Panel Questions Idea of ‘Color-Blind Society’

A cross section of representatives from throughout the College came together last night to talk about issues of ethnicity and race in a panel discussion held at Sever Hall.

The panel discussion on “Ethnic and Race Relations in America” included student members from the Harvard Democrats, the Harvard Republican Club, the Salient, Native Americans at Harvard College and Harvard-Radcliffe RAZA, as well as Institute of Politics fellow Gary L. Flowers.

Last night, the panel members began the talk by examining the desirability of a “color-blind America” in a world where ethnic differences exist.

“I’m not sure a color-blind society is necessarily the ideal,” said Flowers, who is also the vice president of programs at Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. “I think that we would like to move to a society where we are not penalized because of differences.”

Flowers, who jokingly referred to himself as “the youngest member of the panel,” urged cross-cultural respect.

Elijah M. Hutchinson ’06, a member of the panel and the vice president of Native Americans at Harvard College, said he has to acknowledge ethnic differences because they “really affected how I entered the game and how I came to the table.”

Gladden J. Pappin ’04, editor emeritus of the Salient and a panel member, noted that people of different ethnicities are often tied to a certain socioeconomic background. He said he worried about “too much coming out of the government table,” questioning the role that government should play in lessening these differences.

A tense moment arose when Jade F. Jurdi ’07, a member of the Society of Arab Students, asked Pappin about an article on Arab culture published by the Salient. Jurdi later described the article as “so insulting and so trivializing of our culture.”

Pappin, who could not remember the article to which Jurdi referred, defended the intentions of those on the Salient, and the forum eventually continued.

Panel member Stephen E. Dewey ’07, a member at large of the Harvard Republican Club, questioned the difference between urban and rural poverty, wondering whether that gap was not as important as that between blacks and whites.

In addition, Thomas M. McSorley Jr. ’06, the legislative director of the Harvard Democrats and another discussant, expressed his hope that people could “still keep cultural traditions,” pointing to his own celebration of both Italian and Irish heritage as proof.

Maribel Hernandez ’04, who represented RAZA, added that “the white, the black, the Mexican—we’re all in this society. We might as well unite.”

Flowers furthered this idea when he evoked the image of a fruit salad, one composed of individual pieces with “their own flavors, their own textures, [but] when blended together, they’re wonderfully simple.”

The panel was presented jointly by the Harvard Political Review and the Harvard Political Union.

“I think [that] overall it was a productive forum,” Jurdi said after the presentation.