Salon covered it. Now let's see if our own local media would too: http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/09/25/harvard_peretz_protest
If you want, you can suggest it as a topic for the WGBH news program by going here and voting on it:http://www.beatthepress.org/suggest-a-topic
"A PARTY FOR MARTY": HARVARD WELCOMES BIGOT MARTIN PERETZ WITH PROTESTS, WALK-OUTS, PROBING QUESTIONS
Contacts:
Maryam Monalisa Gharavi <gharavi@fas.harvard.edu>
Abdelnasser Rashid <arashid@fas.harvard.edu>
CAMBRIDGE, Sept. 25—Over 100 members of the Harvard community and others "welcomed" New Republic editor and the university administration's favorite racist, Martin Peretz, at the 50th anniversary of Harvard's Social Studies program with a combination of protests, walk-outs, and probing questions.
Demonstrators at the event confronted Peretz outside Harvard's Science Center—which was held in part to launch a $650,000 research fund in his name—and followed him for several minutes while chanting slogans rejecting his racist stances.
"Just because President Faust wants to honor a longtime public bigot doesn't mean that the Harvard community does," said senior Abdelnasser Rashid, a social studies concentrator. "We've billed this demonstration as a 'Party for Marty' to show how absurd Harvard's decision to celebrate Peretz is."
Peretz attempted to sneak out of the Science Center's back entrance around noontime but was quickly spotted and surrounded by Harvard students chanting "Harvard University will not stand bigotry" and "Harvard Harvard shame on you, for honoring a racist fool" as he walked aross campus.
The protest continued outside of the Adams House dining hall, where Peretz was honored at a Social Studies luncheon. During his talk, around 10 faculty and staff walked out in protest.
"It's Marty's party and he can cry if he wants to," said Maryam Monalisa Gharavi, a graduate student in comparative literature. "But the rest of us are here to remind him that we're not going to stand by while the Harvard administration overlooks his 25-year career in spewing hatred and bigotry. He has a right to free speech, not a right to be honored."
Protesters had gathered in the morning outside the Science Center, brandishing signs with some of Peretz' most memorable quotes from his long career of spouting racism. Peretz has described "Arab society" as "hidebound and backward"; declared that "many in the black population are afflicted by cultural deficiencies"; and described Latin American societies as "congenitally corrupt" with "near-tropical work habits."
Peretz was roundly criticized during the Social Studies celebration itself. During the event's morning panel, Berkeley economist Brad DeLong cited Peretz's recent statements about Muslims and argued that the only "appropriate response" was "What the frackity frack is going on here?"
During the afternoon panel, several Social Studies alumni and current students challenged Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick and Princeton professor Michael Walzer over their support for the Peretz Fund during a question and answer period. Students remarked on the irony of the session's title, "Social Studies and Social change," and asked the panelists how they managed to overlook a career of bigotry spanning decades.
The demonstrators joined the over 600 people, nearly all Harvard affiliates or alumni, who signed an open letter this week calling upon Harvard to reverse its decision to honor Peretz and establish a fund in his name. Separately, several Harvard student groups representing Arab, African-American, Muslim, and Latino students jointly signed letters condemning the decision to honor Peretz.
Harvard administrators have cited Peretz' recent attempt to apologize for a few of his most recent remarks after they drew nationwide condemnation; but these half-hearted and belated remarks do not address the many racist statements he has made over the past few decades.
"The Harvard administration has no right to accept to absolve Martin Peretz of his racism on behalf of students of color and others who oppose racism," Rashid said.
Video of the "Party for Marty" is available here: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3hLOO3YFM8]
Infamous Marty Quotes
"[The Lebanese] fight simply because they live. And the culture from which they come scarcely thinks this is odd."
-"Paris Diarist: Ethical Dilemmas," The New Republic, 19 Mar 1990
"So many in the black population are afflicted by cultural deficiencies. … I would guess that in the ghetto a lot of mothers don't appreciate the importance of schooling."
-Lynne Duke, "Continuing 'Dialogue of Disagreement,'" The Washington Post, 28 Mar 1994
"The stark fact is that the educated black middle and upper-middle classes do not go to museums, and they do not go to concerts either"
-"New York Diarist: Legends," The New Republic, 6 Feb 1995
On Arabs: "Alas, these are societies which cannot make a brick let alone a microchip."
-"Israel Bonds," The New Republic, Aug 5, 1996
"Terrorism ... is about the sum total of what the Palestinians have bestowed on our civilization during the last five decades."
-"Immature," The New Republic, 20 Jan 2003
"Arab society is, well—how do I say this? —hidebound and backward."
-"Honor Killings," TNR.com, 22 Feb 2007
"…I am extremely pessimistic about Mexican-American relations, not because the U.S. had done anything specifically wrong to our southern neighbor but because a (now not quite so) wealthy country has as its abutter a Latin society with all of its characteristic deficiencies: congenital corruption, authoritarian government, anarchic politics, near-tropical work habits, stifling social mores, Catholic dogma with the usual unacknowledged compromises, an anarchic counter-culture and increasingly violent modes of conflict."
- "No Special Envoy, No Crisis," TNR.com, 23 Mar 2009
"I couldn't quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well."
-"Sorry, But The Verdict Is In…," TNR.com, 6 Mar 2010
"This is a culture so unhinged by modernity that it clings to its crippled civilization. And who will tell me that the civilization of the Arabs, the civilization of Islam, is not crippled?"
-"I Know I Am Harping On The President's Israel Policy…," TNR.com, 19 Mar 2010
"You may think that 'backwards' does not mean the Islamic orbit. But I do. In any case, it means the route away from reason and scientific civilization. The road to darkness, where the Muslim world has been stuck for centuries."
-"If This Is A 'Tragedy' Then…," TNR.com, 3 Jun 2010
"Muslims would be better served as Muslims if they saw America as a gift."
-"The Mosque Is Not About the First Amendment," TNR.com, 7 Aug 2010
"In my view, the really modest struggle against the mosque is probably the closest thing we've had to a genuinely grass roots effort against the casual and elitist First Amendment fundamentalists."
-"The Mosque Is In Trouble, Very Big Trouble," TNR.com, 2 Sept 2010
"'Frankly, Muslim life is cheap, especially for Muslims.' This is a statement of fact, not value."
-"An Apology," TNR.com, 13 Sept 2010
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