Tensions Remain After Protest

City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries and his bodyguards have left Sanders Theatre. The protesters, shivering in the cold Wednesday night, have gathered their signs and gone inside.

But the tensions that the Jeffries event spawned remain.

Throughout the week, leaders of various student groups have been careful not to criticize the Black Students Association (BSA) or its decision to invite the controversial Jeffries.

Again and again, student leader after student leader emphasized that BSA had the right to invite anyone they wanted to the campus.

And rally organizers were careful to point out that they were protesting against Jeffries and his views, not against BSA.

But behind the conciliatory talk, it is clear that the event has damaged ties between BSA and other minority organizations.

Shai A. Held '94, chair of the Hillel coordinating council and organizer of the protest, acknowledges that relations between the groups have been "hurt."

"We have said many times that the protest was not of the BSA...That is not to say we are not disappointed," says Held.

Linda L. Wei '92, president of the Asian Americans Association, says she was surprised by BSA's decision to invite Jeffries--who has been condemned as a racist, an anti-Semite and a homophobe.

"I don't think it was a good thing. It took us all by surprise," she says.

But both Held and Wei hold hope for the future.

"There's a relationship that began to develop before the invitation was tendered...There's a wound, but not a break," Held says.

"I don't think any group is not willing to forgive," says Wei. "We want to talk about it certainly. We probably want to prevent it from happening again."

Wei says that it is important for students not to "point fingers" and to make sure the dialogue continues.

"I think that any time a controversial speaker like Leonard Jeffries comes to speak there's a risk of fragmenting the community," said Nicholas C. Wienstock '91-'92, co-chair of Actively Working Against Racism and Ethnocentrism.

"We have to remember not to revert to one side against another side," he says.

Sandy Cavazos '92, co-chair of the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students Association, criticizes those who are trying to ostracize BSA.

"I kind of resent the attitude that the trend is to try to isolate the BSA from the Harvard community," says Cavazos. "I don't think that's true. I completely respect what the BSA did."

Weinstock adds, "The purpose of the BSA was to provoke dialogue. I don't think the BSA should be blamed. I think they did what they set out to do."

Indeed, several student leaders say the event has brought their groups closer together.

Eight student organizations banded together and assembled a crowd of approximately 450 to protest outside the Jeffries speech.

"I think that [the protest] was a wonderful display of community, of people really understanding that the struggle of one is the struggle of all," says Held.

Veronica Rosales '94, president of RAZA, points out that the coalition is already in place to protest a scheduled speech by presidential candidate and former Klu Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

"If Duke comes, all the groups will band together for that," says Rosales. "If this was a test, I think we passed with flying colors."

In fact, Held--who organized the rally against Jeffries--and BSA President Art A. Hall '93 began planning for an anti-Duke protest even before the Jeffries affair ended.