BLACKS AT HARVARD JUST THE BEGINNING

To The Editors of The Crimson:

Keith Butler, Michael A. Massing, and The Crimson are to be congratulated for the two articles (October 23) on black-white relations at Harvard. The kind of information and dialogue that attempts to get beyond the stereotypes is sorely needed.

As a member of (hopefully) the last small class of black undergraduates to enter the College (45 at Harvard; 15 at Radcliffe), I watched and participated in the upheavals which led to the present situation. It is heartening to see that, as Butler says, blacks are concerned with being "fraternalist;" despite some assumptions to the contrary, that is not a new sentiment among blacks at Harvard. Also, it is interesting to note the apparent wish of many whites for a more open relationship with their black peers.

Whether blacks choose to fraternize with their black peers to the virtual exclusion of any contact with white classmates is something each one must decide for himself or herself. Despite my extracurricular involvement at the College, that was generally my choice. But I've found that I've become good friends with several white classmates with whom I had only a speaking relationship at the College. We've found that, despite differences in pre-College background, and despite the separate lives we led at the College, we have something in common after all.

That is not to say I believe the millenium has arrived out here "in the real world." It is to say there are many resources at Harvard students should avail themselves of. Harvard is, for most of its graduates, just the beginning. Lee A. Daniels'71