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Our Affirmative Action Tales: Good, Bad, Ugly

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For Many Journalists, the Issue Is Personal
(Mister Mann Frisby, Jonathan Capehart, Courtland Milloy, Elvia Diaz, David Gonzalez, Yvonne Latty, Barbara A. Reynolds, Emil Guillermo)
Essence Festival Also Aimed to Recharge Magazine
What’s Happening to the Diversity Officers?
ESPN Laying Off High-Profile Commentators While HBO Cancels Bomani Jones
Why It Hurts Not to Have Blacks on Key Beats
Bilingual Newspaper Reimagines Journalism
Ozy’s Watson Calls Fraud Investigation Biased

Short Takes: Current office-holding descendants of enslavers; Stanton Tang; Bobby Henry and Black press association; Buffalo Soldiers documentary; Kelli Taylor; Sonia Clark and Military Veterans in Journalism; Pierre Thomas; Mary C. Curtis, Erin Chan Ding, Sarah Cortez and Solomon Crenshaw Jr.; Britain’s Debbie Ramsay; abuse of journalists in Venezuela, Ecuador, Hong Kong and Egypt.

Homepage illustration: Polis

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“Now that the Supreme Court has struck down the use of race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, conservative groups and legal experts say the private sector should get ready for more challenges to their diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.” (Credit: Poynter Institute)

For Many Journalists, the Issue Is Personal

Emil Guillermo, a Filipino American columnist, wrote this advice after the Supreme Court decision striking down race as a factor in college admissions: “On college applications, don’t say race; tell your story. Tell your race story. That has always been our best shot.”

Chief Justice John Roberts, in the court’s June 29 decision, said, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.” That came with this caveat: “But, despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

Some affirmative action opponents want more. Julian Mark and Eli Tan reported for The Washington Post, “Now that the Supreme Court has struck down the use of race-conscious admissions at colleges and universities, conservative groups and legal experts say the private sector should get ready for more challenges to their diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives.”

And Robin Vos, Republican speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly suggested he’ll move to ban grants designated for minority undergraduate students.

Some journalists of color are already telling their affirmative action stories:

‘I’m So Much Better Than All of You’

By Mister Mann Frisby, posted on Facebook

When I was a junior at Penn State, word got back to me that some of my fellow journalism classmates had called an emergency meeting with the assistant dean to discuss little ole me.

I had just finished an eight-week internship at a New Jersey newspaper. I drove 90 minutes each way every day to Asbury Park [N.J.] from North Philly for those two months and work/wrote my ass off.

Well, the others were upset with the assistant dean, who is my complexion, because they said he hooked me up with that internship without posting it for them to apply as well.

I was not invited or informed about that grievance meeting, but y’all already know…

So I slid into the back of the room and listened as my peers spoke to him about how unfair it was that I got an “advantage“ over them. After listening for a bit, and boiling inside, I stood up and interrupted all that shit.

“I want y’all to understand this. I did not get that internship because I’m Black. And I damn sure didn’t hear about it here on campus. I was informed about that gig by my mentors back in Philadelphia. They thought that I was qualified, being as though I’ve had published bylines since I was a 17-year-old senior in high school. Also, just so we’re clear, I’m so much better than all of you. It’s not even close. I read all of your articles in the Daily Collegian and most of you are just OK. That’s why you’re not in the mix to get an internship on that LEVEL. Next time y’all have a meeting about me make sure I’m invited.”

Afterward, I went right to the Pizza Hut buffet on College Ave and ain’t thought about them people since.

My full ride may have been affirmative action-related, but trust and believe I still had to grind for eight semesters and finish on time so that I would be in position to secure a journalism gig…WHICH I DID.

In my experience, it’s always been the most basic and unremarkable people who are always on the balls of their feet over AA. The comments on this fancy ass intranet over the last few days have shown that.

Mister Mann Frisby describes himself as an author, event curator and filmmaker. “The newspaper was the Asbury Park Press and it was summer of 1995. I was a police reporter and then features writer from 1997-2000 at the Philadelphia Daily News,” he says.

‘I Wouldn’t Be Sitting in This Seat’

Jonathan Capehart on the “PBS NewsHour”:

This is another Supreme Court decision that hits me personally. Were it not for affirmative action . . . I wouldn’t be sitting in this seat. I wouldn’t be with David Brooks. I would not have gotten the great education I got at Carleton College.

‘White People Who . . . Turned Out to Be Normal, Decent’

By Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, native of Shreveport, La.:

One immediate benefit of this affirmative-action-propelled adventure was meeting White people who, much to my surprise, turned out to be normal, decent human beings. Where I’d come from, that was not something you could take for granted. . . .

Some White colleagues have declared, as if revealing a shocking secret, that I was an affirmative action hire. So what? I think they are, too.

‘They Were Harder on Me to Prove I Deserved the Privilege’

By Elvia Diaz, Arizona Republic and azcentral.com

I wouldn’t be here without affirmative action.

And no, I don’t think the graduate admission gurus at the University of California, Berkeley, let me in just out of pity because I was a poor immigrant with a low IQ.

I had the brains and grades to prove I could do that work, but somehow state universities where I had gotten my bachelor’s degree were no match against Ivy League schools that dominated admissions at the time.

It never mattered whether people thought I was there just because of my race. I knew it wasn’t true.

The only thing that mattered was the fact that I was in and given the chance to compete academically with my classmates.

My professors didn’t give me a break or a better grade because of my race. On the contrary, I felt they were harder on me to prove I deserved the privilege of being there.

No matter. I welcomed the challenge, and anything thrown at me. . . .

Elvia Díaz is editorial page editor for the Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Her column was republished in USA Today.

How I Learned to Be Puerto Rican at Yale

By David Gonzalez, New York Times, via Facebook

For better or worse these places shaped us. They also left us to our own devices (raised by wolves, anyone?). In my case, the shock of arriving at Yale led me to explore and then embrace my working class Puerto Rican identity, something that a lot of us hadn’t really thought about before then. But we, too, shaped the place as best we could. Some of us still are in touch with current students. And while our ranks have thinned, the core group of affirmative-action babies remains in touch. . . .

David Gonzalez describes himself as “Writer, photographer and editor with deep experience in print and multimedia locally, nationally and in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Full posting at the end of this column.

‘Seems Like Just Blow After Blow These Days. Please Vote.’

By Yvonne Latty, Temple University, via Facebook:

‘
I know I am where I am today because of affirmative action, and even with that it has been really, really hard.

So few of my generation were able even to be in a position to slide into a barely cracked door. I went from totally Black and Brown spaces as kid to NYU, where I was usually the only Black/Brown person in the classroom, which was so hard for me.

I have lived with the motto “be 10x better just to stay afloat.” It’s a hard way to live but the only way if you are me Black/Latino, daughter of immigrants from the inner city, zero privilege, zero connections, zero $$. My parents did not even graduate high school.

I could clearly see what was going to happen to me if I didn’t work like hell and grab every opportunity. I thought, hoped and prayed that it would just keep getting better for those who came up behind me, that the country would see how affirmative action helped so many of us and how we have been productive citizens.

But now I have no idea how BIPOC are supposed to live their best lives when it always seems like just blow after blow these days. Please vote. It has never been more important to be engaged. (Added July 11)

Yvonne Latty is director and professor, Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, Temple University

Told That ‘Colored Women Should Not Be Journalists’

By Barbara A. Reynolds, via Facebook

Before affirmative action, things were pure hell.

In 1965, my application to enter Ohio State University’s journalism school was blocked by the dean, who simply said colored women should not be journalists.

I pushed and was accepted. When I graduated, many newspapers simply said, “We don’t hire Negroes.” I pushed and finally got a job at the Chicago Tribune. The editor who hired me said he had never heard of a Black woman who could write or report, but they were hiring me because of pressure from Black groups.

Once in, it was very hard to excel. I worked hard and was eventually promoted to the Washington Bureau to cover the White House’s urban policy. In the bureau I was treated like a pariah; the white staff would not eat with me nor answer my questions about the city. They would say we will be glad when a woman comes to this bureau, which relegated me invisible because I was both Black and female.

It should not be this hard for whites to accept Blacks as human beings. Racist institutions will use the Supreme Court to hold us back, but we have much more going for us now than we did in the ’60s. We know we have to fight White Supremacist policies that intend to destroy us.

We must march, we must protest, we must fight inside institutions that want to keep us out, we must take our dollars out of states that discriminate against us and support those who are for us. President Biden and his administration are on our side, we have the Congressional Black Caucus, many Black lawyers, judges and educators, and whites who are not racists.

We still have the same God that got us this far. Now that we are convinced the haters will destroy us, we know we cannot cooperate with evil. Fight back.

Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds is author of “My Life, My Love, My Legacy, the Memoirs of Coretta Scott King”; book coach, Washington Post blogger, and chaplain for Black Women for Positive Change.

‘I Had Failed in My Original Race Mission’

By Emil Guillermo, columnist, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund:

Guillermo also said in his column, written for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, that in one sense affirmative action was a personal failure.

“Chief Justice John Roberts was at Harvard the same time I was there. And I realized I had failed in my original race mission back in the ’70s. My mere presence at ‘that school in Boston’ did not persuade young Roberts of the merits of diversity.

“What about the mutual benefits of having an underprivileged Filipino kid as part of the student body at Harvard? Because I was not just there to take. I was there to give to America’s future leaders, like Roberts, a real world understanding beyond white preppie-dom, and to help him build the kind of empathy he’d need to have as a chief justice of the United States. . . .”

The 29th Essence Festival of Culture saluted Black women, highlighted Black music and culture and staged conversations with thought leaders on empowerment. (Credit: Associated Press video by Stephen Smith)

Essence Festival Also Aimed to Recharge Magazine

The Essence Festival of Culture, now a New Orleans institution in its own right but also a key component in the financial fortunes of the company that produces Essence magazine, returned over the weekend.

It featured a change of direction from R&B music to hip-hop, appearances by a contingent from the Biden administration and a flap that pitted the festival against a local Black bookstore.

The festival won. Essence shut down a Black author event at Baldwin & Co. The shop was planning to host a mini-festival on Friday, with a block party, food trucks and other vendors.

“But on June 25, Essence, citing violations of its trademark and of a new ‘clean zone’ local law limiting competition, sent the bookstore a cease-and-desist order,” Joni Hess reported Saturday for NOLA.com. “It said the planned event was an ‘apparent scheme to mislead Black authors, artists and guests’ by selling admission tickets, whereas Essence does not charge for its own author events. Baldwin attorney Katie Schwartzmann said no authors were charged for the store appearance.”

On Monday, “amid negative publicity and backlash,” Essence dropped its lawsuit against the store.

But were there any doubt about which party carries more clout with the city, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said: “While this event cancellation and miscommunication is unfortunate, the city and Essence remain committed to uplifting and celebrating Black culture and creators.”

One reason: Missy Wilkinson reported Friday for NOLA.com, “This year, New Orleans & Co. spokesperson Kelly Schultz predicts a $200 to $300 million economic impact. The caliber of visiting dignitaries and celebrities — including Vice President Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey — adds to the event’s clout.”

NOLA.com’s Keith Spera provided the bigger picture Friday. “For much of its history, it focused on classic R&B and largely ignored hip-hop,” Spera wrote.

“By contrast, the entire 2023 festival celebrates hip-hop’s 50th anniversary. For the first time, female rappers — Ms. Lauryn Hill, Missy Elliott and Megan Thee Stallion (pictured) — headline the three nights of Superdome concerts. Hulu streamed the concerts all three nights.

The festival went live last year after being virtual during the COVID pandemic, but “This year is the real reboot,” Spera continued.

The 2023 edition “is the first to fully reflect the forward-leaning vision of Caroline Wanga and Hakeem Holmes.

“Wanga is president and CEO of Essence Ventures, the parent company of the 29-year-old festival and its 53-year-old namesake magazine.

Caroline Wanga, Essence Ventures president and CEO, and New Orleans native Hakeem Holmes, vice president of the Essence Festival of Culture, before the festival’s press conference at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans Thursday. (Credit: Sophia Germer/NOLA.com, Times-Picayune)

“Hired in 2020, she is charged with revitalizing the entire Essence brand.

“Last fall, Essence appointed Holmes, a 30-year-old New Orleans native and St. Augustine High School graduate, as the company’s first-ever vice president focused specifically on the festival.

“Wanga, Holmes and an almost entirely new executive team are orchestrating a generational shift at Essence Fest. . . .”

Liberian-born Essence Ventures owner Richelieu Dennis announced in January 2018 that he had acquired Essence Communications from Time Inc.

“Change came, sometimes with turmoil,” Spera continued. “Of the more than 100 names on the Essence magazine masthead in January 2020, only six remain, Wanga said.

“ ‘We’ve had about 90% turnover since January 2020,’ she said. ‘We have a new executive leadership team that is really driving this next vision.’

“They sought to ‘re-anchor’ Essence Fest. ‘And when you are touching a cultural artifact that has been around for almost three decades, you are upsetting everybody,’ Wanga said. ‘All the sacred cows are gonna clap back.’ ”

In addition to celebrating hip-hop’s 50 years, the festival spotlighted Biden administration officials in panel discussions.

According to the White House announcement Thursday, “Biden-Harris Administration officials, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, will participate in the Global Black Economic Forum. . . . Harris will participate in a moderated conversation on the impact of initiatives from the Biden-Harris Administration that are dedicated to advancing economic opportunity. . . .”

Other sessions were to feature Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, and a discussion of the availability of federal government jobs. Wearing what fashion reporters called her power suit, Harris also denounced recent Supreme Court rulings.

What’s Happening to the Diversity Officers?

A Washington Post story about cuts at National Geographic notes a job loss that is seeming increasingly familiar. “Among those who lost their jobs in the latest layoff was Debra Adams Simmons (pictured), who only last September was promoted to vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at National Geographic Media, the entity that oversees the magazine and website,” Paul Farhi wrote Wednesday.

Adams Simmons, former editor at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland and board member of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, became the magazine’s executive editor for culture in 2017. She took a role in diversity initiatives and was credited internally with recruiting new writers of color. Adams Simmons had a hand in the 2018 mea culpa in which the magazine dedicated its April issue to the topic of race and publicly acknowledged the publication’s long story of racism in its coverage of people of color in the United States and abroad.

The Disney-owned National Geographic laid off all of its last remaining staff writers, 19 in all, and is relying on freelancers.

Simmons has company. “Warner Bros. Discovery is laying off Karen Horne, a diversity, equity and inclusion executive,” The Hollywood Reporter confirmed June 30.

Caitlin Huston’s Hollywood Reporter story also noted, “the layoff comes amid a trend of departures from DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] positions in the industry. Earlier this week, Netflix disclosed that Vernā Myers, who worked on the company’s inclusion and diversity initiatives for the past five years, would be departing the company in September. She will be succeeded by her vp, Wade Davis.

“Last week, Disney confirmed that Latondra Newton (pictured), the company’s chief diversity officer, would be leaving after a six-year run. The entertainment giant is searching for a new chief to fill her position.”

The same day, Christy Pina reported elsewhere in the publication, “Jeanell English (pictured) has resigned from her role as executive vp impact and inclusion at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a year after beginning in that position. . . .

On Wednesday, Clayton Davis reported for Variety that “On Monday, Joanna Abeyie, the BBC’s creative diversity director, joined their ranks. And even though the steady stream of departures is alarming, multiple industry sources tell Variety that more BIPOC executives are expected to join them in the coming weeks.”

If there is good news in these reports, it is that in some of these cases the positions remain, available to be filled by someone else.

Stephen A. Smith addresses the ESPN layoffs Tuesday on “First Take,” saying “I could be next” and that Black people should take nothing for granted. (Credit: YouTube)

ESPN Laying Off High-Profile Commentators

While HBO Cancels Bomani Jones

“ESPN is laying off around 20 high-profile sports commentators as part of a cost-cutting initiative, a source with knowledge of the layoffs told CNN,” Nathaniel Meyersohn and Jon Passantino reported Friday for CNN.

In a separate development, “HBO has canceled Game Theory with Bomani Jones,“ (pictured) Bobby Burack reported Monday, updated Tuesday for Outkick, citing three sources. Awful Announcing confirmed the development, and Deadspin’s Carron J. Phillips blasted the cancellation, saying that, “For some odd reason, viewers — and the powers that be — are still entertained by and have stuck to the idea that being loud and wrong, while yelling at the person sitting across from you is what makes ‘good TV’ in sports.”

CNN reported that at ESPN, “Among those let go were Max Kellerman, Keyshawn Johnson, Jeff Van Gundy, Jalen Rose and LaPhonso Ellis, the source said. Suzy Kolber also announced she had been laid off.

“The cuts to Disney’s global workforce are part of a multibillion-dollar cost-cutting initiative aimed at streamlining the company’s operations. The company reported operating profit grew 56%, to $12.1 billion, in 2022. . . .

“All of these commentators are under contract, the person familiar with the matter told CNN, all have an opportunity to explore other options despite their contracts, this person said. . . .”

Disney, which owns ESPN, is laying off 7,000 employees.

Why It Hurts Not to Have Blacks on Key Beats

A significant lack of Black journalists covering key beats “is particularly harmful to the lived experiences and even life expectancies of Black people when it comes to reporting on health, the economy, and criminal justice,” Nyasia Almestica and Collette Watson (pictured) wrote Thursday for the Black Wall Street Times, based in Tulsa, Okla., and Atlanta.

Watson works with Media 2070, a “media reparations” project of the media advocacy group Free Press, and Almestica calls herself a junior publicist and “fellow underdog,” among other descriptions.

The two cite a Pew Research Center survey released in April of nearly 12,000 working U.S.-based journalists.

“One reporting area particularly stands out by the race and ethnicity of the journalists who cover it: social issues and policy. Hispanic and Black journalists make up a greater portion of those who cover this beat (20% and 15%, respectively) than any other studied,” Pew’s Emily Tomasik and Jeffrey Gottfried reported.

Watson and Almestica (pictured) itemized the consequences of low Black participation on other key beats.

“According to the study, just 5 percent of Black journalists cover health beats, a disturbing revelation given that in 2020, 97.9 out of every 100,000 African Americans had died from COVID-19, a rate higher than that of Latinos and more than double that of white and Asian people,” they said.

“The glaring absence of Black journalists in health reporting disregards diverse perspectives on the catastrophic impact of diseases like COVID-19 on disenfranchised communities. . . .”

On the economy, “only 5% of Black journalists, 7% of Hispanic journalists, and 4% of Asian journalists cover the economic beat. Black people are less likely to invest, and why? Because many don’t know how. . . . ” This furthers the generational wealth gap.

On crime reporting, “Far too often, the media fails to acknowledge the perspectives of Black journalists in addressing systemic injustices that persist and contribute to Black people’s distrust of the news media, including its misrepresentation and vilification of Black families as poor and fatherless. . . .

“Public perception is often shaped by reporters lacking lived experiences that can connect with marginalized groups, proving the media’s obsession with sensationalizing Black stories rather than supporting Black journalists to tell them accurately. . . .” They expanded on all three points.

Domestic workers and day laborers perform in the Bay Area’s Acción Latina’s Paseo Artístico: Muxeres Keepers of Cultura, on March 11. (Credit: Katherine Castillo)

Bilingual Newspaper Reimagines Journalism

“More than a dozen domestic workers and day laborers took to the stage in March to educate fellow community members about their rights, particularly around sick leave. The performance was part of a reporting series produced by El Tecolote Newspaper, one of the oldest news organizations serving San Francisco’s heavily Latino Mission District,” Tracie Powell wrote Friday for the Pivot Fund.

“While nervous performers worried about missed lines, Fatima Ramirez, who leads El Tecolote as Executive Director of Accion Latina, saw the bigger picture. This was a representation of tías and tíos [“While these literally mean ‘uncle,’ and ‘aunt,’ they’re also used informally to generally refer to another person.“] owning their narratives, and also presenting the information in a way that made it more accessible to those who need it most.

“Founded in 1970 by journalist and professor Juan Gonzalez, El Tecolote was created to holistically reflect the experiences and perspectives of the Latino community, which is still often ignored by traditional media. . . .”

Ozy’s Watson Calls Fraud Investigation Biased

“Carlos Watson (pictured), the co-founder of Ozy Media, is loudly claiming on social media and in a well-produced video that he has been targeted as a Black entrepreneur in the mostly white tech world,” Lauren Victoria Burke reported Monday for the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

“Ozy collapsed after Watson was indicted for fraud in February 2023. Federal prosecutors alleged that Watson and his company defrauded investors out of ‘tens of millions.’ Prosecutors claim that Watson ran a company that was a fraudulent scheme to fool financial supporters based on false information about Ozy.

“But in the tech world, over-inflating user data and success is generally standard practice. Watson is arguing that his prosecution is racially [biased] and that he was using often used tactics by tech entrepreneurs.

“ ‘The U.S. legal system criminalizes the actions of black #entrepreneurs such as OZY Media Founder Carlos Watson while giving their white counterparts a pass. Black entrepreneurs receive 1% of venture funding and 51% of the prosecution,’ wrote Watson on social media on June 21.

“Watson’s legal defense team is asking the Department of Justice to conduct a racial bias investigation on the Brooklyn prosecutors who are working on his case. . . .”

Short Takes

The new boards of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and NNPA Fund are sworn in at the 2023 convention in Nashville. (Credit: Mark Mahoney)
“Buffalo Soldiers: Fighting on Two Fronts” uses graphic novel-style animation to tell its story. (Courtesy Black Bald Films)

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A vintage scan from Yale and Despierta Boricua, a Puerto Rican student organization at Yale. In 1978, the Supreme Court upheld the principle of affirmative action to overcome past discrimination but at the same time ordered the University of California to admit white student Allan P. Bakke. In the 5-4 decision, “the court struck down remedial plans setting up quotas based solely on race or ethnic origins without proof of constitutional or statutory violations,” the Washington Post reported. At Yale, some protested the appearance of Roy Innis, a Black conservative who supported Bakke at a debate. (Credit: David Gonzalez)

I Was an Affirmative Action Baby

Or, How I Learned to Be Puerto Rican at Yale

By David Gonzalez, New York Times, via Facebook

The early to mid-1970s at Yale saw the arrival of a few blue-collar Nuyorican students who had been prep-school scholarship kids. They, in turn, began to lobby/pressure the school to recruit prospects from public and Catholic high schools in predominantly Black and Latino communities. A turning point came when Eduardo Padro, a son of East Harlem who had gone to Dalton, and a handful of others protested outside the Yale Club and garnered support from Herman Badillo, the pioneering Puerto Rican congressman.

Within a year or two, admission was being offered to dozens of Puerto Rican students, mostly from working-class barrios in New York, Bridgeport, Conn., Chicago and Philly. (The school continued its longstanding practice of educating the Puerto Rican governing and business elites from the island.)

I was among the first wave of these beneficiaries of student activism and institutional noblesse oblige, showing up in New Haven in 1975, where I was welcomed by the small but growing Puerto Rican student population. Mind you, my high school in the South Bronx was seriously integrated, but the white guys I met at Yale were nothing like the hip Irish and Italian guys who had been my classmates at Cardinal Hayes.

And thus began my understanding of race and class.

Yale, for its part, wasn’t sure how to deal with us, assuming at first that simply admitting us was good enough. But the nascent Puerto Rican group on campus – along with Black, Chicano and Asian partners – pushed for not just a two-week summer orientation program (that still exists to this day), but also provided for freshman counselors for each of the ethnic student groups (I was one of these counselors in ’77-’78).

It was a much-needed step to help kids like us navigate elite – and alien – territory.

The Yale Daily News reports that the anti-apartheid movement officially began with the United Nations calling for economic sanctions on South Africa in 1962. “The protests culminated in the installation of a shanty town on Beinecke Plaza, which stood for 10 days until it was dismantled on April 14, 1986. According to The New York Times, 78 students were arrested while trying to prevent the destroying of the shanty town. It was, however, rebuilt later, and Yale did eventually divest in the early 1990s.” (Credit: David Gonzalez)

At the same time, the political atmosphere on campus reflected continuing debates over affirmative action, like African American conservative leader Roy Innis at the Yale Political Union denouncing affirmative action while outside, Black and Latino students picketed the event. This was also the era when student groups began to band together to protest Yale’s investment in South Africa, going as far as to march outside of President Bart Giamatti’s house (while several student musicians played congas).

The flip side of this is not all of us made it to graduation. Some of the brightest kids I ever met dropped out because of the pressure or alienation. At the same time, that era influenced my cohort in ways that resonate today. Eduardo Padro recently retired from the bench after a career in public service, where his decisions sometimes echoed the advice he gave us when we got to New Haven: We have a responsibility to ourselves and our community.

Felix Lopez, a Vietnam vet from a rough upbringing in El Barrio, was a student at Yale Law when he was tapped to be an assistant dean to help the Puerto Rican students adjust.

Granted, his time as assistant dean likely wore him out – to the point that he left law school and became a celebrated chef, until Guido Calabresi personally insisted he return for his degree. A classmate of Sonia Sotomayor, he too went on to use his legal training to help others, in his case crime victims and people living with HIV/AIDS.

Rosie Maldonado, one of the student leaders from our era, worked in housing and human rights, and is now a deputy police commissioner in charge of trials. I could go on.

For better or worse, these places shaped us. They also left us to our own devices (raised by wolves, anyone?). In my case, the shock of arriving at Yale led me to explore and then embrace my working-class Puerto Rican identity, something that a lot of us hadn’t really thought about before then. But we, too, shaped the place as best we could. Some of us still are in touch with current students. And while our ranks have thinned, the core group of affirmative-action babies remains in touch.

A lifetime – or career – later, it’s back to square one?

David Gonzalez describes himself as “Writer, photographer and editor with deep experience in print and multimedia locally, nationally and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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