Undergraduates Kick Off Diversity Campaign at Primal Scream

On Wednesday evening, as their classmates prepared to bare skin for Primal Scream, about a hundred students rallied on the steps of University Hall to kick off the “I Am Harvard” campaign, intended to show that skin of all colors belongs at Harvard.

The campaign is a response to an incident on the Quad lawn that occurred on Saturday during an event organized by the Black Men’s Forum (BMF) and the Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW). After a string of e-mails sent over the Cabot open-list that questioned whether the participants were Harvard students, one student called University police.

Controversy then ensued over whether the call was racially motivated, and exactly who fit—and didn’t fit—the image of a Harvard student.

Spearheaded by BMF president Bryan C. Barnhill II ’08, ABHW president Anjelica M. Kelly ’09, and Cabot house resident Katharine E.S. Loncke ’08, the “I Am Harvard” campaign “intends to bring the campus together [through a series of events] to question the conception of what a Harvard student should look like,” said Barnhill.

On Wednesday night, after stressing that the “Quad incident” was only an indicator of deeper race-relations problems, Barnhill called on those present to share tales of personal encounters with racism at Harvard. In response, several male black students told stories of not being able hail a cab, or being asked to show their ID cards by officers despite wearing Harvard sweatshirts. After each tale, the crowd chanted “I Am Harvard” as an affirmation of their rightful presence at the University.

Barnhill said the event was a success.

“I am very encouraged by the fact that despite the cold and rain, people still felt that it was necessary to come out and support us on this issue,” Barnhill said. “The larger community seemed willing to cooperate, and the band [there to play for Primal Scream] didn’t play until after we had finished speaking.”

Among the spectators assembled was Director of the Harvard Foundation S. Allen Counter, who watched the event from his University Hall office and said that he was “100 percent behind the students’ efforts.”

“This is an important step to take in what is clearly a racist community, in which police are allowed to use South African apartheid techniques to harass our students.” Counter said. “If there had been 60 white students on the lawn, would police ride up on motorcycles with dark shades to make them show their IDs?”

Prior to Wednesday night, several e-mails sent over the BMF and ABHW open-lists questioned the appropriateness of Primal Scream as a place to raise awareness—although they also stressed the importance of solidarity in the black community.

“I personally disagreed with the venue for the event because Primal Scream is supposed to be light-hearted” said rally participant Ffyona V. Patel ’07, who was concerned that “the majority of the people [would] be drunk and...just want to laugh or stare.”

After the event, however, Patel acknowledged that the large crowd drawn by Primal Scream made it a “perfect venue.”

Streaker Kyle A. Krahel ’08 concurred, and said that he supported the demonstrators’ decision to make a stand at Primal Scream.

“Not only is it a quintessential Harvard event, but it is an event about showing skin,” said Krahel. “Since this issue is about the color of skin—but also goes much deeper—it really gives Primal Scream an actual purpose.”

—Staff writer Nan Ni can be reached at nni@fas.harvard.edu.