Afro-American Unity

To the Editors of The Crimson:

There is a growing need for unity among Afro-Americans, particularly in the face of political attacks and cutbacks in progressive civil rights legislation and programs, such as busing for desegregation and Affirmative Action. Yet there are some sharp political divisions which cannot and should not be glossed over. In fact, political clarity becomes necessary to establish political unity.

It is unfortunate that it is necessary to remind a professor who won his tenure in the aftermath of mass social uprising following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, that Afro-American people have had to protest and struggle for what few democratic rights we have won. In the words of Frederick Douglass, a staunch freedom fighter. Without struggle, there is no progress! Whether Mr. Kilson is aware of it or not, there were no tenured Afro-Americans in the Government Department before his appointment, and none since. Ever since then, Professor Kilson has burrowed in deep and launched a series of attacks on other Afro-Americans who are striving to bring about progressive change in our society.

I entered Harvard in September of 1973, the same month that Prof. Kilson launched a slanderous attack against the Afro-American student organization at Harvard for failing to recognize what he called the values of "assimilation," and implying that those students with social awareness are somehow opposed to "academic excellence."

This article had a profound effect on my class (1977). Many of us felt that it was an attack particularly directed at the Afro-American Studies Department (which is not "assimilationist") as well as against us as freshpeople entering the College. The attack on AAS continues to this day, with the denial of tenure to demonstrated African scholars with years of teaching experience, and the appointment of people with little training in Afro-American Studies to positions in the Department.

Many of the rights that people have literally died to obtain, such as equal access to education and job opportunities, and the teaching of our history and culture, are currently being withdrawn in the increasing furor around the so-called issue of "reverse discrimination."

The issue of the perpetuation of racist stereotypes cannot hide behind the cry of "freedom," as Prof. Kilson, the Lampoon editors, and others have tried to do. We are not at a point in our history when racism and discrimination are no longer issues and when we can all "afford to laugh" at the stereotypes of the "past." What next in the name of "freedom"? The resurrection of black-face humor?

In the current political situation, the capabilities of Afro-Americans are increasingly being challenged in the name of pseudo-science: Bernard Davis's attack on Afro-American Medical School graduates as unqualified; Arthur Jensen's appointment to the American Association for the Advancement of Science despite the proven fraudulence of the basis of much of his work on intelligence inheritability; Nathan Glazer's attacks on Affirmative Action as "Affirmative Discrimination." And there are endless additional examples from the national and international scene. Within this context the Lampoon would have us accept their portrayal of Afro-American people as innocent. It seems that "ignorant" would be a better word. The Lampoon has no intention of discontinuing their particular form of chauvinist propaganda unless the Harvard community takes a strong stand against categorizing this trash as "humor." If the Lampoon does not have the integrity to recognize what they are doing for what it is, then we must. Afro-American, Puerto Rican, Asian-American, white, men and women, all of us must take a stand: the Lampoon is not funny--it is offensive and bigoted.

As for Martin Kilson, there are very few Afro-Americans who can afford to hide in the soap-bubble sanctuary of Harvard tenure and launch attacks against those who are acting for change. What have you done for Afro-American students in your years here, Prof. Kilson? How are you tackling the "massive problems," except by serving as a voice of backlash and reaction attacking progressive Afro-American students?

Martin Kilson sets himself up in opposition to making progress in the elimination of discrimination and racism in our society. He sets himself against the majority of Afro-Americans who are experiencing Depression levels of unemployment--a very acute manifestation of the social effects of discrimination. Martin Kilson closes his eyes to the lesson of history, of which the majority of Afro-Americans and progressive people are aware--that only through united action of progressive people will change come about. And when it does, Martin Kilson will be there trying to hold back the waves of progress by holding up the Great Wall of bigotry and discrimination that divides this country. Jess Wardlow '77