Students Discuss Race Relations

Approximately 75 students from the Radcliffe Quadrangle houses met last night at Currier House to discuss ethnic and race relations at Harvard and around the nation in the wake of last week's Rodney King verdict.

A jury acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department officers of charges related to the beating of King, a Black motorist, in an incident last year that was captured on videotape by a bystander.

The verdict was met with widespread violence and rioting in Los Angeles as well as peaceful protests there and elsewhere.

Many participants at last night's discussion said they viewed the rioting as merely symptomatic of deeprooted dissatisfaction with the state of race relations in the U.S.

And a number of those who spoke said they have been increasingly disillusioned with Harvard's race relations policies and climate.

One speaker said that many members of the Harvard community seem to think that Black students are at Harvard mainly because of affirmative action instead of their own merit.

"A lot of us come here and feel we have to overcompensate," he said. "People don't see us as equal persons."

Another student said that the Harvard community shouldn't "gloss over" problems of race and ethnic relations. "I'll throw up if I don't graduate in June and get the hell out of here," he said.

Difficulties on the national scene were also discussed. The government, police and media all practice "institutional racism," participants said.

The poverty and disenfranchisement that may have partly led to the violence in Los Angeles and elsewhere are longstanding problems, and also produce tensions between the races, students said.

One student said, "Black people are functioning at the level of slaves [in America], and I don't mean to be funny."

Those present also discussed the specific tension between Koreans and Blacks demonstrated by the destruction of "Korea town" in Los Angeles during the recent riots.

"For me this is an incident that made manifest a big problem in race relations," said one man.

Another said he believes Blacks are not prejudiced against any one group but feel oppressed by society in general.

"They don't care what size the shoe is or whatfoot is inside the shoe. They just see a shoe," hesaid.

At the beginning of the event, students passedaround copies of a letter for others to mail tocongressional representatives, Justice Departmentofficials or Harvard administrators.

The letter expresses "dismay" on the part ofthe sender at the King verdict, which it calls"the last in a series of failures of the Americanjudicial system."

Race relations tutor Heather Hathaway saidafter the forum that Quad residents areconsidering holding a rally protesting the verdictlater in the week.

At a separate forum held in Cabot House lastnight, approximately 100 Cabot residents gatheredto discuss recent events in the house and aroundHarvard.

The discussion became heated as a number ofstudents criticized Cabot administrators andtutors for failing to react sufficiently toincidents such as the "Spade Kicks" poster put uplast month by Peninsula staffers toadvertise a speaking event and a Confederate flaghung last year by one house resident.

Ivan Oransky contributed to the reporting ofthis story.

"They don't care what size the shoe is or whatfoot is inside the shoe. They just see a shoe," hesaid.

At the beginning of the event, students passedaround copies of a letter for others to mail tocongressional representatives, Justice Departmentofficials or Harvard administrators.

The letter expresses "dismay" on the part ofthe sender at the King verdict, which it calls"the last in a series of failures of the Americanjudicial system."

Race relations tutor Heather Hathaway saidafter the forum that Quad residents areconsidering holding a rally protesting the verdictlater in the week.

At a separate forum held in Cabot House lastnight, approximately 100 Cabot residents gatheredto discuss recent events in the house and aroundHarvard.

The discussion became heated as a number ofstudents criticized Cabot administrators andtutors for failing to react sufficiently toincidents such as the "Spade Kicks" poster put uplast month by Peninsula staffers toadvertise a speaking event and a Confederate flaghung last year by one house resident.

Ivan Oransky contributed to the reporting ofthis story.