Orlando Patterson: Harvard made ‘stunning progress’ toward diversity in half-century
Social change can often seem to move at a snail’s pace, but longtime Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson told a campus audience Sunday that the University and the larger American society have come a long way in embracing diversity in the past 50 years. “It’s an amazing phenomenon, just stunning progress,” Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology, said of the strides Harvard has made toward becoming more inclusive of African Americans and other minorities. Recalling the overwhelmingly white campus he encountered when he arrived in 1970, Patterson said that now, “When I go to my lectures or just walk across Harvard Yard, it’s just night and day. It’s wonderful to see this sort of mosaic of faces — black faces, Asian faces, [LatinX] faces. We take it for granted now.” Patterson offered his reflections on 50 years of diversity at Harvard and the U.S. as the first speaker in a new annual lecture that...