Wasting Newsprint

To the Editor:

It defies logic that the most burning issue for a Black student association on campus should be the question of "minority representation" in the Student Council. The entire affair would be laughable, were it not for the fact that The Crimson and The Independent feel obliged to waste newsprint on such pablum. We shall set aside for the moment the empirically groundless analogy which is opportunistically drawn by Asians and white gays in equating their so-called oppression with that of poor Blacks.

First of all, for the Gay Students Association to demand special seats on the Executive Committee of the council is blatantly absurd. If we were to follow their line of "reasoning," then the pragmatic move for those aspiring to permanent seats on the council would be to demonstrate different sexual appetites.

The illegitimacy of the GSA's claim is obvious; that of the BSA and the AAA is less so. Therefore, for the BSA and AAA to encourage or allow a political link, or any other connection between themselves and the GSA indicates either inexcusable naivete or a desire to commit political suicide.

Of course, the intention here is not to counsel the BSA or AAA in survival politics; in fact, just the opposite is true. By acting as though they have the mandate their names imply, they have both become guilty of the most odious hubris.

Both the AAA and the BSA have yet to demonstrate that they speak for a significant fraction of the constituencies they claim to represent. The confusion could best be resolved by taking a poll to discover how many Black and Asian students expressly wish to be represented by the BSA and the AAA.

In the case of the BSA, for its demand on the council to have any validity, it must first deal effectively with growing anti-BSA feelings amongst many Harvard Blacks. Secondly, but even more important, the BSA must acknowledge the significant portion of Black students who adamantly and vocally refuse to be represented by or even associated with its rhetorical politics.

With respect to the questions before the Constitution Committee of the council, we have addressed primarily two issues. First, the illegitimacy and, when taken to its logical conclusion, the puerility of the GSA's demand for permanent representation, and secondly, the illogical premise from which the BSA and AAA claim their authority to make demands on the behalf of all Blacks and Asians.

It should be emphasized that in no way have we attempted to argue for or against preferential minority representation on the council. For the very notion of what constitutes an "oppressed minority" at Harvard is itself open to question as white gays and women, Asians, non-Black Hispanics, and middle-class Blacks conveniently pimp off the legitimate claims of redress made by the Black poor. "Third World"-ism here functions as a self-serving rhetorical device to obscure crucial historical differences and advance the interests of non-black minorities.

As Christians of African descent, we pray that Blacks will awake from their leisure-intensive slumber and heed the rebuke of the prophet Amos:

I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.

Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them...

Take away from me the noise of your songs;

to the melody of your harps I will not listen.

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. --Alan L. Jackson   --Errol T. Louis   --Abner A. Mason Jr.   --Brian M. Weber   Members, the William J. Seymour Society