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Ending the Snowblind Admission of Legacies and Admitting the Legacies of Affirmative Action

Emil Photo Again Edited 61b7dabb61239


If you think I mention Harvard a lot, please forgive me. I did wait until the sixth word in this piece. This restraint may not be much compared to those (mostly white) who incessantly debate, “When do I drop the H-bomb?” as a social calculation so as not to alarm people they are in the presence of an arrogant a—hole.

Forgive them for their false humility. But I don’t use the H bomb to brag. I use it as it was intended. To level the playing field.

If the infamous Jeffrey Epstein and I were in a lineup-- and he was wearing a Harvard T-Shirt as he was wont to do-- who would you pick out as the Harvard alum? Not me. Epstein went to Cooper Union before he taught at Dalton, and before he went to prison. He met Bill Gates on Epstein Island. I was just a Filipino in Bill Gates’ Harvard class. Emil GuillermoEmil Guillermo

And now I mention this because I am in a unique position in the never-ending Harvard affirmative action debate. I am the progenitor of bona fide Asian American Harvard legacies.

That’s a fancy way of saying my kids were born with legacy tickets in hand.

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A New Track: Fostering Diversity and Equity in Athletics