Style Over Substance

IN BRINGING Diana Ross to Harvard last week, the Harvard Foundation tried to do something nice for students. Ross is a talented artist whose music spearheaded the crossing of racial barriers in the early 60's, contributing to the spirited Motown sound we all know and love She's a star and knows how to play the role to the hilt. She's glamour, she's glitz, she's a fun, funky, beautiful Black woman with an abundance of style. What more could the Foundation offer to get people to come out of the woodwork and take notice?

Now, it's all well and good for the Foundation to honor the singer. Even though neither her actions nor her music has had any real effect on race relations, the visit was not the "proverbial straw that broke the Camel's back "nor" an insult to the intelligence of all the students who wish to improve race relations at Harvard University and the community at large," as a number of students have claimed. But the last that the Foundation features celebrities like Sugar Ray Leonard and Diana Ross in order to bring itself to the attention of students not only indicates the University's lack of sensitivity to minority needs: It also points up the lack of communication between students and the Administration.

Race relations at Harvard are often strained at best. Black students are indiscriminately harassed by University police and, according to some statistics, do not perform academically as well as their objective credentials (high school grades, SAT scores) would suggest. This indicates that once here, subtle influences are at work which undermine Black success at the College.

University officials are instrumental in creating atmosphere, depending on the tone they set when dealing with a whole variety of issues racial tensions can abound or dissipate. Unfortunately, the University is perceived as patronizing or ignoring Blacks in their quest for social acceptance. The University's refusal to divest itself of stock in companies operating in South Africa, despite mushrooming resentment among students both Black and white, seems pointedly insensitive. Dean of Freshmen Henry C. Moses' refusal to organize an officially recognized Third World orientation during Freshman Week has aroused considerable wrath among numerous minority groups.

There is a fundamental lack of communication between minority students and the administration. The Foundation and its current activities serve as a case in point. In response to requests for a Third-World center, the University threw Black students a bone in the form of the Foundation. In what may have been interpreted as a spiteful move all of the Black student organizations last semester refused to bite. Although they have recently reconsidered, choosing to accept funding from the Foundation for lack of anything more palatable, the fact that the boycotts occurred at all indicates a tragic gap between what students want and what they have been forced to accept.

The plea for a Third World center is based upon a desire to improve race relations by making Black students feel comfortable and accepted at the College. As the situation stands now, it is not difficult for a Black student to believe white acquaintances who "jokingly" say. "You got in because you're Black." The University appears to turn a cold shoulder to the vast majority issues save declining minority applications. Unintentionally, official interest in minority students, specifically Blacks seems to end at the admissions office, and hostility festers.

"They just don't listen" is a familiar cry. Blacks become frustrated and angry, an attitude which University officials seem to interpret as radical malcontentism when they stubbornly refuse to give in to Black demands. This leads in turn to more bitterness and rage. And around in a vicious circle it goes, with hostility and misunderstanding feeding on each other and resulting in the very separatism and mistrust the University tries to avoid.

MAYBE a Third World center would be overrun by radicals who would drown out the moderate voices, making it a bastion of separatism Never mind that the very existence of those oh-so-abrasive radical elements suggests the existence of a real problem. Maybe a Third World center isn't the answer to the race relations problem. But the Foundation, as presently constituted, is barely a step in the right direction.

Because of its structure, the Foundation simply cannot effect any large-scale change. Sponsoring conferences with little-known speakers or esoteric subject matter, for example, will not attract students in the numbers necessary to change race relations at Harvard. Furthermore, few even know of the Foundation's existence because of the paucity of student involvement. The flow of money and the choice of events are controlled by a board of overseers composed exclusively of faculty members. Although there are student committees set up to advise the board, they have remained essentially inactive to date. If student liaisons were allowed to sit on the controlling itself not only would they be motivated to participate in the Foundation's activities, but they would also help the board monitor minority student needs.

Because the Foundation has low visibility on the whole, the speakers it chooses to advertise its existence are all-important. Guests like Diana Ross and Sugar Ray Leonard are perceived as having little connection with the race relations issue outside of the fact that they are Black, and because they have been the Foundation's most widely received guests, their visits lend credence to popular conceptions of the Foundation as bogus, or at least less than serious.

If the Foundation must honor "big" names to attract attention, let it honor celebrities who have been involved with race relations. Instead of Diana Ross, honor Stevie Wonder, who has dedicated songs to Martin Luther King rather than the acquisition of muscles. Instead of Sugar Ray Leonard, honor former heavyweight champion Muhammed Ali or former N.Y. Giant Rosie Grier.

If students are so unaware of the Foundation's existence or do not care enough about the issues at hand to attend unless a popular culture superstar shows up, then the Foundation must find stars who have addressed and are willing to address the problem of race relations. In that way, at least, it would move toward fulfilling the purpose for which it was created. And until the Foundation begins to move in that direction, by choosing its guests more wisely and with more input from students, it does not have the luxury just to do some thing nice.