Word: blustein
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...most popular lecturer, packing in as many as 700 into lecture halls for his course on urban problems (with some heckling--"all good-natured," Banfield says) to a notorious figure on the Penn campus and a recipient of the "Racist of the Year Award for 1974," from Bonnie Blustein, a former Harvard student...
...many ways Banfield's return to Harvard is linked to Blustein's harassment of him. Originally, focusing on Richard Herrnstein, professor of Psychology, for his theories that involve research on the genetic basis of intelligence, Blustein says she "caught on to Banfield" in 1972, when Herrnstein took a leave of absence. She says that a couple of radical groups on campus asked her, "Why go after Herrnstein when you've got a real racist on campus? Why not go after Ed Banfield...
Banfield today dismisses Blustein and her friends as a "bunch of kooks" who could exist anywhere, and alone did not cause him to leave Penn. But apparently he wasn't so unbudged by the college's treatment of Blustein after the award presentation incident--a suspended sentence and probation. The president of Penn, Martin Meyerson, a personal friend of Banfield's, admits that the school's light punishment of Blustein may have played a role in Banfield's departure--something Banfield himself doesn't contradict. Banfield also claims, however, that he is anxious to collaborate again with James Q. Wilson...
...When he says lower-class he really means blacks," Blustein says of Banfield's definitions. "What he says in essence is that we have racist institutions, and that their racist practices should continue." But Blustein's position is oversimplified: Banfield's disdain does not end with lower class blacks--it pervades to all members of the lower class...
Mansfield said that the Blustein incident "could possibly have something to do" with Banfield's decision