IGNORANT AND PATHETIC

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Professor Derrick Bell's letter in May 21st Crimson is as ignorant as it is pathetic. Its ignorance is manifold: First, none of my comments and analysis on the dysfunctional aspects of the black separatist lifestyle have ever denied that this behavior was due in part to white racist patterns, and in my Bulletin article (April) I actually state that "such behavior is a conscious countering of white racist exclusivism with black ethnic exclusivism." What I have said, and would reiterate, is that the black separatist students use the charge of white racism as a catch-all explanation for their problems, ignoring a more self-critical evaluation of their situation. My writings on this issue attempt, for better or for worse, to correct this.

Second, nowhere in my Bulletin articles do I attack what Prof. Bell calls the "mental stability," "intellectual ability" and "basic integrity" of Negro students at Harvard. What I do say in those articles, and would reiterate, is that too many black students enter Harvard with academic deficiencies (perhaps 40%) and that this should be avoided by raising the median SAT verbal and math scores of black students nearer to the median for Harvard College. I also argue that a quota for blacks is defensible and the proportion of blacks in Harvard College be maintained.

Prof. Bell and other black separatists among Negro faculty have a right to differ with me, but it is ridiculous to characterize my view as a "vicious slande," of black students. There is nothing slanderous in the statement that bad admissions decisions by Harvard's admissions office is partly responsible for the poor intellectual and academic performance of black students. This is simply a question of fact, and Prof. Bell cannot remove it by rhetorical outbursts.

The pathetic feature of Prof. Bell's letter centers on his extraordinary effort to portray himself as a model black faculty member at my expense. This tactic is so cheap that it warrants little comment, save that is is the stock-in-trade of those intellectually and academically dubious. Indeed, no small part of the crisis of black students at Harvard is the exploitation of their situation by black faculty members like Prof. Bell (and some black administrators too) whose presence at Harvard has more to do with their political skills than their scholastic and intellectual reputations. Martin Kilson   Professor of Government