Don't Be 'Illin'' on Outkast

In the 1950s and ’60s, the College enforced parietal rules to prevent undergraduates from entertaining members of the opposite sex in their rooms after certain hours. Those misguided restrictions were abolished decades ago, yet the spirit of the College acting in loco parentis—in the place of parents—apparently lives to this day. When the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) presented Outkast as the top possibility for a May concert, Associate Dean of the College David P. Illingworth ’71 suggested a different band, saying the hip-hop group’s language “may not be acceptable for many audiences.”

Illingworth’s comment seemed bizarre, considering that offensive speakers like David Horowitz and Larry Flynt come to campus all the time without the administration raising an eyebrow. Illingworth’s response, that “a concert is open to a lot of people,” makes one wonder just how a public speaking appearance is any more closed. No students would be forced to attend the concert against their will; as with speakers like Horowitz, those who would feel offended would be free to stay in their rooms.

If enough students felt uncomfortable with Outkast’s lyrics to make the concert a failure, the administration might have a point. But in a recent HCC survey asking students which group they would prefer to have for the May concert, Outkast won by a large margin. There may be a minority who might not feel comfortable with Outkast’s music, but music is an innately personal experience that can never please everybody all of the time.

Unlike at Springfest—an event which is now open to the entire University community and at which a plausible (though not necessarily convincing) argument might be made to play “family-friendly” music—the intended audience of the concert in question is specifically college students. We refuse to believe that they cannot maturely handle the music. Students have a right to their own taste, even if it is not the symphony. The students and the HCC have called for Outkast, and though the administration’s concern for our virgin ears is touching, it is clearly misplaced.