THE PARTY LINE

To the Editors of the Crimson:

In response to the article published in the Crimson of Tuesday, January 11, concerning a racist incident at Radcliffe this past fall, we would like to make these clarifications. The article alleges that the incident was not racist, while, in fact, we feel that it was a very real example of racism. There was no good reason to stop the party. It was planned weeks in advance for that Saturday night, a fact which the Crimson omitted. If there were objections to the noise that the party would have caused, it could have been held in one of Barnard's common rooms. Furthermore, as the SDS leaflet pointed out, a party organized by black women in South House last year was broken up by police, and black students' parties were stopped in Comstock a few years ago for "security reasons." Racism at Harvard is not a figment of SDS's imagination, as minority students and, workers here are acutely aware.

Secondly, the article suggests that the women who organized the party had no knowledge of the SDS, leaflet, and considered the matter closed. In fact, several of the women involved had discussed with SDS plans to protest this incident, and helped to revise the leaflet. All of the women have since decided that they prefer not to press the issue. SDS respects their decision, and plans no further action on this particular matter. John Santos '75   Jeff Mayersohn '73   Ira Helfland '72   Bonnie Blustein '72   Orlando Jimenez '75   Brian Mendis '75