A Call for Consistency From the Black Men’s Forum

This month, The Crimson revealed that the University is asking donors to fund $10 million professorships for “viewpoint diversity” — an apparent attempt to recruit a new crop of conservative professors.

I serve as the president of the Harvard Black Men’s Forum. Our executive board does not oppose an effort to bring more diverse perspectives to expand students’ worldviews — we find this to be a laudable goal. Our frustration, however, is that this pursuit of “viewpoint diversity” is selectively carried out. We understand that Harvard’s administration may want more conservative voices on campus, but they cannot pursue that agenda while simultaneously failing to support Black voices at Harvard — at least not without also accepting the charge of hypocrisy.

As Harvard launches these ambitious fundraising strategies to compensate for our ideological shortcomings, the University has aggressively removed institutional support for intercultural dialogue — from consolidating and renaming the decades-old Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, to defunding certain affinity-based events due to political pressure, to bureaucratic foot dragging.

For example, in October 2024, I met with then-College Dean Rakesh Khurana and then-College Associate Dean of Students for Inclusion and Belonging Alta Mauro alongside leaders from Black student organizations including the Harvard Generational African American Students Association, the Association of Black Harvard Women, and BMF. We discussed the impact the repeal of affirmative action would have on Harvard College students and the support the College could provide.

Suggestions ranged from supporting GAASA’s existing college mentorship programming, to conducting outreach to underrepresented communities, or even having a more descriptive census of Harvard’s Black population to understand how the repeal affected Black students of different geographic, ethnic, and socioeconomic strata. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, it appears that none of the suggestions were implemented.

Or consider when it was revealed that some prior members of the Harvard Salient had used antisemitic symbols and variations of racial slurs. Remembering the College’s prior refusal to investigate the Salient for a similar matter without a formal complaint, leaders of various Black organizations began a formal complaint process through the University’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Bullying Policies and Procedures. We found out, however, that the NDAB is largely unable to act against an instance of hate speech unless it’s targeted at particular individuals, and that the original office responsible for its implementation had been merged with another office following a semester of pressure from the Trump administration.

Experiences like these have tired student leaders of Harvard’s Black organizations who seek to work with the administration to promote intercultural dialogue and remove barriers for truly free and open expression. As such, while I — and, I expect, many of my peers — celebrate any move to improve diversity at Harvard, I am surprised to see the University take such an activist stance towards improving viewpoint diversity while neglecting cultural diversity.

We worry that sentiments similar to those expressed in an op-ed by professor Harvey C. Mansfield ’53 titled “Conservative Faculty Need Affirmative Action” may be informing the way the University has approached viewpoint and cultural diversity. Professor Mansfield suggests that affirmative action policies shouldn’t extend to race because Black students — who he says were broadly liberal — failed to stimulate intellectual diversity in universities, the purpose of such policies.

Such reasoning is ignorant of the fact that the experiences of Black students can be fundamentally distinct from where they lie on the political binary. Furthermore, our lived experiences can contribute much more than our political ideology.

Take, for example, our BMF General Meetings, where members come together to discuss pressing questions and build community. At our most recent General Meeting, we touched on topics as lighthearted as sports and music, but also deeply personal questions. We found ourselves asking how we could reconcile the duties we have to the communities which raised us, and are often deeply in need of help, with our desire to enjoy the personal benefits that a Harvard degree offers us. And, even if we do give back, how can we do so in good conscience at a University whose affiliates held slaves and which employed infamous race scientists, or when we are funneled into industries like consulting and private equity, which have historically been complicit in the suffering of Black communities.

Such questions and their variations concern many beyond the Black community here at Harvard and are hotly debated in classrooms and everyday conversations. These questions ought to be and are discussed by those of all cultural backgrounds and political stripes. However, it would be a mistake to assert, for example, that a liberal Black student’s perspective contributes little beyond that of a liberal non-Black student. By virtue of their proximity to the impact of such issues, they are able to uniquely improve the quality of dialogue and expand the breadth of ideas that students and faculty alike are forced to reckon with.

Conservatives at Harvard are not wrong for wanting their own affirmative action. But the University cannot act as though promoting conservative voices is a fundamentally different, more justified form of affirmative action than promoting Black voices. We are not asking the University to engage in race-based admissions policies as rendered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. What we are asking is that, as a matter of principle, the University show as much commitment to projecting Black voices as it does conservative ones. Both are central in ensuring that Harvard continues to provide the world’s best education for its students.

Ethan F. Ristu ’28 is a Social Studies concentrator in Quincy House. He is the president of the Harvard Black Men’s Forum. He writes on behalf of BMF’s executive board.