BATTLE AGAINST THE 'HARVARD PLANTATION'

Last spring, the Black Students Association shocked the Harvard campus by distributing a flyer entitled 'On the Harvard Plantation' which listed the group's grievances against the Harvard police and several other College organizations. This fall, the College administration has responded by setting in motion a comprehensive reform of its race relations policies. But BSA President Zaheer R. Ali '94 is not satisfied with the administration's efforts and continues to...

In a tenth grade World History class at High Point High School, a predominantly Black school in Hyattsville, Maryland, Zaheer R. Ali '94 noticed that European history was being emphasized while other cultures were largely ignored.

When he asked the teacher about the omission of African, Asian and Latin American cultures in the course, he was told that the purpose was to study "those areas of the world that had significant impact on world history."

"Rasically, she was saying that Africa, Asia, and Central and South America before European contact had nothing to contribute to world history," Ali says.

At the time, Ali says he did not have the background or experience to challenge the issue further. It was not until 11th grade, when his English teacher took aside her class and "told us what was up" that Ali says he began to be aware of the need to play an active role in asserting Black rights.

"She woke us up," Ali says of his teacher. "She told us never to let anyone make us feel that we did not deserve whatever we got. And she said, 'You will have to fight for everything you get.'"

The next year, in a European History class taught by the same history teacher, Ali wrote an essay on the exploitation of Third World peoples by European expansionism. The result was a surprise even to him.

"In the middle of an A.P. European History couse, she stopped and started teaching us about African kingdoms," he says.

"The foundations of [racism] still exist--the notion of white supremacy and its necessary counterpart, Black inferiority," he says. "I've read it in textbooks. It's a subtext. It's the subtext of the educational system in America."

Now, Ali is president of the Black Students' Association (BSA) at Harvard and a major player in shaping campus opinion on race relations.

"You sit a Harvard graduate and a high school drop-out down and they will tell you the same thing about their prospects of being Black in America," says Ali.

In the uncontested BSA presidential elections last spring, Ali campaigned for "Black Unity of Individuals Laboring to end Dependence" (BUILD), calling on Black students to help themselves, to develop their own resources, and to seek independence from white society.

Ali is a 20-year old Afro-American studies concentrator. Criticized by opponents as a radical and a demagogue and hailed by supporters as a visionary and a dynamic leader, Ali has emerged as a vigorous advocate of improving the situation of Black students on campus.

He is not a revolutionary, but a savvy politician--and an extraordinary speaker--alternatively lambasting a lax College administration when it slows its race relations efforts and allying with campus leaders to build consensus and to handle crisis.

Ali shook the campus in May and startled College administrators into action with the distribution of a flyer entitled "On the Harvard Plantation," which listed grievances of Black students against the Harvard University Police Department, the Law School, The Crimson, and the Peninsula.

"I think the administration only responds when they are fearful of some type of rebellious activity or bad publicity," says Ali.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III called the BSA flyer a "real eye-opener," and initiated a comprehensive program last fall to reevaluate race relations at the College, including a student-faculty committee and a series of workshops and picnics.

Ali says these efforts have produced few concrete results. "I saw very little come of most of those meetings [of the committee]," he says.

"It's really an issue of dependence," he says. "We cannot depend on the College administration to help us do what we need to do to strengthen ourselves as individuals and as a collective group."

Ali says controversial comments in January by Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr., '53 which alleged that grade inflation was the result of Harvard's attempt to recruit Black students, illustrate the institutional racism which pervades Harvard.

"Harvey Mansfield has tenure. He is an institution at Harvard," says Ali.

Mansfield, reached last night, declined to comment.

"We didn't see anybody stand up for us," says Ali. "I haven't seen anyone say anything."

Ali says Black students feel disenfranchised at the College.

"What contributes to our feeling of estrangement is that we do not see a reflection of ourselves in the institution," he says. "We do not see an affirmation of our being here."

And one man who has been an advocate for Black students, Ali says, has faced unfair criticism. Ali fends Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter, who made comments last spring which The Crimson and several Hillel leaders called anti-Semitic. At the time, a coalition of minority organizations expressed support for Counter.

More recently, Epps said he placed part of the blame for the College's problems with race relations on the Foundation "since it is where Harvard College has put most of its resources."

"What most Black students are saying to themselves [about Counter] is: here's one Black man who has stood up for us and this is what happens," says Ali. "So clearly, there is no one for us at Harvard."

Ali expresses concern about rumors of College plans to scuttle Counter's and Assistant Dean Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle's race relations bureaucracies as part of its "restructuring" program, saying that such institutions need to be strengthened.

You sit a Harvard graduate and a high school drop-out down and they will tell you the same thing about their prospects of being Black in America.

Zaheer R. Ali '94

"While it seems that many of the administrators are willing to quickly dismantle the Harvard Foundation and the Office of Race Relations and Minority Affairs, they do not seem as anxious to put something in its place," Ali says.

In 1982, a report by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals Peter J. Gomes created the Foundation and nixed ideas for a Third World Center, citing its potentially divisive effect on the campus atmosphere.

But Ali says criticism of the Foundation makes it clear that minority students on campus do need centers of their own more than ever before.

"With the attempts to dismantle or weaken that office that I have seen over this last year and a half, it's becoming increasingly clear what the Harvard Foundation was set up for," Ali says.

"[It] was to appease students who wanted a Third World Center and deceive the students into thinking that this would serve as a [center] that would have some level of autonomy from the administration," he says.

"We should have gone with the Third World Center," Ali says. "We definitely see the limitations of anything that is connected to the college administration."

"Don't blame us for coming together to keep each other warm when you locked us out in the cold," says Ali. "We're not going to be knocking on this door forever." Ali, who is a Muslim, paraphrases the teachings of the Hon. Elijah Muhammed: "A smart person would build a house of his own."

Ali says the BSA has only recently looked into raising funds for a students' center. In recent months, minority leaders have called on the College administration to help finance minority students' centers.

"The College is not affirming in any way, shape or form our being on this campus, then they should not blame us for wanting to do this for ourselves, on our own," says Ali. "The College is not willing to provide us with the resources that we need."

In recent years, critics of the Black Students Association have said the organization has become increasingly radical and militant. In particular, they point to a number of controversial speakers the group has invited, including former City University of New York Professor Leonard Jeffries, Nation of Islam's Conrad Muhammed, and rapper Sister Souljah.

"I think that many in the student community, unfortunately, feel that the BSA or Black students are responsible for the tension on Harvard's campus," says Ali.

Ali says that the BSA's history of bringing controversial issues to the fore is an attempt to educate the Harvard community, rather than to represent a particular position.

"We do things and sponsor programs that bring issues to the surface," he says. "We do not ourselves originate any message per se, but we bring the message to the community."

"I think to blame the messenger for the message is very faulty and to blame the victim for being the victimizer in terms of race relations is very frustrating for the Black community," Ali says.

Ali says charges that the BSA is encouraging its members to separate themselves from the rest of the campus community are unfair.

"The people who are accusing us of Black separatism are not making any attempts to incorporate us sincerely into the Harvard community," he says. "We are so indoctrinated to appreciate and love everyone else that we don't take time to love ourselves, appreciate ourselves. I don't think that's in any way, shape or form separatism."

Don't blame us for coming together to keep each other warm when you locked us out in the cold. We're not going to be knocking on this door forever.

Zaheer R. Ali '94

Ali says Black students are not at Harvard to serve as ambassadors to broaden the horizons of white students.

"We're not going to waste our time with trying to convert white people into loving us," says Ali. "We're here to be students just like everyone else. White students for the most part don't have to run around trying to convince Black people to love them."

Ali authored an article in last week's Independent which parodied the "paranoia" of white students in the Quad over "the Black presence."

The article, which Ali says was drawn from his personal experience, has prompted a vigorous debate on campus.

"People have paranoia when they see Black students together," he says. "It's almost as if we are planning or plotting something. Those who question or feel uncomfortable about a strong Black presence need to examine their fears and their apprehensions."

Ali's article last week is part of a broader indictment of the College's highly touted claim of "diversity."

"Sometimes people want diversity but they don't really want diversity," he says. "Their idea of diversity is, to use an analogy, a grain of pepper in a pound of salt. That's not diversity."

"I think some people's concept of diversity is assimilation and yes, a student center would prevent that," he says. It would be a preservation of cultures."

For Ali, the remedy to Harvard's racial tensions begins with "establishing a strong pillar of support for the so-called minority community."

In recent weeks though, Epps' over-haul of the College's race relations bureaucracies has caused the gradual cession of the powers of Counter and Gravelle.

But Ali says empowering such minority advocates--rather than reducing their roles--at the highest levels of the College administration would send a signal to students that the College has their interests in mind.

"I think that would begin easing the tension that we experience as far as feeling locked out, says Ali. "We do feel locked out and we don't have the keys to get in."