RAZA Letter Blasts Racism In Reaction to Razo Case

A campus organization of Mexican-American students yesterday characterized the reaction of much of the Harvard community to the arrest of Jose L. Razo '89 as racist.

The organization, called RAZA, said in a written statement that the community has regarded Razo's arrest this summer on 15 counts of armed robbery near his home in California as a comment on the integrity of all minorities.

"Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of theRazo case is the tendency to generalize about theHarvard Mexican-American community based on theactions of a single individual," the statementsaid.

"Whether or not Razo's alleged crimes wereprompted by his socioeconomic background andHarvard experience, drawing conclusions from thiscase about the minority community as a whole isunwarranted," the statement continued.

Razo's trial is expected to begin early nextyear. Razo remains in the Orange County Jail inlieu of $150,000 bail.

The statement also said that there is room formuch improvement in the treatment of minorities atHarvard.

"High on our agenda is the need for minorityfaculty and staff, a student support network,minority studies classes, and greater recruitmentefforts," the statement said.

The statement was prompted by an article in theHarvard Independent that suggested that Razo mighthave committed the crimes because he is a MexicanAmerican, said RAZA President Eva de Luna Castro'88.

This Independent article was singled out in thestatement as an example of what RAZA called apervasive campus attitude.

But de Luna Castro said the article was justone manifestation of the widespread attitude that"he did it because he is Mexican and that attitudeis as racist as you can get."

Wade Roush, executive news editor at theIndependent denied that the article was racist,saying it suggested only that the tension betweenRazo's life at home and his existence at Harvardcreated a psychological imbalance that might haveprompted him to commit the crimes.

"We were just trying to suggest Razo's ethnicbackground as one possible cause for his action,"Roush said.

De Luna Castro added, "Like sexual or racialharrassment, it is something that is very hard toprove--it is just a general impression that wehave had from students we have talked to or heardaround.