Harvard Walkout Over Marty Peretz Money

Forty or so students walked out on their social studies class yesterday, as the fight about an endowment from New Republic owner/figurehead Marty Peretz heats up. The $650,000 undergraduate research fund comes from donations in the name of Peretz, who is, among many other things, a former Harvard professor. (There is already a Martin Peretz Chair in Yiddish Literature at Harvard, since the early 90s; that money comes from his married-into (and now separated) Singer fortune.) Peretz was recently disinvited from speaking at Harvard over his recent thoughts on Muslims. The students’ crazy objections seem to mostly be about how Peretz not only hates Muslims but also most Latinos though mostly Mexicans and a fair share of the blacks as well. (But only what Peretz has historically classified as the lazy ones.) The Harvard Islamic Society is still waiting for its meeting with the school’s president.