OFFICIAL STATEMENT: Boycott The Crimson

We, the Harvard Prison Divestment Campaign, wish to publicly extend solidarity to Act On a Dream by answering their call to boycott the Crimson. Members of HPDC will not cooperate with the journalists at our student newspaper until they apologize for harm done to undocumented members of our community through their reporting, and revoke their policy of calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment. 

 Much of the defense of the Harvard Crimson’s reporting practice has revolved around “getting both sides of the story,” but put simply, there is a severe power discrepancy between the two sides involved. On the one hand, ICE is a white supremacist organization that is responsible for terrorizing and displacing millions — principally, those we advocate for, Black and brown working class people. Conversely, immigrant students and workers at Harvard rightly protested the violent impact of ICE’s policies. To claim that both these sides require comment for a “balanced” story is absurd. To cry a need for “objectivity” is to legitimize state-sanctioned violence against immigrant communities. It is well-documented that ICE surveils and targets people for speaking to press and engaging in activism. As such, it is unconscionable that the Crimson would expose their fellow students to harm in this way.

HPDC is guided by principles of abolition, and it is absolutely within the parameters of our mission to stand by Act On a Dream and the undocumented members of our campaign. Our student newspaper does not exist in a vacuum and their actions have consequences. In this case, people’s lives are at risk.