a lamentable discrepancy between what is said and thought in private and what can be discussed openly without fear. Professor Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr.

Editor's Note: Mansfield's letter was quoted in a news story yesterday. We regret that we were unable to print the letter until today. It is our policy to run letters to the editor on the Opinion page, which does not appear on Thursdays.