Concerning Allegations of Racism in the AAA

To the Editors of The Crimson:

An article in your December 16, 1987 issue ("AAA Faces Charges of Racism") contained some serious and false allegations about Harvard and Radcliffe Alumni/ae Against Apartheid which demand response.

At the onset, let me state for the record that I am Black and female and a graduate of the Harvard Law School. In June I was elected to the Harvard Board of Overseers, having been nominated by HRAAA. Up until this fall, I was active in the leadership of HRAAA as a part of the Executive and Steering Committees. I was not the only minority/Black woman serving in that capacity. I withdrew (I am still active generally when time permits) due to the press of my responsibilities to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, to which I am counsel, to the Harvard Board of Overseers, and to the other community and political causes to which I am committed. (There are only so many hours in a day.) I was invited but unable to assist the nominating committee for this year's slate, although I did help by interviewing and evaluating some of the candidates based in Washington, D.C. I had conversations with [HRAAA officials] Chester Hartman and Dorothee Benz before and after the tentative state was set.

Based on this experience, I would like to correct the record as follows:

HRAAA is not technically a membership organization. There are no dues. It is an open association, reliant on the good will and donated time and money of any and all persons who want to fight apartheid through pursuit of divestment and other appropriate means. It is puzzling how Tina E. Smith '83 could "resign" from such an assemblange or, more pointedly, from a group she walked out on over a year ago.

Ken Simmons' comments are equally ludicrous The other minority/Black people, male and female, running or having run HRAAA would be astonished to know that they were "white persons." I know I am. HRAAA is not racist and has turned away no one who has offered their time and talent on its behalf. While the idea of the white people in HRAAA withering away or ceasing to exist may be an intriguing proposition to Simmons, it is not realistic or desirable in what is, like it or not, a pluralistic society. (There is also a certain irony in someone leaving an organization and then complaining that there are fewer of themselves therein.) Ending apartheid will only be achieved through the concerted efforts of many people, many institutions, many governments. I see nothing to be gained, and a great deal to be lost, by rejecting an outstretched hand because it is a white one.

With respect to Smith's comments about Ephraim Isaac's candidacy, she is also off base. The four slots immediately agreed upon included a noted Black historian, Nell Irvin Painter. The split on the nominating committee on the fifth slot had nothing to do with opposition to Isaac because he was black or because his field was black or because his field was "too esoteric" or "too flaky" but rather reflected concern about the electability among the general, non-activist, in many cases conservative, alumni/ae population of someone who had sued Harvard University. Had he been white, the concern would have been the same. Making the strongest possible statement is one thing; getting progressive people actually elected sometimes is quite another. One can no doubt legitimately disagree with the underlying political analysis about the makeup and projected reactions of the alumni/ae electorate, but one would be hard-pressed to label the analysis as "racism." Failing consensus, it was decided that the appropriate, fair and democratic thing to do was to put the matter to a vote of the membership. That was done. Isaac is on the final slate.

No one in HRAAA condones racism. HRAAA is not perfect and, as individuals and as a group, we struggle always to do better. It is regrettable when people like Smith and Simmons, by all appearances with personal axes to grind, agitate to undermine the credibility of a worth while organization and cause rather than working constructively to resolve any concerns they may have. Consuela M. Washington   University Overseer