My friend and cohost Wink Twyman is a Harvard Law alum. We moved quickly to be timely with our discussion of the defenestration of Claudine Gay. But I also wanted to make sure that we considered the matter of why Harvard may or may not mean something special for black Americans. Although I didn’t get an opportunity to go strictly according to all of the show notes I had up my sleeve, I think the conversation went well.
I want to be as approachable as possible in my podcasts, and that is the way I speak in my conversations, but here were all of the ideas and tangents in my mind on the way towards the discussion. Feel free to take up any of these tangents in the comments section.
Claudine Gay (yer out!)
Strike One: The Ruination of Roland
Strike Two: Students vs Harvard
Strike Three: Unequal Protection under Harvard Law
Background on Fryer: (my own writing)
Alas Poor Roland (2022)
Roland Gerhard Fryer, Jr. (2005)
Salty Africans, Salt retention & hypertension. 6 year mortality gap.
Acting White
Interracial Marriage
Black Names
Charter Schools: Hamilton Project
Education Gap
For all of us who are frustrated about decades of racial disparities that have gone unchecked, this is our Gettysburg. Yet we do ourselves a disservice in the battle against racial inequality if we don’t adhere to rigorous standards of evidence, if we cherry-pick data based on our preconceptions. The truth is enough to justify sweeping reform. —Tamika Mallory (SJW after St. George)
Background on Students
Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College
From Oyez.org
Harvard’s (and UNC’s, in the consolidated case) race-based admissions systems fail to meet the strict scrutiny, non-stereotyping, and termination criteria established by Grutter and Bakke. Specifically, the universities could not demonstrate their compelling interests in a measurable way, failed to avoid racial stereotypes, and did not offer a logical endpoint for when race-based admissions would cease. As a result, the programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Court noted that nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.
Black Harvard Alums of Note in the Early 90s when I really really cared.
Randall Kennedy - Reconstruction Magazine
Skip Gates
Ella Bell
Charles Ogletree
Stephen L Carter (Yale)
Black Faculty Convention @ Harvard 1993 (I attended)
Lani Guinier
Kilson’s Daughter? (Robin W. Kilson)
Ella Bell (Smith) - An HBS professor now sez,
“We need to get comfortable with difficult language like “systemic racism,” “systemic sexism,” and the intersection of those two. We need to understand the impact it has on all employees, and particularly employees of color. We need to dig deeper. We need to monitor. The person doing the belonging work needs to report directly to the CEO. We need to be sure that we’re constantly tracking and monitoring. We need to be sure that we are developing our people—all of our people—including to the high-profile programs. Given the demographics and how the demographics are changing, you can no longer say or use as an excuse, “We haven’t gotten to that group yet.” That just doesn’t work anymore. That is not the right answer.”
Sad Testimonies by successful black Americans:
Pushed Back To Strength (1993 - Gloria Wade-Gayles - Beacon Press) (boo hoo)
Volunteer Slavery (1994 - Jill Nelson) (boo hoo)
Rage of a Privileged Class (1994 - Ellis Cose) (now that’s insightful)
Reflections of An Affirmative Action Baby (Stephen L. Carter 1991 - Basic Books) (completely different than I expected + wow!)
Enemies of Nobility - Stanley Crouch / Winton Marsalis (Majesty of the Blues)
But I will answer them also by saying that nobility is always born somewhere out there in the world, and when you live in a democratic nation you have to face the mysterious fact that nobility has no permanent address, you hove to face the fact that nobody has nobility’s private phone number. Nobility is not listed in the phone book. Nobility is not listed in the society column, nobility shows up where it feels like showing up, and where it feels like showing up might be just about anywhere. If it could rise like a mighty light from among the human livestock of the plantation, you know it can come from anywhere it wants to.
Add this by Bill Ackman