Word: sds
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...SDS, NAC (the November Action Coalition, SDS's now-defunct rival on the left), and Afro argued that the "abstract technology" aspect of the Cambridge Project was just a blind for counter-insurgency research. An SDS booklet read as follows...
...SDS might reply that it considers race important only because other people--bigots--consider it important. If individuals are losing out because of their skin color and not their abilities, SDS might ask, would not race be a legitimate concern? Indeed it would--and Herrnstein would agree...
...SDS-UAG activities in response to Professor Herrnstein's article seem clearly to be coercive in intent and effect. Placards in and outside his classroom saying "Fight Racism--Fire Herrnstein" and "Pigeon Man", chanting outside his office, demonstrations demanding he be dismissed from the Faculty obviously are not meant to convince him or others of the mistakes in his theories. These tactics and others, such as interrupting his lectures with questions irrelevant to the subject matter under discusion--though within the rights of those engaging in them--undeniably create an atmosphere of tension in Herrnstein's teaching and personal life...
This, of course, is exactly what SDS wants. And it's exactly what the 107 faculty members who signed the petition in the November 29 Crimson find distressing. It seems to me that the rhetorical excesses and coercive potential of this document don't compare to those of the materials being distributed by SDS-UAG. The impressive list of names at the bottom of the petition is unlikely to awe into submission anyone intent on harassing Professor Herrnstein, especially since they specifically say such behavior lies outside of disciplinary considerations. Should the fact that they are eminent academics disqualify them...
...Herrnstein article on I.Q. has created much genuine intellectual controversy around the country (vide the current Atlantic). Perhaps there would be more here at Harvard if SDS hadn't refocused the debate. Far from deserving praise for "raising the issue," the members of the SDS-UAG anti-Herrnstein campaign--though their behavior lies outside the disciplinary reach of any rational system of academic justice--deserve the censure and contempt of all members of this community...