Ethnic Studies Supporters Try To Build Coalition

When Harvard students organizing for ethnic studies watched a documentary showing University of California students risking arrest to gain an ethnic studies department, they saw protest scenes far removed from their own.

The images on screen showed hundreds of students chanting “ethnic studies now!” and forming a human chain to stop police from arresting their peers.

The ethnic studies movement at Harvard has followed a less confrontational trajectory.

New groups advocating for Latino-American and Asian-American studies, as well as a pre-existing group demanding a general ethnic studies curriculum, have spent the year struggling with both the administration and each other to balance the desire for unity with the specific goals of their own ethnic groups.

Students say the atmosphere of negotiation and lobbying has made groups more hesitant to risk individual gains and take broader action.

But the perceived response toward the study of ethnicity by the administration, especially that of University President Lawrence H. Summers, may bring the students closer together than has happened yet.

Birthing Pains

The most recent movement for ethnic studies—although Harvard students have been lobbying for ethnic studies on and off since the 1960s—was born last year in the Academic Affairs Committee of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.

And after attending a conference at Columbia University on ethnic studies this winter, a broad base of support coalesced in favor of the cause. Conference attendees included members of the Black Students Association (BSA), RAZA and Fuerza Latina.

But the coalition, which met regularly from late January to last month, faced a bumpy ride.

Soon after the coalition’s formation, members of RAZA, Concilio Latino and Fuerza Latina threatened to withdraw from a rally partly intended to highlight the broad base of support for ethnic studies. They were angered by a letter coalition member Ethan Y. Yeh ’02 wrote to University administrators, saying the message overlooked their goals.

“Some students wanted individual departments and felt that an ethnic studies certificate would undermine that,” says Judith Vasquez ’03, a board member of Latinas Unidas. “People’s visions were very different.”

The conflict was soon ironed over, but what occurred was emblematic of an unresolved question underlying the movement—whether or not the broad focus on ethnic studies occurs at the expense of individual groups.

The answer is one few are willing to gamble on.

Ethnic groups on campus have opted to work for gaining courses about their respective racial groups instead of ethnic studies courses in general. Most recently, Asian-American students formed an initiative to pursue Asian-American studies at Harvard.

Some see no ideological conflict in working separately for race-specific courses.

“I don’t think any of these things—separate certificates, departments, whatever—conflict with each other,” says John H. Hsu ’03, a coalition member. “We all have the same goal.”

“A lot of what’s happened recently is the different movements trying to be very supportive of each other to get some positive things done,” says BSA President Brandon A. Gayle ’03. “There is no tension.”

But some say the current tack groups have taken—working separately for similar causes—is partially a result of wariness that working together will undermine the possibility of attaining their respective goals.

The BSA remains publicly supportive of other ethnic groups that want a stronger place in the curriculum. At the same time, some members worry that gains made for ethnic studies might negatively affect the Afro-American studies department.

“The movement for Latino studies is something the BSA is very strongly behind,” says Fred O. Smith ’04, a BSA board member. “We don’t want to lose what we do have and sacrifice it for something called ‘ethnic studies’ which may not become the powerhouse that the Af-Am department has become.”

The new student initiative for Asian-American studies is taking a similar tack.

“While we support the movement for ethnic studies in general, right now we’re really just concentrating on getting more Asian-American classes into the curriculum,” says Sophia Lai ’04, who is working in the group and is co-president of the Asian American Association. “We think it’s practical and reasonable to add more classes.”

The large Latino groups on campus are also publicly supporting other groups’ struggles while working to gain their own curriculum.

When Concilio Latino President Luis S. Hernandez, a Divinity School student, and RAZA President Maribel Hernandez ’04 lobbied Summers in March on behalf of a Latino studies curriculum, their petition said they also “pledge our support to the mutually inclusive causes of our fellow African-American, Asian-American and Native American students.”

Some students say the multi-faceted course the movement has taken leaves room for conflict down the line.

“It could create competition because the administration can’t create three new departments overnight,” says Allana N. Jackson ’03, treasurer of the Association of Black Harvard Women.

Others who hunger for a broader ideology-based coalition worry that mutual support will come to mean groups simply circulating each others’ requests over e-mail lists without genuine commitment.

“People can say ‘we won’t join you but we’ll be allies,’” says Reema Rajbanshi ’03, a coalition member. “But that’s not what a coalition is about. Our struggles are their struggles.”

Even the word “coalition” as an official term for their cause faces an uncertain future.

The work done this year by the Student Coalition for Ethnic Studies is now being largely re-channeled into the Foundation’s Academic Affairs Committee, whose “institutional memory” and structure make results more likely to last, according to Yeh.

The group intends to keep steady pressure on the administration to add Faculty and courses relating to the study of ethnicity.

Yeh says the process of forging ties across ethnic groups this year has strengthened and diversified the committee, whose new co-chairs are Lai and Stephanie Paiz ’03. They have been involved in respective efforts to get Asian-American and Latino-American studies and say they also want to unite different ethnic groups on campus.

An Uphill Battle?

Student organizers face the challenge of building a grass-roots campaign, especially one for an academic issue centered around race.

Many look to the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), whose rallies during last year’s sit-in drew thousands, as the ideal.

Students also note the strong coalition the BSA was able to build last week when they gained the support of more than 50 student groups in their efforts to convince Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 to remain at Harvard.

But they say building support for ethnic studies is inherently more challenging.

“Ethnic studies is a different issue because it’s so complicated,” says Yeh. “PSLM was able to effectively organize around the 10.25 figure, which is a simple objective people can look towards, similar to the goal of getting Cornel West to stay.”

Gayle says the stark issue of worker’s rights as presented by PSLM made the issue even more compelling.

“You really find out how strongly the community can come together with something like that,” Gayle says.

But Rajbanshi says she thinks minorities are less likely to join activist coalitions because “our voices have been silenced for so long. When you join a coalition like that you give something up. That creates a very real fear.”

She adds that since minority groups “have finally arrived” in a powerful position by attending Harvard, minority students are even more hesitant to act up.

“When minority groups get access to a place of power we get conservative and tighten up,” Rajbanshi says. “The first thing you have to defend then is your own ethnic group’s enclave.”

Vasquez agrees that “some people would say groups like Latinos and blacks feel more at risk, like they’re putting themselves on the line and it could end up being a waste of valuable time.”

The Tie That Binds

But where race divides, frustration unites—especially discontent with Summers’ response to pleas for ethnic studies.

In general, there is a widespread feeling that Harvard’s administration is interested mainly in “preserving the status quo,” negotiating on the surface as a “formality” but making few real changes.

While students acknowledge that Harvard as an institution moves slowly, they say administrators seem to be dragging their feet on this issue in particular.

“They can’t say ‘no’ to meeting with us because that would be too blatant a rejection,” Vasquez says.

“Things like the Harvard Foundation create the appearance of ethnic solidarity and the illusion that Harvard is friendly to minorities,” says Jackson. “That makes it really difficult for us to ask for things.”

Some also complain about the lack of an official avenue for student input.

“Students shouldn’t have to fight for a voice,” says Roona Ray ’02-’03, who is a PSLM member. “They should just be able to voice their concerns.”

But the biggest rallying point among the groups is concern about Summers’ attitude toward diversity. Students first aired their concerns in March after Latino studies supporters met with Summers and received what they called a perfunctory response.

The recently announced departure of West has done little to allay their fears.

Students say Summers’ attitude has aided the goal of coalition building in an unexpected way.

“He’s equally offensive to every ethnic and progressive group,” says Jackson.

“You know when someone’s keeping you down,” Vasquez says. “I see a lot of strides between Latinos and blacks, because they’re facing the same disrespect.”

Students say the academic nature of their cause necessitates working within the system, to a certain degree. But they agree that a mass movement behind them is necessary to increase their visibility and to sustain pressure on the administration.

Ray says PSLM’s two-pronged strategy of working with administrators and mobilizing student support is one available to ethnic studies supporters as well.

“It would be really great for all students of color to come together and realize their collective power,” she says. “And the legitimacy of that power.”

Student organizers seem to be doing just that. They are planning to hold events this weekend to protest what they are calling the “diversity crisis” at Harvard, which they say includes the status of ethnic studies efforts.

The first event, a silent protest intended to criticize the demographic makeup of the Faculty, will occur tomorrow afternoon.