ANOCHIE REPLIES

To the matters of the CRIMSON:

The decision to use a sliding admission scale for James Baldwin's speech was not made by the Executive Committee of the Association of African and Afro-American Students. Most of the arrangements for Mr. Baldwin's visit were made during the Christmas vacation by me, as the President of the Association. The sliding admission scale was my idea and all the people to whom I mentioned it, including some white students, some members of our Association, and a member of the Harvard faculty, approved it as a very good idea. Some members of our Executive Committee who had just returned from vacation protested that the arrangement would make our work much more complex and time-consuming. We decided to recognize as civil rights workers only those who can show a card, badge, or any written material as evidence that they belong to any civil rights organization. Residents of Roxbury and Dorchester would be only those who can show evidences (e.g., driving licenses, tax receipts, etc.) which would show that they live in these depressed areas.

It is our conviction that the spokesmen for the so-called Negro Revolution must take their ideas to the masses of the people whom they are supposed to be speaking for. These are the people who can make a revolution possible. Our aim in inviting Baldwin is not just to smoothe the cars of the big-handed intellectual hypocrites in universities, but rather to enable all the people in the Boston area who are committed to the struggle to hear whatever suggestions Mr. Baldwin might have. By specifying a refused rate for civil rights workers we simply wanted to express our with sad gratitude for these devoted workers, many of whom go unthanked and unremembered. I also felt that a dollar admission charge will be prohibitive for the residents of slums who are always fighting a losing battle to make both ends meet. I have mentioned Roxbury and Dorchester because these are the only depressed areas I know of at the time. (Of course, I know that there are very poor people in Cambridge too, but it would be absurd to enumerate all the depressed streets in the area in order to prove that I am sincers.) The CRIMSON implied that the sliding scale was my racist design to humiliate whites ; but it said nothing about my motivation in charging predominantly white civil rights groups the same reduced rate.

I would like to point out a few facts to the CRIMSON Editorial Board and to all the other "valiant fighters" against racial discrimination. The majority of the residents of Roxbury and Dorchester are not black, even though all ghettos in America show a shamefully disproportionate percentage of Negroes. I will admit that most of the Roxbury and Dorchester residents who would have taken advantage of the reduced rate would be black. But must we be blamed because most of the white residents would not care to "waste their time" listening to Baldwin? Even if we had reduced the rate for only the Negro residents of Roxbury and Dorchester, must we really be blamed for showing that our sympathies are especially for the seething masses of oppressed and degraded Negroes in the slums? Let there be no doubt about the fact that our primary and preponderant concern is for the millions of our people who are groaning under the yoke of the democracy and freedom of American ghettos.

It is obvious that efforts are being made to discredit our organization. This whole controversy about the sliding admission scale is the type of thing that the Dean's office would usually settle with the leader of a student organization after a brief discussion. Yet the first I heard about the Dean's objections was when a CRIMSON reporter informed me that Dean Watson said "... that, under no circumstances will he tolerate..." etc. Last term the CRIMSON refused to print one of our letters to the faculty committee which would have given the lie to the committee's charges against our Association. It was only after the terrible assassination of President Kennedy had made every other news item insignificant that I was invited to resubmit our letter. Our application was delayed for over six months, enough to break up any organization with inactivity. In the controversy over our recognition, over five black individuals wrote letters to the CRIMSON strongly in our favor (some were not published), but no white student or teacher (except people in the CRIMSON and HCUA) was concerned enough to express an opinion. Contrast this with the response to the sex scandal.

The fact is that some white people do not care enough about the desire of black Americans to cast away the oppressive and degrading shackles that have been their share in American life. Such people-and they are powerful at all levels of American life-devote their time to stamping out any legitimate efforts by black people to better their lot. And the big club with which they smash all such worthy endeavors is always the same: frantic charges of "reverse racism," "black supremacy," and "black paranoia." Staunch members of our Association will not be bothered a tiny bit by the hypocritical efforts that are being made to present us as "the bad guys." All of us know that if we wanted to be thought "nice" we should know better than to join a principled and determined Association such as the AAAAS. An intelligent and intellectually honest Afro-American must forget the idea of being considered nice.

A sixteenth-century English writer once said: "Everyone talks of freedom, but there are but few that act for freedom, and the actors for freedom are oppressed by the talkers and verbal professors of freedom." (Gerrard Winstanley)

However, I am confident the University and our campus community will come to realize what a meritorious group the AAAAS is, provided they stopped looking at us with a jaundiced eye, and stopped turning everything we do or say from side to side in order to discover the monster which we must have concealed somewhere. It is true that usually one can find what one wants to believe if one searches long enough for it.

Finally, I want to thank the CRIMSON for the suggestion that we consider pricing the seats differently. But I am sorry that our Association is not prepared to segregate the slum dwellers from the wealthy citizens. This much we can say for certain, that only those who will not mind mixing with people of all social and economic classes are invited to the lectures. Omenese Martin Ameshia   President, AAAAS.

I would like to point out a few facts to the CRIMSON Editorial Board and to all the other "valiant fighters" against racial discrimination. The majority of the residents of Roxbury and Dorchester are not black, even though all ghettos in America show a shamefully disproportionate percentage of Negroes. I will admit that most of the Roxbury and Dorchester residents who would have taken advantage of the reduced rate would be black. But must we be blamed because most of the white residents would not care to "waste their time" listening to Baldwin? Even if we had reduced the rate for only the Negro residents of Roxbury and Dorchester, must we really be blamed for showing that our sympathies are especially for the seething masses of oppressed and degraded Negroes in the slums? Let there be no doubt about the fact that our primary and preponderant concern is for the millions of our people who are groaning under the yoke of the democracy and freedom of American ghettos.

It is obvious that efforts are being made to discredit our organization. This whole controversy about the sliding admission scale is the type of thing that the Dean's office would usually settle with the leader of a student organization after a brief discussion. Yet the first I heard about the Dean's objections was when a CRIMSON reporter informed me that Dean Watson said "... that, under no circumstances will he tolerate..." etc. Last term the CRIMSON refused to print one of our letters to the faculty committee which would have given the lie to the committee's charges against our Association. It was only after the terrible assassination of President Kennedy had made every other news item insignificant that I was invited to resubmit our letter. Our application was delayed for over six months, enough to break up any organization with inactivity. In the controversy over our recognition, over five black individuals wrote letters to the CRIMSON strongly in our favor (some were not published), but no white student or teacher (except people in the CRIMSON and HCUA) was concerned enough to express an opinion. Contrast this with the response to the sex scandal.

The fact is that some white people do not care enough about the desire of black Americans to cast away the oppressive and degrading shackles that have been their share in American life. Such people-and they are powerful at all levels of American life-devote their time to stamping out any legitimate efforts by black people to better their lot. And the big club with which they smash all such worthy endeavors is always the same: frantic charges of "reverse racism," "black supremacy," and "black paranoia." Staunch members of our Association will not be bothered a tiny bit by the hypocritical efforts that are being made to present us as "the bad guys." All of us know that if we wanted to be thought "nice" we should know better than to join a principled and determined Association such as the AAAAS. An intelligent and intellectually honest Afro-American must forget the idea of being considered nice.

A sixteenth-century English writer once said: "Everyone talks of freedom, but there are but few that act for freedom, and the actors for freedom are oppressed by the talkers and verbal professors of freedom." (Gerrard Winstanley)

However, I am confident the University and our campus community will come to realize what a meritorious group the AAAAS is, provided they stopped looking at us with a jaundiced eye, and stopped turning everything we do or say from side to side in order to discover the monster which we must have concealed somewhere. It is true that usually one can find what one wants to believe if one searches long enough for it.

Finally, I want to thank the CRIMSON for the suggestion that we consider pricing the seats differently. But I am sorry that our Association is not prepared to segregate the slum dwellers from the wealthy citizens. This much we can say for certain, that only those who will not mind mixing with people of all social and economic classes are invited to the lectures. Omenese Martin Ameshia   President, AAAAS.