READER REPRESENTATIVE

The title seemed like something out of a political satire magazine: "Marshals Say Race Not Issue: Personality Cited." It made me laugh, thinking back to such a satire I had read regarding the 1996 Presidential Race. "Dole and Clinton Do Not Hold Press Conferences Today." Was there something newsworthy behind this article?

The article itself reads like a pat on the back for racial harmony. The author, David A. Fahrenthold '00, started off with the lead, "Although last week's senior class marshal election yielded two black first marshals for only the second time in University history, the most remarkable aspect of that result seems to be that it is not remarkable at all." What follows is a litany of quotations from the first marshals, other marshals, others who ran for marshal, former black marshals, and Harvard administrators all saying that personality not race was the driving force behind the election of Allison V. Hobbs '97 and Eli K. Aheto '97 as the two first marshals.

But, according to our readers, the disturbing part of the article was not the article itself, but the premise behind it. Sure, it's great that all those interviewed said they voted based on personality but the article, in its lead, seemed to expect something different. Recall that the author began by stating "Although last week's senior class marshal election yielded two black first marshals," and concluded essentially by saying that no one was bothered by that fact. But many readers wondered why The Crimson would have expected anything different.

Finally, the reporter for the story, Fahrenthold, is a first-year comper, who told me that he felt uncomfortable writing the story and doesn't want to cover such material in the future. This seemed to contradict The Crimson's recently instituted diversity program which included among its stated goals the assignment of sensitive stories to experienced reporters.

I spoke to Todd F. Braunstein '97, The Crimson's president, who assigned the story and directed the angle it would take. He explained that the premise of the article is that in general, both at Harvard and in the United States, race matters. In other words, he said, it is not uncommon to find that blacks generally do vote as a block. Indeed, 90 percent of blacks who voted, voted for Bill Clinton in 1992. Like-wise, according to Braunstein, there is strong evidence to show that even at Harvard, race still matters. He pointed out that historically the houses have been segregated on the basis of race.

Thus, for Braunstein, the story was newsworthy because in this instance, surprisingly, race apparently did not matter. Furthermore, he explained that Fahrenthold is one of this year's best compers and that he had recently attended a seminar on reporting on racial issues which none of the older reporters had.

To Braunstein's credit, he spoke to me with the utmost sincerity and good intention, but I question his argument that the article's premise was a celebration of the fact that race didn't seem to matter in this instance. If The Crimson wanted to celebrate such an event, it could have done it in a much less ambiguous fashion. Nowhere in the article is it mentioned that in a racially divided society, this election represents a beacon of racial harmony. Here's a better lead of my own creation along those lines, "Despite the fact that in the United States black churches are being burned at an alarming rate, at least for Harvard undergraduates race didn't matter in the recent class marshal elections."

As far as the story goes, a good friend of mine probably put it best. She said, "It must be difficult for black students to always have to answer for their successes." I can say that during my four years at Harvard, I have had the pleasure of meeting both Allison and Eli. As Braunstein rightly pointed out, anyone who knows them, knows that they deserve every success they garner. But as a result of that, The Crimson needed to be more careful about making their premises clear. If they truly wanted to note the positive surprise that, at least in this election, race did not matter, then they should have done that. They didn't. In reality, what we read was ambiguity and what we felt was unease.

Shawn C. Zeller '97 is The Crimson's reader representative, or ombudsperson. He may be reached by e-mail at szeller@fas.harvard.edu or at home at 493-2490. He is not a Crimson editor, and his opinions are his alone.