Harassment

To the Editors of the Crimson:

It is with reluctance that I respond to your many articles on sexual harassment at Harvard but I do so because one particular aspect of this sensitive topic has not been adequately discussed. I am referring to the issue of race, more specifically, those cases where the harassed and the harasser are of different races. There is evidence on this campus and in the community at large that Americans react differently to a black person involved in a case of sexual harassment.

The statistics of persons executed for rape (the most brutal form of sexual harassment) in this country are instructive on this issue:

1. Since 1930 there have been 455 men excuted for rape and 405 of them were black males executed for raping white women. (See: YALE LAW JOURNAL, April, 1982)

2. In the history of the United States 97 percent of all persons put to death for rape have been black men accused of raping white women. (Source: Henry Schwarzchild, American Civil Liberties, Union, New York, NY)

3. No white man has ever been executed for raping a black woman in the history of this country (Source: Mr. Schwarzchild)

The reader is reminded that these statistics represent those black males who were "lucky" enough to have their cases brought to trial. Many, many others were the victims of lynch mobs and were often reported to have "admitted" their guilt before meeting their deaths.

By now the question is asked: "What do these terrible statistics have to do with sexual harassment at Harvard?" I sumbit that they have a great deal to do with sexual harassment on this campus because members of this community have been conditioned (consciously or unconsciously) by the staggering statistics cited earlier. This conditioning probably has something to do with the fact that only two cases of sexual harassment by faculty members have been made public in Harvard's 346 year history. Both of these cases involved black men who harassed white women.

I urge those persons who are establishing ground rules on sexual harassment to be mindful of the social and psychological dynamics involved and to read about the Scottsboro Case in 1931 and the case of Willie Saunders here in Boston three years ago. David L. Evans   Senior Admissions Officer   Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges