Perhaps Mansfield is hiding behind the academic freedom Harvard granted him when they gave him tenure. Perhaps Mansfield feels that because he is a tenured professor at Harvard he no longer needs to practice what the vast majority of teachers and professors around the world demand of their students. Perhaps Mansfield believes he has some sort of scholarly mandate that excuses him from the need for objective justification. Whatever his reasoning, it must be deemed unacceptable--especially in a scholarly environment such as the one at Harvard.

Whether or not Mansfield is a racist can be debated until the end of time. Everyone has and is entitled to their opinion with respect to such a label. However, what cannot be debated is the fact that his credibility as a scholar is very much in question.

While I respect Mansfield's right to his subjective opinion, I have no respect for the fact that he lacks objective proof to support it. Thus, allow me to give Professor Mansfield two grades. His "paper" on blacks as the cause of grade inflation at Harvard gets an F, since his claim has no supporting evidence other than his subjective experiences. However, I am willing to inflate the grade to a D, since he did acknowledge that fact.

Brandon A. Gayle '03 is an economics concentrator in Adams House. He is treasurer of the Black Students Association.