Harvard students call cops upon seeing black people

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

Wow. This is priceless. Thanks Wayne for the tip! From Gawker:

—–

This weekend, on the bucolic Quad at Harvard University—typically, the site of a casual game of Ultimate, or perhaps an afternoon reading of some Shakespearean sonnets before English class—an unusual and, to some, frightening scene was played out. There were people throwing things! And running! And jumping! And most scary of all, every single one of them was black. So the Harvard students watching from their dormitory windows, growing increasingly agitated at the sights below, did what any normal, white Harvard student would do when they saw a large, seemingly unruly group of black people: They called the cops!

Except, well, oops—turns out it was just the Harvard Black Men’s Forum and Association of Black Harvard Women:

As members of the groups played games of dodgeball and capture-the-flag in the Quad as part of the annual “BMF-ABHW Challenge,” Cabot House residents fired off a string of impassioned e-mails questioning students’ presence on the public lawn—and whether they were students at all. Eventually, the Harvard University Police Department was called about the commotion, and officers asked the students to “keep the noise down,” according to police spokesman Steven G. Catalano.

Perhaps croquet would have been more appropriate?

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Terror on the Harvard Quad « 13.69 on 21 May 2007 at 1:59 pm

[...] feel left out of the end of semester postings, so here is one for you– from Gawker, by way of Racialicious: “Blacks Terrorize Harvard [...]

Comments

gatamala wrote:

“I do not doubt the good intentions of whoever called; nor do I doubt that whoever called perceived no racial dimensions to his/her action. But given the pain the call to HUPD caused, I hope we can all resolve to be more thoughtful about when HUPD intervention is appropriate,” he wrote.

always denying the obvious w/ the “good person” defense…yes there may be other explanations i.e., noise, but let’s get real folks..the cops would not have been called on the Harvard Legacy and Heritage Club.

Posted 21 May 2007 at 12:47 pm ¶
A. wrote:

Nasty story.

Also, I have to say, I hate Gawker. I usually enjoy snark, but their commenters are some of the biggest SOBs on the planet– they’re always trying to prove just how blase and over-it and sarcastic they are; their comments end up showing them to be just insensitive and immature people who don’t understand the limits of taste and decency. Being hip and ironic has its limits before you just come off as an a**.

And, of course, Gawker and its brother blog Deadspin.com are almost tied for the most anti-Asian posts/comments I’ve seen in the blogosphere. Can’t count how many snarky “funny” comments I’ve seen by posters and by the sites themselves about dog-eating, Asian accents and other Asian stereotypes before I finally decided to stop reading either all together.

I’m surprised you keep up with Gawker, Carmen. They and their readership so often try to be so blase and sardonic they end up just being cruel, often racially so in regards to Asians, but of course their idea is that cruel is “in.”

Posted 21 May 2007 at 1:52 pm ¶
Koko wrote:

DAMN!

Now I have to think about crossing this off my list…

Posted 21 May 2007 at 4:50 pm ¶
Rabia wrote:

Worse yet, please see the editorials in today’s Harvard Crimson (and the comments!)

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518965

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518966

I don’t know how Lucy Caldwell sleeps at night…

Posted 21 May 2007 at 5:29 pm ¶
Meera Bowman-Johnson wrote:

It’s that last line of Calwell’s, rife with innuendo, that’s the clincher:

“In this way, we may show that this is, in fact, our Harvard—not the divisive community Counter and his gang would like to invent as a weapon in their hyper-p.c. crusade.”

Oh no she didn’t.

Posted 21 May 2007 at 8:16 pm ¶
s wrote:

Once again, a special bunch of spoiled white folk who have nothing better to do but watch black people under a microscope. Imagine if they were of Latino decent. There would have been immigration buses lined up behind 10 police cars. Pathetic.

Posted 21 May 2007 at 8:35 pm ¶
Mina wrote:

“always denying the obvious w/ the ‘good person’ defense…yes there may be other explanations i.e., noise, but let’s get real folks..the cops would not have been called on the Harvard Legacy and Heritage Club.”

The cops wouldn’t even have been called on certain non-Harvard groups!

I sometimes walk past Harvard Yard and several times I’ve seen a bunch of people playing with a bunch of big dogs there. I doubt the dorms allow such large pets. Either these people were borrowing the dogs from friends, animal shelters, etc. or they don’t live on campus. I’ve never seen (nor even heard of) the cops getting called on them!

Posted 22 May 2007 at 5:22 am ¶
eric daniels wrote:

Whites love being blissfully igorant of anything racial in nature so I say it’s time to debate separating from whites in legimtate black public policy. I could make a bet that white students on quads nationwide have had dodgeball, frisbee or any other games without problems now some black students are having fun on the same place where students of other races before them without complaint now feel the need to call the police.

“There’s something fishy about that”

I say personally that 20 years of neo- conservative race -baiting disguised as journalism and intellectual thought has caused great damage to race relations on college campuses everywhere and maybe it’s time we admit that Black and White Students in particular cannot get along in peace and brotherhood. Because 54 years after many of the walls of legal and virtual segregation we are still poisoned by reciminations, hidden hatreds and racial sterotyping.

Maybe there needs to be more black dorms and cultural centers because it’s obvious that we do not see things the same way, Black and White Americans are enemies like the Palestinians and Israelis and the sooner we admit that the better off we will be. A college should be a place where you explore ideas learn “how to play the game” and develop a sense of maturity in delaing with people of different groups, but instead, it’s the same politcal and social free- for – all you see on T.V.shows.

45 years of Intergration so what’s next folks ? Carmen, Lyonside, Brad anyone else who would call me an insenstive , sexist, anti- semetic , racist black man for merely seeing the truth in all it’s colors however ugly the result may be. You folks are speaking to the converted maybe the best solution to race relations is simple co-existence, don’t cross or disrespect boundries and RESPECT rights the minority to be left alone from the tryanny and disrespect of the white majority unless they have committed a criminal act.

Posted 22 May 2007 at 7:15 am ¶
gatamala wrote:

She lost me when she mentioned “tolerance.”

Since I’m the upper middle class white daughter of Harvard graduates who has endured relatively little hardship, my viewpoint is moot on many topics. If someone of my background questions an assertion that something is racist, she is deemed racist herself. We must strive for fair treatment of minority interests on campus but not at the cost of disenfranchisement of the majority.

How exactly is this majority disenfranchised?

Posted 22 May 2007 at 7:36 am ¶
Rabia wrote:

“it’s time we admit that Black and White Students in particular cannot get along in peace and brotherhood”

I completely disagree. The fact that ignorant, flighty, and inconsiderate people like the person who called the police or (worse in my opinion, Lucy Caldwell) are still around does not mean that progress has not been made. People do get along most of the time, but every once in a while some people just cannot contain their idiocy…

My problem with people who deny that racism was at all involved in the decision to call the police is that (1) how does one assume that a large group of college-aged people on a college quad are not students of that college? (2) did the person who called the cops not recognize at least one person from his dorm or classes among the group? for shame! (3) Harvard is an urban campus and there are tons of non-Harvard people on campus all the time; people are generally not suspicious enough to call the police, and the appropriate response if there was any suspicion would have been to first call on residential advisors to make sure that the students had permission to be where they were, not calling the police right away. Or how about going themselves to ask the group if they were supposed to be there? But I suppose black people are just too scary to talk to…(4) Perhaps if more non-black people took interest in the activities of the black student groups (and joined their open email lists, for example) they would have known that this event was going on.

Basically, I think that although emotions ran high following the incident, it is absurd to pretend that race and/or racism did not play a role, and it is downright insulting to dismiss the concerns of the students who found themselves excluded on their own campus.

Posted 22 May 2007 at 10:19 am ¶
Christina Brown wrote:

Color-blind racism

Posted 22 May 2007 at 4:33 pm ¶
Bianca Reagan wrote:

There were people throwing things! And running! And jumping!

flipper baby says:

Harvard students must be shitty basketball spectators.

Is it wrong that I LOLed? Am I a bad black person?

Posted 22 May 2007 at 5:27 pm ¶
Jen wrote:

Re: rabia
http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=518966

I am disappointed by that article.

Posted 23 May 2007 at 3:04 am ¶
April wrote:

Bwahaha, HILARIOUS. Thx. for making this morning fun.

Posted 23 May 2007 at 10:02 am ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:

I certainly would suspect some kind of racism going on here, but I just can’t see how the “did what any normal, white Harvard student would do” line doesn’t count as racist in an even more explicit way. It’s one thing to be influenced by residual racism, to assume things about people of another race that are unwarranted by the facts and involve negative value judgments. It’s quite another to take an explicit, racially-charge view. The idea that any normal, white Harvard student would call the cops is insulting, racist, and a pretty clear sign that the author has little moral standing to confront anti-black racism. Log in your own eye. Racism against white Harvard students borne out of resentment at those who have inherited privilege is just as evil as racism against the few black students who manage to make it into such elite circles. It may not have quite as immediate consequences, but they are just as disruptive in the long run to racial harmony and progress, since they alienate and anger the white people whose hearts and minds need so much to be opened rather than closed.

Posted 28 May 2007 at 9:18 am ¶
New reader wrote:

I’m with Jeremy Pierce. I was really enjoying this website but I must say, this post really disappointed me. For people so attuned to stereotyping, you sure are quick to perpetuate your own racial stereotypes! You’ve matched the ignorance of the students in the story with your own ignorant assumptions about them.
Being a Harvard student of color, I try to rise above making these assumptions and I suggest you do the same.

Posted 30 May 2007 at 2:04 pm ¶