Handbook on Race Is Out of Touch

Several weeks ago, the Office of the Dean of Students made this year's Handbook on Race Relations and the Common Pursuit available to students. Ostensibly, this publication should demonstrate the administration's commitment to promoting and improving racial interaction at the College. However, we are disappointed with the handbook, and we are concerned because it seems to indicate that the administration does not comprehend the nature of race relations at Harvard. The handbook fails to address some of the most problematic campus issues.

One of the main flaws of the handbook is that almost all of its contents are rehashed from other sources. "The Uses of Diversity," the essay by Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III, is reprinted from the first edition of the handbook. "Thoughts on Ethnic Studies," by Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles and Jorge I. Dominguez, Thomson professor of government, was adapted from a letter originally addressed to students. The article about William Julius Wilson joining the Harvard faculty was adapted from a Kennedy School press release.

Of course, reprinted articles are not automatically uninteresting or inappropriate for the handbook. Dean Epps's essay, although it does little more than simply applaud the progress of racial interaction at the College, does shed some light on Harvard's history of exclusion. However, the issues of ethnic studies and Prof. Wilson's decision to come to Harvard are rather tangential to the subject of race relations. The only significant original piece in the handbook is Thomson Professor of Government Martin L. Kilson's essay on last year's Million Man March and black politics. This essay, while an intellectual gem, seems rather incongruous because it does not address the Harvard campus.

Much of the other components of the handbook seem like they were added mainly to fill space. For example, the names of every instructor or administrator who claims to be interested in "race issues" are listed. There is also a list of "audio-visual resources" which includes films such as "Shaft" and "Superfly." While blaxploitation movies may be an underappreciated genre, we do not think that they have much of a connection to campus race relations.

Overall, this handbook looks more like an afterthought than a serious attempt to deal with race at Harvard. Once again, the administration has attempted to address an issue of vital importance to students without consulting them. Many students are deeply committed to race relations as evidenced by the recently founded publication Diversity and Distinction. Until this handbook is composed with significant student input, we will not have a good sense of current race relations at the College. It does not engage issues such as the racial hostility or prejudice that many students of color feel, or the tension that has resulted from the University's affirmative action policies. For example, many black students often feel implicit and explicit pressure to prove that they really belong here. The handbook is also silent on matters such as the sometimes troubled relationship between minority students and the Harvard police and the fact that minority students are often perceived as potential criminals.

Another major campus issue is randomization. One of the main reasons that the administration randomized the housing lottery is due to the fear that too many black students were becoming concentrated in the Quad, thus reducing the prospects for interracial interaction. The handbook could have been devoted to addressing this issue by taking in a wide array of viewpoints.

We hope that next year, the Office of the Dean of Students will produce a handbook that is more responsive to the day-to-day complexities that students of all races must deal with. We hope that next year's handbook incorporates more original material and more student viewpoints and opinions.