Don't get me wrong. I don't believe that having more courses in ethnic studies is going to rebuild the slums or feed orphan kids. That would be nice, but somehow unrealistic. I just think this kind of scholarship has academic merit. I think it has real-world relevance, too.

Those are two things I can't say for a lot of classes I see weighing down the telephone book I call "Courses of Instruction" (and this has nothing to do with courses on white males, of whom I am quite fond).

Ethnic studies isn't separatist and it isn't anti-white.

Perhaps if Harvard hired radical, militant ethnic studies professors this would be the case. Maybe that happens at other colleges; I don't know.

But last time I checked, subscriptions to The Socialist Worker weren't booming in Harvard Square. Professor Harvey C. Mansfield '53 was still talking about grade inflation.

Ethnic studies is a moderate and modest request. All students at Harvard are asking for is more courses in ethnic studies. More scholarship.

Ergo, more complexity and more understanding.

That's something I hope all people, Dean Knowles and my mohawk-headed friend included, can appreciate.