Last week, Wyatt Troia wrote a well-read piece in the Crimson entitled “Exploding the H-Bomb.” Since this may be one of the only times I truly agree with Wyatt, I figured I should take the opportunity to post about it.
Wyatt argues that Harvard students, when asked by non-Harvard-affiliates where they go to school, should answer honestly and without hesitation. He notes that Harvard students tend to evade the question by answering, “in Boston… in Cambridge… yeah.” Wyatt writes,
This is when it gets really awkward. Now your acquaintance knows you were trying to conceal that you go to Harvard, and will assume this is because you didn’t want to hurt his or her simple feelings about being so much stupider than you. You’ve succeeded, by trying to avoid looking arrogant and condescending, in exhibiting both qualities.
I completely agree. Moreover, I think our embarrassment to “drop the H bomb” stems from privilege guilt—and that evading privilege is never effective.
I first wrote about this kind of situation just after making my college decision:
Parent: You’re a senior in high school, right? Where are you going to school next year?
Me: …in Boston.
Parent: Oh? Boston College or Boston University?
Me: (laughs nervously.) Oh. Actually, I’m going to Harvard.
Parent: HARVARD?! (laughs nervously.) Really?! THE Harvard?
….
Me: (giggles like a maniac to maintain the impression that I am actually a normal person and not an elitist Harvard freak)
Apparently I, too, used to be one of those awkward “I go to school in Boston” types. However, I’ve since come around.
In general, I do avoid wearing Harvard gear when I’m running or walking around Boston or Cambridge. People smile at me more, or at least I imagine that they do. After all, Harvard hasn’t exactly had the best relationship with the community around it: between the nonexistent Allston Science Complex, measly Payments in Lieu of Taxes, layoffs from Cambridge’s largest employer, and jaywalking students, the name “Harvard” wouldn’t exactly inspire warm and fuzzy feelings if I were a non-Harvard-affiliated Cambridge resident.
Nonetheless, whenever I have discussed my college with a new acquaintance from home or from Boston, I have encountered only positive reactions to “Harvard.” In general, the people I meet are either genuinely proud of me, or they simply don’t care that I go to the most selective college in the country.
And that’s good. After all, Harvard is very similar to other prestigious schools (for example, the University of Chicago.) Reserving special attention for the fact that we go to Harvard only serves to compound the extraordinary and problematic mystique that surrounds our college. Instead, treating Harvard like we treat other schools and just telling people frankly where we go to college may help dispel the apparently universal stereotype of Harvard student “arrogance and snootiness.”
Being embarrassed of “Harvard” is a special kind of privilege guilt. Many people with privilege spend their whole lives feeling uncomfortable with the advantages they have (because of gender, social class, race, sexual orientation, language, intelligence), and thus ignoring them or feeling guilty. This is entirely unproductive.
Enrolling in Harvard does confer a lot of privilege. However, denying or downplaying that privilege fails to address the problematic power structures that make employers, high school peers, and potential dates gasp when we “drop the H-bomb.” Instead, I strive to recognize my privilege (it’s true, no one would read my posts if they appeared on my blogger and not the Harvard Political Review) and to use it for good by advocating for causes I believe in. I can thus take pride in my college’s name while demonstrating that Harvard students are not all arrogant snoots.
So perhaps Wyatt isn’t quite right to compare the H-bomb to a “band-aid that needs to be ripped off.” Instead of trying to prove to that parent that I was a normal person despite attending Harvard, I should have thought about it this way: I am a normal person. I go to Harvard. What now?
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