Reno's Decision To Seize Elin Unjustified

To the editors:

It's disturbing that The Crimson defends Janet Reno's decision to seize Elin Gonzalez (Editorial, April 24). The seizure was not a triumph of "the rule of law" but an alarming abuse of federal power.

Furthermore, it's disgraceful that The Crimson characterizes the resistance of Cuban-Americans to the will of the Justice Department and the INS as "the rule of the mob" and "irresponsible behavior." The editors dismiss concerns for the boy's future in Cuba as part of a "political agenda" because they don't have the faintest notion what it's like to grow up in a country with no freedom of speech, religion or the press.

Castro promises that when Elin returns to Cuba, he will be treated for the psychological harm done to him during his stay in the U.S. Cubans recognize what this means: once in Cuba Elin will be taken from his father, confined in a mental institution for ideological "cleansing" and periodically paraded before TV cameras to show a gullible U.S press how happy life in a communist state can be.

The Crimson's sense of justice is severely misplaced. The action of the federal government in Miami on Easter weekend was not a victory for a boy and his father but a victory for the dark forces of totalitarianism.

Bronwen C. McShea '02

April 24, 2000

The writer is the editor of the Harvard Salient.

Double Stereotyping

To the editors:

Noah D. Oppenheim's wonderful balancing of both Orientalist stereotypes and the "model minority myth" was a great example of what young white Harvard men can do when they put their minds to it (Column, April 21). Let us relive that wonderful column, reminiscent of the best Orientalist days of Rudyard Kipling and James Clavell: "It looks like the Bushido spirit is alive and well. (Bushido refers to the Japanese warrior ethic.) Based on the recent public debate surrounding the portrayal of minorities in the media, it is not clear whether the use of the word is appropriate…[But] bushido does invoke images of strength and combat, not math or science. Think samurai, not hairless. So, the Asian American Association (AAA) might actually be grateful."

I must congratulate Oppenheim for using both tropes so effectively in the same paragraph. In a wonderfully facetious tone, he says that all Asian men are sexless and hairless math geeks while at the same time irrational and rabid samurai.

Of course, for Oppenheim, racism against Asian Americans does not exist. If any people like him work at bars, I believe we have proved our case.

Jason M. Rabbitt-Tomita

April 27, 2000

The writer is a first year student at Harvard Law School.