POLITICAL ACTIVISM VS. SOCIAL ACTIVITIES

Harvard's ethnic and racial clubs often play dual roles on campus--they are both political organizers and social coordinators.

Choosing which role a club should play is no easy task. Limited funds and multifaceted memberships force club officers to tinker with their organizations' programming, searching for the perfect balance between social action and social interaction.

While few club leaders say that seemingly contradictory social and activist agendas cause direct conflict within their organizations, many officers admit they try to play the two competing concerns off each other to entice new members.

Whatever approach club officials take to unite students of common backgrounds and varying experiences, the social or political approach is always open to revision.

Asian Groups

These tensions are especially evident within the sprawling network of clubs for students of Asian descent.

While clubs like the Asian American Association (AAA) attempt to tie Asian-American students together under a banner of political activism, more nationally-specific groups like the Chinese Students Association (CSA), the Taiwanese Cultural Society (TCS) and the Korean Students Association (KSA) sacrifice potentially controversial politics for a comfortable social atmosphere.

Students say they often belong to AAA because of its political activism and because it represents their particular ethnicity.

With 1,270 students--nearly a fifth of the undergraduate population--on its mailing list, AAA stands as a juggernaut in Asian life at Harvard.

With the power provided by this vast membership, AAA's leaders say they have an acute sense of political responsibility.

Its 25-member steering committee organizes activities for the nearly 200 members who can be relied upon to attend at least one AAA event each semester.

Founded in 1976 with an agenda of social action, AAA has seen several of its steering committee members go on to prominent positions in Asian-American political life.

Steering committee member Jennifer 8. Lee'98, who is a Crimson editor, says the club is "rooted in political activism."

"It's a tradition that we try to preserve," she says.

In the past year, the club has attempted to make its membership politically aware by hosting a speaker or holding a panel discussion each month, according to co-president Sewell Chan '98, who is also a Crimson editor.

The club held a 12-week-long study group on Asian-American history, which attracted 20 regular attendees, Chan says.

He describes such educational efforts as essential at a school which has no Asian-American concentration, only one course in Asian-American history, which is taught by a visiting scholar, and few Asian-American faculty members.

AAA also ran its seventh annual intercollegiate conference this year. The conference, devoted to Asian leadership, featured Harry Wu, a prominent Chinese human rights activist and political refugee.

AAA also organized a protest against Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), when he spoke at the Institute of Politics in April. Approximately 200 students attended the rally to voice their disapproval of Simpson's legislation seeking to restrict legal immigration.

Despite this substantial support, political activism does not offer all the answers for AAA's members.

"For our organization to be entirely political really turns people off," Chan says.

"You alienate people when you're being too political," Lee says.

The club attempts to build a social focus as well by hosting three dances and six study breaks each year. This year the club organized an Asian casino night featuring Asian games of chance.

The annual intercollegiate conference, AAA's showpiece event, also includes social events, such as a big dance.

"We were very conscious in trying to integrate the political and social/cultural facets of Asian life," Lee says.

Lee says, in fact, that the club spends approximately equal amounts of money on social and activist pursuits.

"We're trying to be all things to all people," Chan says.

But he says the club is social in order to be political.

AAA needs social events "to get people involved and interested," Chan says. "If your organization seems like it's pretty active and on-the-ball, plus it's fun, people will join."

Once members are tuned into AAA's social frequency, the club tries to transmit an activist message.

"People join organizations because they're fun," Chan says. "Maybe they can learn something while in them."

"People at Harvard are very intelligent, and they don't want an organization solely focused on social events," Chan says.

Social Organizations

Other ethnic organizations that draw their membership largely from AAA tend to be much more social in their focus.

Lee says the Chinese Students Association (CSA), of which she is also a member, is a "much more social organization."

Linked by the same ethnic background, a bond which the pan-Asian AAA cannot claim, CSA members "laugh at the same jokes" about their common experiences, Lee says.

This cultural link creates a very cozy atmosphere for Chinese students, members say, and they do not try to meddle with it.

Casting the CSA as a social organization, Lee notes that it "does what it claims to do very well."

She says the CSA holds seven or eight social events a semester, with activities ranging from a mahjong and karaoke night to a dim sum study break.

The social and cultural highlight of the year, according to CSA co-president David J. Tsai '97, is the Chinese New Year banquet.

This event, with an annual attendance of approximately 250 people, features student performances, food from Boston's Chinatown and traditional Chinese dragons.

CSA vice president Michael S. Chang '99-'98 describes the banquet as "presenting all aspects of Chinese culture to the Harvard community."

Tsai says the club is primarily cultural, but that there is room for a political element as well.

"I don't think there's a problem having both [cultural and political activities] within the club," he says.

Tsai says past leaders have focused more on social events, but he says the recent growth in the club's size has allowed it to move into political waters.

The CSA holds approximately equal numbers of cultural and political events, with the former holding a slight edge, Tsai says.

"We're trying to keep it half and half," he says.

This year, the CSA held discussions about human rights and Taiwanese and Chinese identity to complement its social offerings. The organization also co-sponsored a petition in favor of legal immigration.

Tsai says he would like to move the club further in the political direction but that he must take into account the different regional origins of Chinese people within the CSA.

He says most club members take an American viewpoint "based on democratic values" when they discuss political issues, but that the club cannot do the same.

"We do talks on issues, but we don't take a stand," Tsai says. "We try to be unbiased."

"The club has tended to stay pretty neutral in political matters," Chang says.

Tsai says the club pulled its name out of a protest over perceived Chinese aggression against Taiwan because the tone of the demonstration was too anti-China.

Still, Tsai admits that the CSA's executive committee sometimes argues over activist issues.

"Some people think we should take a political stance," he says.

Chang stresses that such disagreement among the "rather reasonable and level-headed" group is purely constructive and never degrades into infighting.

While Chang says he completely agrees with the club's current policy of political neutrality, he cautions against political avoidance.

"We have to represent all the aspects of our heritage," Chang says. "We can't ignore the political aspects just because it might be inconvenient."

Korean Community

Korean Americans for Culture and Community (KACC) make more of an effort to balance political and social activism than do the AAA and the CSA, members say.

Founded with political goals, the group is "more social than something like AAA," according to former director Julie C. Kim '97.

She says club members tend to form friendships based on mutual backgrounds and are often content to leave their interaction at that.

But she says the club does try to intersperse political goals with its social activities.

She says KACC tries to work political issues into a cultural performance the club produces every spring.

Kim says past KACC leaders "definitely had more specific political goals in mind."

She adds that these more forceful leaders would often alienate some members of KACC, a result which didn't mesh with her plan for group participation during her tenure as director.

"I've tried to make it more political, but we generally try not to force people to do what they're not comfortable doing," Kim says of her past role as director.

Kim says she tried to inform other members of political issues and opportunities for activism.

RAZA

For RAZA, Harvard's Mexican-American and Chicano club, socializing and activism conflict not in theory, but in the pocketbook.

RAZA's president, Karen Montoya '98, says the club's tight budget, approximately $500 last semester, puts a natural limit on the events it can stage and forces the club to make hard decisions about the nature of its activities.

"There's a conflict between how many we want to be political and how many social," Montoya says.

She notes that fiscal concerns sometimes place club officers on different sides of a programming issue.

"The tension has always been in discussions," Montoya says. "I'm not sure that it went beyond that."

As president, Montoya says she has chosen the social path, but not without reservations.

"My focus was to get more people involved," she says. "I probably focused more on the social events. I'd like to see more of a focus on the political [in the future]."

Montoya adds that social events have proved more effective membership recruiting tools than activist rallies.

RAZA's Cinco de Mayo dinner is the focal point of its social calendar, serving as a holiday celebration and a farewell to seniors. RAZA hosts study breaks with other ethnic groups and runs a movie night.

But the club also tries to mobilize its members for activism as well as its resources allow, Montoya says.

RAZA co-sponsored the Simpson protest and generally supports the work of the Ethnic Studies Action Committee.

The club also joined with students from the Kennedy School to show the PBS series "Chicano Movement" to interested students. Montoya describes the series as "a whole history of the Mexican-American civil rights struggle."

Recently, the club seemed to increase the emphasis on its political activism at a board meeting in May when club members Veronica Terriquez '97 and Richard Mora '99 proposed the formation of a distinct political committee within the club.

No member opposed the formation of the new committee.

Montoya says she sees this turn of events as evidence of the club's overall unity in the face of the dollar dilemma.

"[It] shows that people are content that they can bring up whatever issues they want to," she says.

BSA

In the Black Students Association (BSA), the tension between social and activist goals is exacerbated by lack of information about the club's limited resources, according to Chetanna I. Okasi '98, former BSA vice president.

Many club members pressure the BSA to pursue issues like minority hiring and racism at Harvard, Okasi says.

"When we don't take active stands...some people think we ought to be doing more," she says.

But, she says, most members of the club's board know that the BSA often cannot raise the money needed to bring national speakers on these issues to campus, while regular club members are probably unaware of this fact.

"Most of these differences are voiced mainly among non-board members," she says.

In addition, Okasi says the BSA is not always presented with clear-cut issues against which to rally.

Speaking of the reaction of former club president Kristen M. Clarke '97 to the publishing of The Bell Curve, Okasi says, "She was faced with a political situation, so she responded."

Tackling such a high-profile issue ensured last year's board an activist reputation, Okasi says, when in reality "the activities remain pretty much the same."

She cites the Million Man March as the most high-profile political event the BSA was involved in this year.

Regardless of varying perceptions of the BSA's purpose, Okasi says she finds the thought of a non-activist black student organization ludicrous.

"Our very breath is political," she says.