"I don't think it's Hillel's place or positionto take a stand the on Harvard personnel issues,"Held said. He said Hillel's position is not finaluntil its coordinating council meets.
Libenson also refereed to an article in TheCrisis magazine written by Counter in 1985,saying the it raised the additional questionsabout the director's sensitivity.
The article entitled "Racial Slurs," condemnedwidespread use of the word "nigger" in the themedia and theorized about why it appears morefrequently than other ethnic slurs.
Counter suggested that ethnic whites whocontrol or influence the media use the word"nigger" to lessen their insecurity about theirown ethnicities and to denigrate Blacks.
One passage said that "The widespread increasein use of the 'nigger'...may well be part of amuch larger ethnic scheme designed to denigrateAfro-Americans and keep them as the focus ofnegative attention for the American majority."
Another passage read, "Significantly, the mediaforms through which some conspire to traduceBlacks with some conspire to traduce blacks withracial epithets are not controlled by theostensibly racist white groups." He said "specialinterest groups" influencing the media do moredamage to Black society than groups such as the KuKlux Klan.
Counter referred to movies such a as BlazingSaddles Roots II Saturday Night Fever andThe Godfather, and he blamed the some"Euro-Americans" and "para whites" for common useof the epithet.
Libenson said he brought up the article becausehe believes it uses the same "code words that havetraditionally been for a Jewish conspiracy in themedia" that the said he saw in the counter'srecent letter to the Crimson.
"There's no way I can definitely call AllenCounter an anti-Semite, but he sure the soundslike one," Libenson said.
Counter said the Crisis article never referredto a specific ethnic group and declined the tocomment further on the article.
In the interview yesterday, counter said muchcan be done to improve race relations on campus.
He said "we need to do a lot of the work" toimprove relations between Blacks and Jews and thathe is personally committed to "an effort to reachout to all groups to be a part of the Foundation,including Hillel."
Assistant Dean of Race Relations and MinorityAffairs Hilda Hernandez-Gravelle declined tocomment on Counter, the Foundation or his letter,but did say that The Crimson's diversity seriesdid not portray her office fairly.
"it failed to represent a full and accuratepicture to the community," she said