Shots In The Dark: Barack and a Harvard Place

Sunday, January 28, 2024

Barack and a Harvard Place

Want to know what Barack Obama was like at Harvard? Well, you could read this story in the LA Times, published Saturday. Or you could read this story in the New York Times, published today. And if that's still not enough, you could peruse this article in the Boston Glove, also published today.

Here's the Times:

He often played pickup basketball, replacing his deliberative off-court style with sharp elbows and aggressive grabs for the ball.

The Globe:

Then a skinny, soft-spoken forward with tight shorts and high socks named Barack Obama raced out from the sideline and put himself between two of the warring players."He said, 'Guys, this is not serious -- it's just a pickup game...'

Here's the LA Times:

Interviews with more than a dozen people associated with the law review, both liberals and conservatives, found no one who did not profess respect for Obama.

Which is my way of saying that none of these articles tells you very much about Obama.....

¶ 6:02 PM

Comments:

What Barack was like at Harvard is not as interesting as what Harvard was like when Obama was a student there. And more importantly how it has changed, or not, since he graduated.

At HLS there was much uproar in 1988 about how white the faculty was. The only black member of the faculty resigned in frustration with how bad things were. To his credit, Dean Clark, backed first by Bok and then by Rundestine, moved aggressively to increase the racial diversity of the Law School Faculty. Similar efforts ensued at other Schools at Harvard.

The really interesting question is what happened to those efforts since 2000. In some ways it would appear that the country and Harvard went different ways. The country moved to the point that a young African American HLS student in 1988 is a presidential contendor 20 years later. Harvard, under Larry Summers, appears to have moved towards a rather different destiny. A comparison of the changes in the racial composition of faculty and students that took place between 1988-2000 vs. the changes that took place between 2000-2005 will provide a definitive proof of how the clock moved back fast at Harvard.

# posted by Anonymous : January 29, 2024 10:55 PM

These are all questions Evelyn Hammonds should be able to answer. And perhaps share the answers with the visiting committees this weekend.

# posted by Anonymous : January 29, 2024 11:10 PM

Evelyn Hammonds was - er - emasculated by Summers, who ignored and sidelined her unless her cases suited his purposes. She probably regrets, and certainly should regret, having taken that job on under Summers. Her next boss has to be an improvement!

# posted by Anonymous : January 30, 2024 1:25 AM

Evelyn Hammonds could still have the last laugh and do something important for Harvard.

She can share with the Board of Overseers and with the next President all she has learned.

Will she have the courage of a Cornel West or of a Rosa Parks in standing for what's right? That is the question.

# posted by Anonymous : January 30, 2024 8:30 AM

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