The dean of Harvard Law School has now weighed in concerning a student's racist e-mail that reportedly went viral on the Internet this week.

Dean Martha Minow describes the e-mail in a statement today to the law school community as "troubling" and a "sad and unfortunate incident" that "prompts both reflection and reassertion of important community principles and ideals" including "confrontation of falsehoods," according to Above the Law, which reprints a copy of the statement.

The e-mail, Minow notes, suggests that blacks are genetically inferior to whites, and also resulted in what Minow describes as false claims that the institution's Black Law Students Association pushed the unidentified student's employer to rescind a job offer. (Above the Law says the student who sent the e-mail is to work for a federal judge.)

At the same time, however, "I am heartened to see the apology written by the student who authored the email, and to see her acknowledgment of the offense and hurt that the comment engendered," Minow writes.

In response to an ABA Journal request for comment, a law school representative states: "There is nothing to add to Dean Minow’s message."