Why The Esteemed Tradition of "Community Conversations" Serves Not Its True Purpose

The Harvard Crimson on the Class of 2012 admissions: "Most importantly, according to the Admissions Office, this class of acceptances is likely to be more socioeconomically and geographically diverse than previous classes—which was the intended effect of eliminating Early Action. For instance, a record 11 percent of students are of African American descent, while 9.7 percent are Latino, 1.3 percent are Native American, and 18.5 percent are Asian-American."

All freshmen are required to read a selection called Community Conversations and to engage in facilitated discussion of these readings within their entryways. This year's selections were based on class and race. But they were entirely one-sided with respect not to economics but to ethnicities.

Harvard's admissions processes, like many others, attempt to bring diversity to the campus, and yet, in these readings, we could only hear about the African American experience, 11 percent of the Class of 2012. They were incredibly enlightening readings, but they highlighted only one common experience.

What happened to the stories of our Native American friends? Where was the Latino and Hispanic experience represented? And, with a whopping 18.5% composition, where were the voices of our Asian American brothers and sisters?

Let me be clear: I think it's of utmost importance to read about the African American experience, but America is not a two way street of black and white, rich and poor, liberal and conservative. Instead, it is the American fabric with rich, woven stories and cultures intertwined inextricably within the very fibers of the warp and weft that constitute this great tapestry we know as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

But to be truly free, we must hear all voices and perspectives and stories. The Community Conversations blatantly disregard the Latino and Hispanic experience, the Native American experience, the Asian American experience, and so many other experiences untold and unknown, even when these minorities comprise such a significant percentage of the Class of 2012's composition.

We must petition the Freshman Dean's Office to re-evaluate its Community Conversation selections and to include more diverse contributors and literature. None of the students who are on the committee for Community Conversations are of Asian, Hispanic/Latino, or Native American descent.

I argue not that we no longer wish to continue learning about the African American experience and that other experiences must take forward precedence, but rather that the African American experience so deeply ingrained in the American experience would in fact be better understood and augmented in the context of other voices and cultures. Accounts of all kinds of socioeconomic and ethnic conditions must be implemented in these readings required of 1666 freshman of the Class of 2012 and all future classes. Then and only then can we consider ourselves the threads of a timeless quilt.

-Matthew