Commentary

Commentary: Affirmative Action’s Death Knell Now Loud and Clear

Was the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg — the man who could make history as the first prosecutor to indict a former president — an affirmative action recipient? Why would anyone ask that? But we know it’s the kind of slight all people of color face. After the incredulous ask, “What are you doing here?”

Published

3 years ago

April 3, 2023

Oakland Post

And now that he’s on the verge of history, the man who is the possible perp of the moment, one Donald Trump, can only denigrate Bragg in accepted racist code, calling him a “Soros-backed animal.

By Emil Guillermo

Was the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg — the man who could make history as the first prosecutor to indict a former president — an affirmative action recipient?

Why would anyone ask that?

But we know it’s the kind of slight all people of color face. After the incredulous ask, “What are you doing here?”

Bragg grew up in Harlem on what is known as “Strivers’ Row,” where accomplished African Americans lived in good homes that matched their high status.

And yet, Bragg also knows what it’s like to be stopped by police just for being a person of color.

He also knows what it’s like to graduate from Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

And now that he’s on the verge of history, the man who is the possible perp of the moment, one Donald Trump, can only denigrate Bragg in accepted racist code, calling him a “Soros-backed animal.”

Trump’s reference to wealthy financier George Soros makes him anti-Semitic as well as anti-Black.

That’s how racist code has evolved.

And now Trump, by virtue of his Supreme Court appointments, is responsible for another evolution — the end of the ability to use “affirmative action” to flog an innocent person of color. That’s because in a few months, the high court is expected to end affirmative action at Harvard and essentially all institutions of higher education.

Since a SCOTUS review last October, there’s been little news as we all hope against hope that a tool for equity and equality isn’t negated by the conservative court.

The silence was broken this past week, when the New Yorker Magazine published excerpts from the trial that had been previously sealed.

The most damning thing revealed was a joke, an assessment of one male Filipino American Harvard applicant, written on official Harvard admissions stationery.

Jose is said to be the son of a farmworker killed by a tractor, who now supports his family of 14 while working as a cancer researcher AND playing football as a 132-pound defensive lineman (incredible considering his slight build). But he played at such a high level that not only was he named California Class AAA Player of the Year, he’s had an offer from the Rams of the NFL.

And let’s not give too much credence to the Nobel Prize he’s won.

“After all, they gave one to Martin Luther King, too,” the admission’s assessment reads. “No doubt just another example of giving preference to minorities.”

Far from an instant admit as a young man bound for greatness, Jose is dismissed as an Asian American likely to go pre-med and become a doctor. Ho-hum.

It’s funny in a gallows humor sort of way, and ready for use by either side of the affirmative action debate.

If you’re for it, it drips with the absurdity of the process.

If you’re against it, well, doesn’t this just ring with institutional racism?

But it’s a joke, essentially like an April Fools’ prank, written by an Asian American (Thomas Hibino) who at the time worked at the Department of Justice’s Office for Civil Rights. Hibino, now retired, wrote it in 2012 to jokingly goad his lunch buddy, William Fitzsimmons, the dean of Admissions at Harvard.

And it was so good even Fitzsimmons appears to have been fooled by it.

That’s not exactly a smoking gun to sink affirmative action. But it does reveal a chummy relationship between the regulator (Hibino) and the regulated (Harvard/Fitzsimmons).

And now it looks more like a decorative “final nail” in the Harvard Affirmative Action case —as if one needs any more nails than six conservative justices.

The unsealing of the trial materials is like a death knell that has broken the silence.

I was wondering about it as I finished up my theatrical projects in New York City this past weekend. In Ishmael Reed’s satire, “The Conductor,” one of the roles I played (besides a Brown Tucker Carlson-type) was Ed Blum, the man spearheading the anti-affirmative action group suing Harvard.

My Blum part is just an off-stage voiceover, but one person in the audience, who spoke to Ed Blum recently, asked me who the person was who did a perfect Ed Blum?

The person didn’t know it was me, a Filipino American Harvard graduate.

Which brings me to the other project, “Emil Amok: Lost NPR Host Found Under St. Marks,” where I tell stories of my Filipino American experience in the white mainstream of media and Harvard.

I invited several Harvard classmates from decades ago to attend my performances. Doctors, lawyers, an Academy Award nominee.

One of them told me he was ashamed about those days when we were brought together through Harvard’s admissions process.

“I just assumed you were like me,” said the white New Yorker, who was admitted to Harvard under the ‘legacy’ policy, which gives some preference to children of alumni.

Later, in an email he expressed this: “I shouldn’t have been so solipsistic and blithely assuming. I should have been more sensitive and curious. That aside, it was incredibly moving and meaningful to be let in now and to have a better sense of who you are.”

It only took 45 or so years for the real magic of affirmative action to happen.

And it did happen before SCOTUS is likely to kill it off.

###
NOTE: I will talk about this column and other matters on “Emil Amok’s Takeout,” my AAPI micro-talk show. Listen LIVE most days @ 2 p.m. PST. On Facebook; my YouTube channel; and Twitter. Catch the recordings on www.amok.com.

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Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 5 – 11, 2025

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November 7, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 29 – November 4, 2025

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November 3, 2025

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Past, Present, Possible! Oakland Residents Invited to Reimagine the 980 Freeway

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Published

2 weeks ago

October 27, 2025

Oakland Post

Hundreds of residents in West Oakland were forced out by eminent domain before construction began on the 980 freeway in 1968. Courtesy photo.

By Randolph Belle
Special to The Post

Join EVOAK!, a nonprofit addressing the historical harm to West Oakland since construction of the 980 freeway began in 1968, will hold a block party on Oct. 25 at Preservation Park for a day of imagination and community-building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Organizers ask attendees coming to 1233 Preservation Park Way to think of the event as a “time portal”—a walkable journey through the Past (harm and flourishing), Present (community conditions and resilience), and Future (collective visioning).

Activities include:

Interactive Visioning: Site mapping, 3-D/digital modeling, and design activities to reimagine housing, parks, culture, enterprise, and mobility.
Story & Memory: Oral history circles capturing life before the freeway, the rupture it caused, and visions for repair.
Data & Policy: Exhibits on health, environment, wealth impacts, and policy discussions.
Culture & Reflection: Films, installations, and performances honoring Oakland’s creativity and civic power.

The site of the party – Preservation Park – itself tells part of the story of the impact on the community. Its stately Victorians were uprooted and relocated to the site decades ago to make way for the I-980 freeway, which displaced hundreds of Black families and severed the heart of West Oakland. Now, in that same space, attendees will gather to reckon with past harms, honor the resilience that carried the community forward, and co-create an equitable and inclusive future.

A Legacy of Resistance

In 1979, Paul Cobb, publisher of the Post News Group and then a 36-year-old civil-rights organizer, defiantly planted himself in front of a bulldozer on Brush Street to prevent another historic Victorian home from being flattened for the long-delayed I-980 Freeway. Refusing to move, Cobb was arrested and hauled off in handcuffs—a moment that landed him on the front page of the Oakland Tribune.

Cobb and his family had a long history of fighting for their community, particularly around infrastructure projects in West Oakland. In 1954, his family was part of an NAACP lawsuit challenging the U.S. Post Office’s decision to place its main facility in the neighborhood, which wiped out an entire community of Black residents.

In 1964, they opposed the BART line down Seventh Street—the “Harlem of the West.” Later, Cobb was deeply involved in successfully rerouting the Cypress Freeway out of the neighborhood after the Loma Prieta earthquake.

The 980 Freeway, a 1.6-mile stretch, created an ominous barrier severing West Oakland from Downtown. Opposition stemmed from its very existence and the national practice of plowing freeways through Black communities with little input from residents and no regard for health, economic, or social impacts. By the time Cobb stood before the bulldozer, construction was inevitable, and his fight shifted toward jobs and economic opportunity.

Fast-forward 45 years: Cobb recalled the story at a convening of “Super OGs” organized to gather input from legacy residents on reimagining the corridor. He quickly retrieved his framed Tribune front page, adding a new dimension to the conversation about the dedication required to make change. Themes of harm repair and restoration surfaced again and again, grounded in memories of a thriving, cohesive Black neighborhood before the freeway.

The Lasting Scar

The 980 Freeway was touted as a road to prosperity—funneling economic opportunity into the City Center, igniting downtown commerce, and creating jobs. Instead, it cut a gash through the city, erasing 503 homes, four churches, 22 businesses, and hundreds of dreams. A promised second approach to the Bay Bridge never materialized.

Planning began in the late 1940s, bulldozers arrived in 1968, and after years of delays and opposition, the freeway opened in 1985. By then, Oakland’s economic engines had shifted, leaving behind a 600-foot-wide wound that resulted in fewer jobs, poorer health outcomes, and a divided neighborhood. The harm of displacement and loss of generational wealth was compounded through redlining, disinvestment, drugs, and the police state. Many residents fled to outlying cities, while those who stayed carried forward the spirit of perseverance.

The Big Picture

At stake now is up to 67 acres of new, buildable land in Downtown West Oakland. This time, we must not repeat the institutional wrongs of the past. Instead, we must be as deliberate in building a collective, equitable vision as planners once were in destroying communities.

EVOAK!’s strategy is rooted in four pillars: health, housing, economic development, and cultural preservation. These were the very foundations stripped away, and they are what they aim to reclaim. West Oakland continues to suffer among the worst social determinants of health in the region, much of it linked to the three freeways cutting through the neighborhood.

The harms of urban planning also decimated cultural life, reinforced oppressive public safety policies, underfunded education, and fueled poverty and blight.

Healing the Wound

West Oakland was once the center of Black culture during the Great Migration—the birthplace of the Black Panther Party and home to the “School of Champions,” the mighty Warriors of McClymonds High. Drawing on that legacy, we must channel the community’s proud past into a bold, community-led future that restores connection, sparks innovation, and uplifts every resident.

Two years ago, Caltrans won a federal Reconnecting Communities grant to fund Vision 980, a community-driven study co-led by local partners. Phase 1 launched in Spring 2024 with surveys and outreach; Phase 2, a feasibility study, begins in 2026. Over 4,000 surveys have already been completed. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity could transform the corridor into a blank slate—making way for accessible housing, open space, cultural facilities, and economic opportunity for West Oakland and the entire region.

Leading with Community

In parallel, EVOAK! is advancing a community-led process to complement Caltrans’ work. EVOAK! is developing a framework for community power-building, quantifying harm, exploring policy and legislative repair strategies, structuring community governance, and hosting arts activations to spark collective imagination. The goal: a spirit of co-creation and true collaboration.

What EVOAK! Learned So Far

Through surveys, interviews, and gatherings, residents have voiced their priorities: a healthy environment, stable housing, and opportunities to thrive. Elders with decades in the neighborhood shared stories of resilience, community bonds, and visions of what repair should look like.

They heard from folks like Ezra Payton, whose family home was destroyed at Eighth and Brush streets; Ernestine Nettles, still a pillar of civic life and activism; Tom Bowden, a blues man who performed on Seventh Street as a child 70 years ago; Queen Thurston, whose family moved to West Oakland in 1942; Leo Bazille who served on the Oakland City Council from 1983 to 1993; Herman Brown, still organizing in the community today; Greg Bridges, whose family’s home was picked up and moved in the construction process; Martha Carpenter Peterson, who has a vivid memory of better times in West Oakland; Sharon Graves, who experienced both the challenges and the triumphs of the neighborhood; Lionel Wilson, Jr., whose family were anchors of pre-freeway North Oakland; Dorothy Lazard, a resident of 13th Street in the ’60s and font of historical knowledge; Bishop Henry Williams, whose simple request is to “tell the truth,” James Moree, affectionately known as “Jimmy”; the Flippin twins, still anchored in the community; and Maxine Ussery, whose father was a business and land owner before redlining.

EVOAK! will continue to capture these stories and invites the public to share theirs as well.

Beyond the Block Party

The 980 Block Party is just the beginning. Beyond this one-day event, EVOAK! Is building a long-term process to ensure West Oakland’s future is shaped by those who lived its past. To succeed, EVOAK! Is seeking partners across the community—residents, neighborhood associations, faith groups, and organizations—to help connect with legacy residents and host conversations.

980 Block Party Event Details
Saturday, Oct. 25
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Preservation Park, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA 94612
980BlockParty.org
info@evoak.org