The poor judgment and inexcusable insensitivity toward other oppressed groups should not be placated by the rest of the community. Hillel must not send mixed messages. If BSA issues an apology and retracts its invitation, there is reason to talk. If not, there is only reason to resist.

The leadership of the Black groups involved counted on Jewish passivity and the fear of other liberal groups of being called racist if they protest BSA's decision to invite Jeffries. But they shouldn't cooperate--they should speak out tonight.

Instead of working with the Harvard community to combat racism and bigotry on campus, BSA invites racists and bigots to speak. That ends our obligation to support their programs.

BSA HAS every constitutional right to invite Jeffries. This is unquestionable. But the rest of the Harvard community has a responsibility to show that bigotry and hatred will not be legitimized by silence.

The grandparents of many Jewish students on this campus were slaughtered in the Holocaust that Jeffries says he is tired of hearing about. The gay community suffers continuous discrimination, but Jeffries says these people are "nasty" products of the European "ice influence."

In the December 2, 1991 edition of The Final Call (the Nation of Islam newspaper that anyone who wants a crash course in anti-Semitism should read), Jeffries says that I "was a planned enemy of his struggle" for printing my interview with him in the What Is To Be Done? Though it wasn't true at the time, I will wear this distinction like a badge of honor.

Jeffries' bigotry includes attacks against all who would dissent from his racist onslaught. When I interviewed him, he made racist, anti-semitic, anti-gay and bigoted statements because, as he noted later, he thought "I was representing the Black community at Harvard." It will be up to this Black community to show Jeffries they are not willing to accept his theories blindly.

Though Jeffries did not know I was Jewish at the time of the interview, he did expect me to write a blanket endorsement for him because I am Black. Jeffries assaulted me and had his bodyguard steal from me when he figured out that wasn't the case. There have been numerous newspaper reports of Blacks being intimidated by his thugs at his school, CUNY. This man ought to be in jail, not at Harvard.

In 1985, Harvard University ceased all official relations with the finals clubs because they refused to adhere to University policy by discriminating against women.

BSA's attempt to debase and intimidate the vast majority of the Harvard community should not go unanswered by the administration or the students.