Triumph of Platitude

Harvard Cannot Legislate Race Problems Out of Existence

The Board of Overseers of Harvard University unanimously adopted a unanimous report of a faculty committee advising against any form of racial or religious discrimination. And the press is unanimous in hailing that decision as "a victory for free thought," a triumph of tolerance,-- and, incidentally, a sound reproof to President Lowell for daring to mention the race problem in the first place. There is a great deal of editorial gesturing over "the democracy of letters" and "the old Harvard tradition of liberalism" and everyone from editor-in-chief to proofreader professes to be exceedingly relieved.

And, of course, all this declamation is as silly as it can very well be. No one denies the nobility of such sentiments. No one in his senses could fail to approve the action of committee and Board. And, parenthetically, no sane member of either body could very well have reached a different conclusion. But, nevertheless, the incident is anything but a triumph of toleration and a victory for free thought. On the contrary it is a magnificent example of the power of platitudes.

Harvard has a race problem. She had a race problem when President Lowell first refused to concede to its existence and he was one now that the Overseers have tried to legislate it out of existence. And she will go on having a race problem for some generations to come. There are groups at Harvard, as at Columbia and Chicago and--to a less extent--at Yale and Princeton which are not harmonious. The result is friction and ill feeling which cannot help but have unfortunate effects

It may not be true that the best way to solve difficulties created by the animosities of groups and classes is to let them alone. But it cannot be true that the best way to think about them is to pretend that they don't exist.