Word: razo
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...must not dismiss Razo in such a manner, for the case presents a much-needed opportunity to take a hard look at race relations at Harvard...
After reading the initial press reports of the arrest, the image of a young minority lost in a community not generally known for racial harmony emerges. Razo laughing at his professors and peers after his arrest points to a minority who never found a close group of friends, never carved out a niche at Harvard. Whose fault is this? The student's or the school...
Harvard's poor state of race relations stand at the center of the Razo case. It appears that Razo's alleged crime spree stemmed from an effort to prove to his friends his loyalty to his Hispanic background. Why? Because at Harvard there is little or no practical way for a minority to reconcile his background with the WASPy, preppy Harvard experience. As some do here, Razo tried to be two different people in two different worlds. When in Cambridge he tried to be one more anonymous Harvard student. When in California, he did as the Hispanic homeboys...
...Razo's dilemma mirrors the problem of all minorities at Harvard. What identity do we seek here? Do we turn within to examine our heritage, or do we look outside and try to fit in to the larger society? Unfortunately no middle ground exists. Either path leads to the exclusion of the other and the disapproval of one's peers...
Harvard supposedly has an advising system which should be instrumental in helping students adjust to their college experience. But the Razo case suggests that the system has shown itself once again to be inadequate and in-sufficient for guiding students through one of their most extraordinary and traumatic times of their lives. Not one person here seems to have had any hint that Razo had any trouble adjusting to Harvard, that he might have been stealing on his vacations, or that he might have hated his life in Cambridge. But maybe College administrators can be happy with their system...