Harvard Law School's dean has denounced a private e-mail from a student editor of the Harvard Law Review suggesting blacks could be genetically inferior to whites.

Dean Martha Minow said Thursday in a letter to students, faculty and staff that the sending of the e-mail was a "sad and unfortunate incident." She says the school is "committed to preventing degradation of any individual or group."

The Boston Globe attributed the e-mail to a third-year law student, who had sent it to friends. The e-mail circulated on the Internet this week.

The student is listed among dozens of editors of the Harvard Law Review, a journal of legal scholarship published by an independent student organization. She has told the Harvard Black Law Students Association she's "deeply sorry for the pain caused" by the e-mail.