BLSA In The News

November 19, 2015

Harvard Black Law Students Association (HBLSA) Condemns Defacing of Black Faculty Portraits

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS – The Harvard Black Law Students Association (HBLSA) condemns today’s defacing of Black faculty portraits at Harvard Law School.

Today’s act is part of a larger pattern of racial antagonism at the Law School and schools across the nation. This event demonstrates that even at our nation’s most prestigious institutions, students, faculty, and staff of color are not immune to racial injustices. These injustices take the form of microaggressions, racially hostile learning environments, a delegitimization of Black voices and opinions, and a legacy of racism embodied in the crests of many institutions of higher learning in this country.

Today’s act of vandalism, motivated by racial animus, is not an isolated incident at Harvard Law School. “HBLSA is committed to fighting against racism, bigotry, and ignorance at our institution. However, it should not be our fight alone. We call on faculty and administrators to seriously consider the concerns and frustrations that students have repeatedly brought to their attention,” said Leland Shelton, President of the Harvard Black Law Students Association.

After students pressured both the Dean of Students and the Dean of the Law School, the administration opened a previously scheduled faculty meeting to students and staff to provide a forum for community-wide discussion. During the meeting, Martha Minow, the Dean of the Law School, acknowledged that racism is an ongoing problem in America and at Harvard. HBLSA considers the meeting to be a starting point, not a resolution, and will remain actively engaged with the administration, faculty, staff, student organizations, and alumni to implement concrete institutional change.

Shelton adds, “recent events at the University of Missouri, Yale, and campuses across the country remind us that racism persists and encourages us to continue to fight with a sense of urgency for meaningful change in our institutions and in our country.”

Media contact:

Leland Shelton, President, Harvard Black Law Students Association

[email protected]

http://www3.law.harvard.edu/orgs/blsa/

(Click here for PDF version)

November 29, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:

Members of the Harvard and Greater Boston community have come together to address an incident that
occurred at an after-party for the Harvard-Yale game on Saturday, November 20, 2010. During this
incident, a group of primarily black patrons were asked to leave a downtown Boston nightclub. Others
on the guest list were refused entrance altogether.

Upon arrival at the party location, Cure Lounge, partygoers were required to provide a Harvard ID in
addition to valid state identification, despite the fact that their names were on an official list provided by
the party organizers. Those waiting in line were not put on notice of this additional requirement
beforehand, and in the wake of this, people who had pre-registered and paid to attend the event were
turned away at the door. Those patrons that did make it inside Cure Lounge eventually were asked to
leave the establishment. The party planners reported that “[M]anagement decided to shut the party down
as to avoid the hypothetical chance of attracting the ‘wrong crowd.’” This assumption was expressed as
the basis for their requirement of Harvard IDs. The implications of these statements and the collective
events of Saturday are beyond troubling.

Our united message is simple: Prejudicial assumptions and manifestations of racial and social inequality
are social justice issues that concern every group, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or other societal
positioning. An affront to one member of our community is an affront to us all, and we will not stand for
close-minded behaviors or assumptions. We will not support or patronize any establishments that use
such assumptions as a basis for exclusion and/or discrimination. It is with this awareness and solidarity
that we stand together to fight injustice, whatever its form may be.

While the incident on November 20th was deeply disturbing, we recognize that it is not substantively
equal to issues that so many other people of color face in Boston and across the nation. The larger
community is still mourning the devastating loss of four individuals slain just a few short months ago in
Mattapan. The skyrocketing incarceration rates of minorities continue to leave voids in the families and
communities left behind. The recent cholera outbreak continues to wreak havoc on the people of Haiti,
and this impact resonates through the Boston area, which proudly boasts a robust Haitian community.

The reality is that discrimination and racial injustice know no boundaries. This recent incident is only
one narrative in a larger story of continued stereotyping and profiling that plagues countless Bostonians
and Americans; there is nothing special about the fact that many of the partygoers were from Harvard,
Yale and other educational institutions. We are not immune from the threat of bigotry and ignorance, but
we are committed to using this incident as a platform to draw attention to greater issues of injustice
occurring regionally and nationally.

We are writing this letter with the hope that it will provide a forum for candid, open and deliberative
conversations about societal inequities, the danger of stereotyping, and the ways people interact with
each other. It is our collective hope that as a community we will emerge more informed about issues of
injustice, more engaged with our fellow community members and more committed to not only acting
upon issues when they affect us personally, but also addressing them when they affect our neighbors.
More than ever, we recognize that injustice anywhere truly is a threat to justice everywhere. Today we
stand, committed to fighting that threat regardless of its form or intended victim.
Our efforts will not end here. Our resolve is strong. Our peers are engaged. We look forward to
expanding the dialogue on the impact of these issues on all people. We will work collaboratively to fight
back against prejudicial assumptions and manifestations of social inequality.

Sincerely,

Harvard Black Law Students Association
American Constitution Society- Harvard
Asian Pacific American Law Student Association- Harvard
Black Student Health Organization of Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard Caribbean Law Association
Harvard Graduate School of Education Black Student Union
Harvard Graduate School of Education Policy and Management
Harvard Immigration Project
Harvard Jewish Law Students Association
Harvard Journal of Law and Gender
Harvard Journal of Racial and Ethnic Justice
Harvard Lambda
Harvard Law and Health Care Society
Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights
Harvard Law School Alliance for Israel
Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine
Harvard NAACP
Harvard Law School National Lawyers Guild
Harvard Law School Student Bar Association
Harvard Law Students for Reproductive Justice
Harvard Transfer Student Organization
Massachusetts Black Women Attorneys
Middle East Law Students Association- Harvard
National Black Law Students Association
National Lawyers Guild- HLS Chapter
Prison Legal Assistance Project
Project No One Leaves
Scales of Justice A Cappella
South Asian Law Students Association- Harvard
Women’s Law Association- Harvard
More than 200 Individuals from the Harvard and Greater Boston Community

Click here for PDF version.

Dated April 29, 2010

Harvard BLSA denounces racially inflammatory language – The Harvard Black Law Students Association (HBLSA) strongly condemns the racially inflammatory email that was circulated among the entire Harvard Law School community. Like many individuals who read its content, we find the message to be deplorable and offensive. We are open to thoughtful discourse on even the most controversial of views, and yet we categorically reject the archaic notion that African-Americans are genetically inferior to white people. We recognize, however, that this issue is much larger than any single email or any particular student.

Harvard BLSA is not at fault – HBLSA did not cause, create, or instigate these events. HBLSA was not the initial recipient of the student’s controversial email. HBLSA did not forward the email to Above the Law or any other media outlet. HBLSA did not contact or meet with any other BLSA chapter regarding this email. HBLSA had no contact whatsoever with the author’s clerkship judge or future employer. Any information to the contrary is unfounded and patently false.

Harvard BLSA should not be the focus – It is unfortunate that HBLSA has become the center of this ordeal. We are disheartened that the reckless coverage of this controversy has shifted the nation’s attention away from the injustice and onto an unrelated third party. The real conversation—and all of the media coverage—should be about the unspoken assumptions and enduring racial prejudices that continually resurface throughout our nation. Simply put, the focus on HBLSA is misplaced.

Harvard BLSA recognizes the opportunity – After learning of this disappointing email and before this incident ever went viral, the outgoing and incoming HBLSA Presidents immediately sent an email to our members calling for a “well thought-out and strategic” response. We began brainstorming and soliciting ideas from our members to determine the best way to seize this opportunity. We called for strategies that would promote constructive dialogue and meaningful solutions, not those that would merely serve to further inflame racial prejudices. Moreover, we foresaw that sensationalized blogging would be reactive and counterproductive.

Harvard BLSA is moving forward – What is needed in this hour is a well-developed and effective course of action. After all, true advocacy is not a rash, knee-jerk, or emotionally charged response. Words are incredibly powerful. And as future attorneys, we realize that our words are our stock in trade. They can be used as a weapon to divide and tear down, or they can be used as a tool to unite and restore. HBLSA has chosen the latter approach. In so doing, HBLSA will continue to be a voice against injustice on our campus and in our community.

(pdf)

November 05, 2009