"I, for one, want to hear President Jiang's side of the tale before I crucify him like everyone else," Chung wrote in his e-mail.

In an interview with The Crimson, Chung said he supports "objectivity, looking at a situation with an objective viewpoint and not being so quick to jump on the human rights bandwagon."

Identity politics, for Chung at least, did not seem to allow room for the objective.

The Great Grape Debate

Chung's argument was echoed by Kovacevich as well during the flurry of activity surrounding the grape referendum in November.

Kovacevich, whose family owns a grape farm outside of Bakersfield, Calif., said most of the people attracted to his ad hoc Grape Coalition--organized to protest the boycott--had no agricultural background.

"Politics was definitely part of their identity but their politics were different from the labor politics of our opposition," Kovacevich said.

The group postered the Yard and set up a table tent with its platform which ultimately swayed the student body in a 1,694 to 1,472 vote calling for the return grapes of to Sunday brunch.

"It's hard to debate against people who have a high emotional and personal investment in the issue," Kovacevich says. "One of the things about the grape debate was that a surprisingly large number of people reached a conclusion without thinking through the issue."

But while grapes may have divided undergraduates like Campos and Kovacevich, both agree that almost everyone can participate in some version of identity politics.

"It goes a lot farther than just [ethnic] identity," said Campos, explaining that RAZA--which immediately mobilized to uphold Harvard's ban on grapes--worked with the Progressive Student Labor Move- ment, UNITE! and Education 4 Action during thedebate.

"These are a bunch of people that wouldn'tnecessarily identify with us culturally but who doidentify with us over the injustices inCalifornia," said Campos, who following the grapedebate was elected RAZA's president. "A type ofelectricity develops when you work on thesecampaigns. People start to discovercommonalities--like an excitement to becomeactive."

Rainbow Coalition

Caroline T. Nguyen '00, co-president of theAsian American Association (AAA), was a firsthandwitness to the type of coalitions that can formwhen identity-based groups share a common cause.

When the Undergraduate Admissions Council (UAC)decided to limit the number of extracurriculargroups at the pre-frosh extracurricular fairbecause of space considerations in Eliot Housedining hall, the first organizations to go wereethnic student groups.

In an e-mail message sent to student leaders,Kovacevich, who is also the UAC co-chair, said thecouncil felt the fairest policy was "to select across-sampling of groups that tend to representextracurricular `niches' on campus." Many ethnicgroups already host their own receptions and wouldbe represented in a panel discussion of minoritygroups, Kovacevich added.