We Created a Monster: Trump Was a TV Fantasy Invented for 'The Apprentice'

Friends:

Not sure if this is the "October surprise" in politics folks are looking for but I certainly hope that it changes some votes. Trump is not just pure fiction, but a monster created by NBC chief marketer John D. Miller who expresses deep regret for making Trump a household name that ultimately plummeted him into the White House. 

Trump has mostly been great at serial bankruptcies, as opposed to being the great businessman that people believe him to be. 

If you've not seen the Trump Town Hall on Univision, I encourage you to do so. Trump's audience was comprised of undecided Latino voters, including immigrants, from many different backgrounds, ranging from agricultural workers, construction workers, college students, and business professionals, all very clear and well-spoken in their questions of Donald Trump. 

To say the least, he answered unclearly, dodged or failed to answer questions, gaslighted and insulted his audience, said January 6 was a "day of love," didn't walk back his statement in the debate with Kamala Harris about immigrants in Springfield eating cats and dogs. What planet is this guy on?

There are good follow-up posts on this including this one by Nikki McCann Ramirez in the Rolling Stone Magazine titled, Univision Town Hall Participants Unimpressed With ‘Arrogant’ Trump: Participants in the event expressed frustration with the former president in interviews.

A more critical angle appears on MSNBC's Morning Joe with former Univision president Joaquin Blaya referring to it as an "infomercial" that brought in the audience as "props," who further criticizes the network for not doing any fact-checking. Blaya is concerned that the network was irresponsible in giving Trump a platform. A serious Town Hall, he says, would have featured journalist Jorge Ramos who is arguably the most respected Latino journalist in the nation. Why they didn't do this, I agree, is troubling. 

To this, I would add that a serious Univision Town Hall on Latino undecided voters should conduct a poll of audience members following the debate if it is to make a real contribution to the process.

My sincere wish is that Kamala Harris also gets invited to an Univision Town hall to address either this same, or another similar audience and that Jorge Ramos moderate it.

Criticisms aside, the faces of the audience were priceless and telling, so opposite from other audiences he's been in front of where genuinely serious people are treating an "unserious" man seriously. To me, this means that even if they were intended to be "props," the audience clearly showed little love toward him, suggesting that they decided, as a whole, to effectively reject his role or presence in the performance. This could indicate that the audience found him unconvincing or simply unlikable, and as a result, distanced themselves from his part in the show.

Yes, Univision needs to stop aiding and abetting a fraudster, convicted felon, and media-created monster by giving him a platform, but I'm still glad that all of this came out. I hope this isn't too little too late.

-Angela Valenzuela

NBC Marketing Chief Admits The Apprentice Made Trump a “Monster”

NBC’s former chief marketer regrets selling an illusion that has had dire consequences for the world.

By John D. Miller | ContributorOct. 16, 2024, at 5:35 p.m.

I want to apologize to America. I helped create a monster.

For nearly 25 years, I led marketing at NBC and NBCUniversal. I led the team that marketed “The Apprentice,” the reality show that made Donald Trump a household name outside of New York City, where he was better known for overextending his empire and appearing in celebrity gossip columns.

To sell the show, we created the narrative that Trump was a super-successful businessman who lived like royalty. That was the conceit of the show. At the very least, it was a substantial exaggeration; at worst, it created a false narrative by making him seem more successful than he was.

In fact, Trump declared business bankruptcy four times before the show went into production, and at least twice more during his 14 seasons hosting. The imposing board room where he famously fired contestants was a set, because his real boardroom was too old and shabby for TV.

Trump may have been the perfect choice to be the boss of this show, because more successful CEOs were too busy to get involved in reality TV and didn’t want to hire random game show winners onto their executive teams. Trump had no such concerns. He had plenty of time for filming, he loved the attention and it painted a positive picture of him that wasn’t true.

At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country. The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was “fake news” that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.

I discovered in my interactions with him over the years that he is manipulative, yet extraordinarily easy to manipulate. He has an unfillable compliment hole. No amount is too much. Flatter him and he is compliant. World leaders, including apparently Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, have discovered that too.

I also found Trump remarkably thin-skinned. He aggressively goes after those who critique him and seeks retribution. That’s not very businesslike – and it’s certainly not presidential. This week, he threatened to use the National Guard against Americans who oppose him, calling them the “enemy from within.”

I learned early on in my dealings with Trump that he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it. He would say to me, “‘The Apprentice’ – America’s No. 1 TV show.” But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season. I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter. He just kept saying it was the “No. 1 show on television,” even after we corrected him. He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either.

Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous.

At NBC, we promoted the show relentlessly. Thousands of 30-second promo spots that spread the fantasy of Trump’s supposed business acumen were beamed over the airwaves to nearly every household in the country. The image of Trump that we promoted was highly exaggerated. In its own way, it was “fake news” that we spread over America like a heavy snowstorm. I never imagined that the picture we painted of Trump as a successful businessman would help catapult him to the White House.

I discovered in my interactions with him over the years that he is manipulative, yet extraordinarily easy to manipulate. He has an unfillable compliment hole. No amount is too much. Flatter him and he is compliant. World leaders, including apparently Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, have discovered that too.

I also found Trump remarkably thin-skinned. He aggressively goes after those who critique him and seeks retribution. That’s not very businesslike – and it’s certainly not presidential. This week, he threatened to use the National Guard against Americans who oppose him, calling them the “enemy from within.”

I learned early on in my dealings with Trump that he thought he could simply say something over and over, and eventually people would believe it. He would say to me, “‘The Apprentice’ – America’s No. 1 TV show.” But it wasn’t. Not that week. Not that season. I had the ratings in front of me. He had seen and heard the ratings, but that didn’t matter. He just kept saying it was the “No. 1 show on television,” even after we corrected him. He repeated it on press tours too, knowing full well it was wrong. He didn’t like being fact-checked back then either.

Exaggerating ratings is one thing, but spreading falsehoods about relief work of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, about immigrants eating cats and dogs, about the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, about him winning the 2020 election or countless other lies is far more dangerous.

Now America is facing a critical choice. Should this elderly, would-be emperor with no clothes, who is well known for stretching and abandoning the truth, be president again?

I spent 50 years successfully promoting television magic, making mountains out of molehills every day. But I say now to my fellow Americans, without any promotional exaggeration: If you believe that Trump will be better for you or better for the country, that is an illusion, much like “The Apprentice” was. Even if you are a born-and-bred Republican, as I was, I strongly urge you to vote for Kamala Harris. The country will be better off and so will you.

John D. Miller was the chief marketing officer for NBC and NBCUniversal, and retired as chair of the NBCUniversal Marketing Council.

Tags: Donald Trump

Ninth-grade ethnic studies helped students for years, Stanford researchers find

Friends:

To know why Ethnic Studies works, read these articles that explain why. I'm so glad that Dr. Eliza Epstein shared it with me and others while reminding us of our own struggle in Texas to advance Ethnic Studies citing, "'Never Without a Fight': How Texas Has Stood Up for Ethnic Studies, by Maribel Falcón.

Dr. Epstein also shares this in-depth, authoritative piece published by the National Education Association authored by leading scholar Dr. Christine Sleeter titled, What the Research Says About Ethnic Studies that is also great for the college classroom, together with works cited herein.

Why does it work? The short answer to this question is that all of these pieces collectively speak to the importance of a curriculum that not only fosters positive pro-social and communitarian values but as importantly, speaks to the situated experiences of the children and youth in the classroom.

The jury is in. Ethnic Studies changes lives and promotes college-going. The reason we have to struggle for it is therefore less about evidence than it is about politics. This is the story for quality, well-funded, and staffed Bilingual Education, too. Yet both offer such potential and richness to culture and society.

I remain encouraged by the ongoing activism around it.

This morning I read a Bible verse that says, "God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied." (Matthew 5:6)

Regardless of religion, faith, or creed, this is who we are in the Ethnic Studies struggle. We hunger and thirst for justice. We advocate for our children, youth, and communities. We care deeply about the future. This shouldn't even be a struggle to begin with. 

It's a lifelong quest that will most certainly continue until we are satisfied. In some sense, for those of us knee-deep into the movement, it already is. We love the work we do in our communities like we do at Academia Cuauhtli, our Saturday school in Austin, Texas, to offer a nurturing, culturally resonant pedagogy and vision for the future. At this school, we combine Ethnic Studies, Bilingual Education, and Indigenous pedagogy into a beautiful curriculum for elementary school youth that motivates and inspires. There needs to be more Academia Cuauhtlis in the world.

I've always said that someday, Ethnic Studies will just be called a "good education." Thanks, Dr. Epstein. I always appreciate a fresh reminder of why we do what we do.

-Angela Valenzuela


Ninth-grade ethnic studies helped students for years, Stanford researchers findSeptember 6, 2021

A new study shows that students assigned to an ethnic studies course had longer-term improvements in attendance and graduation rates.


A ninth-grade ethnic studies class has a remarkably prolonged and strong positive impact on students, increasing their overall engagement in school, probability of graduating and likelihood of enrolling in college, according to a new study of a curriculum offered at the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD).

A new Stanford study found that students assigned to an ethnic studies course had longer-term improvements in attendance and graduation rates. (Image credit: Getty Images)

The findings, which follow up on earlier research by two of the authors indicating short-term academic benefits of the course, appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Sept. 6.

The study provides “compelling and causally credible evidence on the power of this course to change students’ life trajectories,” said Thomas S. Dee, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR).

Dee co-authored the study with former GSE doctoral student Sade Bonilla, now an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Emily K. Penner, an assistant professor at the University of California at Irvine and former postdoctoral researcher at the GSE.

Lasting gains

The study was done in collaboration with SFUSD as part of a research-practice partnership with the GSE that began in 2009. In 2010, SFUSD launched a pilot program in which students were automatically assigned to an ethnic studies course as their first-year social studies requirement if they had a GPA of 2.0 or less. About nine in 10 were Hispanic, Black or Asian.

In 2017, Dee and Penner published a study showing academic gains at the end of ninth grade (e.g., higher attendance, grade-point averages and credits) among students encouraged to take the course. The researchers weren’t sure the gains would last over time, as countless promising academic interventions fade quickly.

But this one stuck. For one thing, attendance improved: Students who participated in the course came to school more often during their remaining time in high school, for a total of one additional day of school every two weeks.

By their fourth year of high school, the students had also passed six more courses than a comparison group. More than 90 percent graduated within five years, versus 75 percent of their peers. They were also 15 percent more likely to enroll in college within six years. (At the time of the study, they were not yet old enough to graduate college.)

Parallels with psychological interventions

How could one class in ninth grade have such a large effect? While there are many theoretical perspectives on the academic impact of ethnic studies, Dee underscored its parallels with recent insights from social psychology. Targeted psychological interventions that promote a sense of belonging in school, affirm personal values and forewarn about stereotypes have all shown promise in improving student engagement and motivation.

Dee noted that ethnic studies share these features and resemble “an unusually sustained and intensive social-psychological intervention.”

In SFUSD’s ethnic studies class, for example, students examine the role that their ancestors played in history, getting into the experiences of groups that have been literally pushed to the margins of textbooks. They study, in-depth, discrimination against various groups of people based on their race, social group, ethnicity or country of origin.

“The biggest thing that happens in an ethnic studies course, I believe, is that students get to approach an academic course from the perspective of their own experience,” said Bill Sanderson, assistant superintendent of high schools at SFUSD. “Everything is approached in the course from the experience of the students.”

Though the principles of the class remain set, teachers tailor the content to the ethnic and racial communities at their school in order to “to bring relevant curriculum that these students can identify with,” Sanderson said.

Critiquing history cultivated students’ analytical abilities across classes, and the focus on anti-racism catalyzed their idealism. But the work of the course goes far deeper than that, the researchers said.

“There’s long-standing evidence that many historically underserved students experience school environments as unwelcoming, or even hostile,” said Dee. Those in this pilot, particularly, hadn’t done well academically and didn’t feel like they belonged. And ninth grade can be a nerve-wracking, transitional year.

Ethnic studies gave students “the opportunity to see their community reflected in the curriculum,” said Bonilla. Learning about their ancestors’ contributions made them feel proud and made school feel relevant, contributing to a sense of belonging. Learning about oppression and stereotypes in action reminded students that not every failure is an individual’s fault. Students conducted research projects out in the community and connected school with their lives.

Beyond ethnic studies

From there, once a student starts doing well, you’re “starting a stone rolling downhill,” Dee said, catalyzing greater motivation.

“There’s a basis in the science of learning for why courses like this can change students’ learning trajectories,” Dee said. “And if the mechanisms we’re describing are really valid, then this goes well beyond ethnic studies,” encouraging schools to make their teaching culturally relevant across subjects.

Education policymakers have focused recently on “curricula as the low-hanging fruit of education reform,” or something comparatively simple to change, Dee said.

Nevertheless, the results might not be easy to replicate. The district honed the curriculum over several years with faculty at San Francisco State University, home of the nation’s first ethnic studies college program. Many of the initial set of teachers had studied in that department and learned how to manage debate on sensitive subjects, Sanderson said.

Efforts to replicate this success without similar teacher supports and careful implementation are unlikely to be successful, Dee said, and may even trigger unintended and negative consequences. “Consider the potential educational and political fallout of asking teachers to discuss unusually sensitive topics in the classroom without the proper training to do so effectively.”

This is an especially pertinent consideration now, in the middle of a new wave of political controversy about history curriculum. While states and school districts are increasingly adopting requirements and standards for K-12 ethnic studies, some state legislatures are debating bills to ban the 1619 Project or critical race theory, a scholarly academic analysis of structural racism.

SFUSD, for one, isn’t going back. Its board voted this spring to make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement.

“Ethnic studies is an important part of every young person’s education,” SFUSD board president Gabriela Lopez said in a statement issued by the district in March, which pointed to research showing the curriculum’s impact on GPA across disciplines, high school graduation rates, college-going rates and sense of belonging.


Media Contacts

Thomas S. Dee, Stanford Graduate School of Education: tdee@stanford.edu

Carrie Spector, Stanford Graduate School of Education: cspector@stanford.edu

Angela Valenzuela Acceptance Speech Acknowledging her Receipt of this year's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Association for Bilingual Education

Friends:

Wanted to share my gratitude about winning this year's Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Association for Bilingual Education. Considering that I cannot be present, I shared this video where I accept this unexpected wonderful recognition. It acknowledges my dedication to #bilingual education and advocacy for Latino youth as having left an indelible mark in the ongoing struggle for our full cultural and language rights in the U.S. I couldn't be more humbled or honored. Wish I could be there this morning with everybody. Were it not for health reasons, I would be there.

View acceptance video here.

-Angela Valenzuela

Woke Up This Morning to Hurricane News and Thinking about How Immigrants Contribute to the Literal Re-Building of our Nation

Friends:

Many of us are waking up to regular news on the staggering devastation and wreckage of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. This morning, I woke up thinking about the 23 people who lost their lives, the hurricane's emotional and psychological toll, and the daunting task of rebuilding in those many areas impacted.

I was reminded of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a category 5 hurricane, when immigrant workers were brought in to help rebuild the devastated areas. Similarly, undocumented immigrant labor played a key role in constructing Olympic Park in Georgia for the 1996 Olympics, as highlighted in the article titled, "Spirit of International Unity: How Immigrant Workers Helped Create the 1996 Olympics." 

The same situation occurred with Hurricane Ian in 2022. What’s deeply troubling is that despite immigrants’ consistently vast and invaluable contributions—so essential that our states couldn’t rebuild without them—they remain targets of persecution—as if they were less human. Why, then, are so many people susceptible to anti-immigrant rhetoric filled with blanket statements and stereotypes that are simply untrue? 

And why is Gov. DeSantis specifically so horrible towards them? As with our own governor here in Texas, it's clearly a great tactic politically because the issue makes people fearful and more willing to vote for the party that promulgates fear. It's ultimately, however, a toxic ideology that treats immigrants as "other," and as "less than" when the only non-immigrants in our nation are our native people Indigenous to this continent.

Most Mexicans and Mexican Americans are of Indigenous origins, as well, even if they don't claim it due to colonizing, historical processes of erasure, particularly in school curricula, that keep us from connecting to the stories, histories, and identities of our forebears. Hence, the importance of battles over school curricula that play out in local school boards, as well as in state policy, and the Texas State Board of Education.

I heard an elder say recently that treating immigrants harshly is unfair. "They're just coming home." If one has a sense of history that pre-dates the colonial period (1690-1820), this statement makes abundant sense. After all, our ancestors roamed freely across the continent. The Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs are in the same Uto-Aztecan language family as the Utes and Paiutes of the American Southwest. 

Like Texas, Utah gets its name from its Indigenous people. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, 26 of the U.S.'s 50 states have Native American names. Of all things, "Texas" comes from the Caddo people and it means "friendly." This is such a beautiful meaning that we fail to live up to when it comes to immigrants and Indigenous people.

Borders are thusly socially constructed through ideologies, policies, laws, statutes, ordinances, and ultimately through ways of knowing that distinguish who does and does not belong in our country. It's heartbreaking to realize that the greatest barrier to understanding is the layers of fiction used to separate people and justify prejudice and discrimination against them.

I have worked closely with the immigrant community my entire life. My grandfather even established a Baptist church in my hometown of San Angelo that was committed to the immigrant community. 

There is no one as hard working as them. And yes, they come to improve their lives, but also to offer a helping hand as the above stories indicate. Moreover, they give much more to our country than they ever get back in return. Heck, they keep everybody's social security afloat and receive no benefits in return.

I would only ask that folks consider the hypocrisy and animus when we witness the rebuilding of Florida and other states through the widespread use—and ongoing exploitation—of immigrant labor. 

Remember that they, too, are disoriented, shocked, and suffering from these Earth-shattering events that affect untold numbers of people. Moreover, like ourselves, they also have dreams and families with needs like our own and hopes for a better future.

-Angela Valenzuela 

The Texas Bilingual Education Story: Celebrating our Legacy [video]

Friends, 

Re-posting this video and blog from 2019. History doesn't go stale after all. In contrast, it's very much alive and must be re-told to each generation so that we do not take for granted the sacrifices, wishes, desires, and accomplishments of our forbears to whom we owe so very much. 🙂

-Angela Valenzuela

Thanks to Dr. Rudy Rodriguez who reminds us that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation.  Texas A & M University Professor Carlos Blanton cites the importance of bilingual education to European-origin groups like Czechs, Germans, and Poles in Texas, dispelling the myth that bilingual education was or is only for Latinas/os in Texas.  

Dr. Rodriguez' email correspondence explains the importance of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation:

Why is this legislation important???  This federal act provided the impetus for the implementation of the original federally funded 76 bilingual programs in the U.S.  Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso were among the 17 original programs in Texas. It also led states such as Texas to repeal the English-only laws approved as early as 1918. 

In the 1976, the legislation was amended to include federal funds for teacher training, including the fellowships for master’s & doc study in bil ed- related specialty areas.  For more on the history of the legislation & Texas bilingual ed, click video link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWbN_Y8aa5k Please distribute further to interested colleagues.  RudyR Rodriguez

Glad to see the late Senator Carlos Truán, the late Dr, George I. Sanchez,  the late Senator Ralph Yarborough, Maria Seidner, Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel, José Ángel Gutierrez,  Dr. Ángel Noé Gonzalez, Dr. Cuca Robledo Montecel, Dr. María Gonzalez Baker, among others, in the video, too. Crystal City also gets featured as a pivotal point in the bilingual education movement.  The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) is another important institution that has been instrumental in leading the struggle for bilingual education.

You will also hear expressed support for culturally relevant curriculum, too—which is what we term, Ethnic Studies today.  Pride in one's heritage, as well as Spanish language maintenance is what the Mexican American community has sought after forever and a day.

Great video!  Thanks to Rudy Rodriguez for this important reminder of our embattled history for bilingual education.

-Angela Valenzuela

The 87th Annual Texas NAACP Conference & Hero Award Recognition: A Personal Update by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

87th Annual NAACP
Conference
Magazine

Write-up in the NAACP
Conference Magazine

Friends,

I have a lot going on at the home front at this moment. The short of it is that I have a rare form of face cancer and am focused on my health but also happy to report some good news.

Note: Feel free to visit me on my Instagram page @vlnzl for specifics.

This past weekend, I had the great privilege of attending and presenting at the 87th annual NAACP Conference in Corpus Christi, where I was honored with the organization's highest accolade, the Hero Award. I shared this distinction with the esteemed Robert Notzon, Distinguished Attorney and Chair of the Texas NAACP Legal Redress Committee.

This is in recognition of my co-founding, along with NAACP President Gary Bledsoe of Black Brown Dialogues on Policy together with my years of dedication and mentoring of students to be agents of change in the Texas State Legislature and the Texas State Board of Education. I am so deeply humbled and honored to receive this recognition.

With keynote addresses from Congressional Gold Medalists' Nathanial (Nate) Briggs—whose family's case, Briggs vs. Elliott of Brown v. Board of Education fame—and Dr. Terrence Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine, it was so powerful and humbling to learn about how vulnerable communities sacrificed so much for a more equitable education. Both of their presentations inspire the thought that what may often seem like "little" acts by isolated communities can escalate into course-changing directions for our country in ways that are beneficial to all. 

A special thanks to NAACP President Gary Bledsoe and Alberta Bledsoe for their outstanding leadership. Alberta chaired this year's conference. The team consisted of Sherley Spears (vice-chair), Members Linda Lewis, Carol Moore, Jeremy Coleman, Shevann Steuben, Skylahr Mimms (youth chair), and advisory members Hopeton Hay, Clyde Lemon and Casey Thomas. Congratulations to all for an outstanding conference.

Here are a few conference photos. My heart is full. 💗

UT-Austin students, Dr. Zamora & me

 
Alberta Bledsoe, 

Emilio & Me

I am soon exiting what the doctors call the “honeymoon phase” of my treatment. This period varies for each individual but typically lasts until the third or fourth week, after which there's often a noticeable shift into a more challenging stage. I'm already experiencing moderate side effects. 

Thankfully, my cancer was detected early, and the doctors are using the word "cure," for which I am incredibly grateful. I so look forward to being well.

Next weekend, I will be receiving another major honor—a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE). I'm disappointed that I won't be able to attend this year's conference due to my health concerns as I enter the fourth week of treatment. I submitted a recorded acceptance message that I hope to share on Friday when I was supposed to have received it.

My receiving the Hero Award
yesterday PM

I am deeply grateful for the unwavering support of my husband, Emilio Zamora, the love of my life, who has stood by me throughout this journey. His calm strength and resilience mean the world to me.

I am also super grateful to the support of my chair, Dr. Pedro Reyes, and the staff, students, and faculty in my home department of Educational Leadership and Policy (ELP), as well as to College of Education Dean Charles Martinez, for his support in my hour of need.

I returned home from Corpus Christi this evening to these beautiful flowers from my department. Check out the cool t-shirt I'm wearing that I picked up at the NAACP Conference.

I miss everybody, too, and am so appreciative of their love and care. I will most definitely need your good thoughts and prayers in the coming weeks as I've shared. As you can perhaps sense from the photos, they're already working! 

Life is good. 😊🙏😊

-Angela Valenzuela

"Corruption of My Mexican Identity," by Dan Acosta, Ph.D.

There is a lot to appreciate from this story by a former member of the University of Texas at Austin faculty, Dr. Dan Acosta, who also previously served as Dean Emeritus of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati. He offers a powerful narrative that resonates deeply with struggles faced by Mexican Americans. In my own research, I describe the systemic erasure of our identities as "subtractive schooling," a deliberate process that undermines our cultural heritage, as well as individual and community power.

Dan Acosta, Ph.D.

In Dr. Acosta’s story, I sense profound pain and frustration rooted in a long history of prejudice and discrimination. The inability to speak Spanish, or not speaking it “correctly,” reflects the success of assimilationist policies designed to strip away cultural ties. The stakes are high for those in power—especially as manifest throughout ongoing battles within the State Board of Education over culturally relevant curriculum and Ethnic Studies programs.

The irony here is striking. Current anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies seek to suppress initiatives that promote these very principles. Albeit with a few exceptions, the tragedy here is that DEI efforts have rarely been abundant in any meaningful way, as Dr. Acosta’s experiences illustrate. On the contrary, his story reveals a history of exclusion to which I can relate as one who has fought for her own place in higher education despite my Stanford Ph.D. and credentials.

Anti-affirmative action and DEI opposition appear to be preemptive strikes in an environment where people of color might otherwise gain access to higher education and subsequently assume their rightful places at the table in culture and society. These policies send a clear message: These opportunities are reserved primarily for white people. So wrong-headed. So sad.

So much talent has been wasted. It is truly a shame. Thanks, Dr. Acosta, for your story. We need more of these so folks out there don't believe the lies about the academy getting overtaken by "woke" students and faculty of color. Rather a more sinister agenda is at play.

—Angela Valenzuela

Corruption of My Mexican Identity

By Dan Acosta | Summer/Autumn 2024 | Rise Up Review, Resistance is Fertile

Now that I am retired one of my weekly tasks is to read what is happening at the Society of Toxicology, the largest professional group for toxicologists of all types--academic, government, and industrial- in the world. As the first elected Hispanic president of the organization, I like to keep up to date with issues facing the society. One current topic is to increase membership and to bring in more diverse scientists into the discipline, especially non-toxicologists who want to learn more about toxicology. Without getting too much into the weeds about the issue, I was struck by a comment made by a past president who strongly objected to the possibility that standards would be lowered to allow more people of diversity (i.e. people of color) become members of SOT. He did not want a "dumbing down of the society with unqualified individuals". He was alluding to affirmative action and "DEI" issues that have become hot political topics in America. It got me thinking about my life and qualifications as one of those people of diversity that SOT wants to have as some of its members.

As a first-generation Mexican American, my mother and grandparents emigrated to El Paso from Mexico; her parents wanted to create a new life for themselves by escaping the discord and troubled times in Mexico during its revolution in the early 1900s. Nana Cuca often told me stories of what it was like to live in Mexico and recounted her vivid memories of some of the revolutionaries like Pancho Villa. My paternal grandfather also came from Mexico; he later married his wife who was born in Presidio, Texas. My father was born in Valentine, Texas. He stopped going to school after the sixth grade so he could work with his father who was a hired hand on a ranch near Marfa. My parents never completed high school.   

When I was very young especially before I started grade school in 1951, my mother was often asked about my heritage. I later learned that they really wanted to know if I was white and not a Mexican. Nana Cuca used to brag that our family tree had strong Portuguese ties and that the lighter skin colors of her ancestors were passed on to her daughters--my mother and her sister, Babe. Although as a young boy I looked like a chubby white kid with fat cheeks, my Mexican heritage became more apparent as I grew older. My light brown hair started to become darker and by the time I began high school my hair had turned black, and my facial features were more Mexican-like.

I refused to speak Spanish at home and at school; my parents and family spoke to me in Spanish and did not force me to respond in Spanish. Many of my teachers wanted to help me because of my eagerness to learn and my desire to become the best student in their classes. I wanted to acquire at all costs those American traits or characteristics of my white classmates who were most successful in the classroom. Because of my skin tone and hair color when I started grade school, I did not experience the discrimination and hatred that my brown-colored friends and classmates often encountered. This Americanization process corrupted my Mexican identity at a very young age, and it has taken me a lifetime to confront my mistake. As I progressed through college, the army, graduate school, and my academic career, I was no longer that smart little Mexican boy. I now faced subtle discriminations and at times overt racist remarks from highly educated individuals.

I eventually graduated as one of the top students in my high school class, and later on I graduated top of my pharmacy class at the University of Texas in 1968. I received one of the few highly competitive national fellowships awarded to graduate students to attend a school of their own choosing. I earned a doctorate in toxicology at the University of Kansas and accepted a position as an assistant professor at the University of Texas in 1974.

However, I was rudely introduced to the role of DEI and affirmative action in hiring more people of color at Texas. Pointedly, I was told several times by my supervisors that the only reason I was hired was because the college needed to hire more Hispanics and Blacks. During my 22 years at Texas, I helped develop one of the first graduate programs in toxicology in the state and mentored over 50 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral fellows in my research program. I later became dean of pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where I established one of the first councils on diversity at the university. In the final phase of my career, I accepted a position as Deputy Director for Research at FDA's major research center--The National Center for Toxicological Research. Although I had what many called "a successful career", I paid the price of never becoming fluent in Spanish and having to live with the shame and embarrassment of not being able to converse in Spanish with my family and many of my former classmates and friends.

I also experienced many times during my career what are now known as "microaggressions" or thinly veiled putdowns of my accomplishments and successes. For example, when I was elected president of the Society of Toxicology, some of my colleagues suggested that I won the election because I was a person of diversity. I grew up in Texas where this attitude was quite common; it did not really bother me. I just laughed it off.  

In the past, it was all right to ask where you were born or what was your family ancestry. It was out of curiosity because many Americans have relatives who were not born in the US. People were interested in knowing more about you, especially if you recently moved into the neighborhood, were a new employee, or a new customer in a local store. But in today's America asking that question is fraught with anxiety and possibly danger for a person of color who is asked that question. As a Mexican American who has lived in one of those states that border Mexico, I have observed the tension when one is accused of being an undocumented immigrant and not an American citizen. And as America has become more polarized, there are many reports of violence against people of color because it is thought that they are not truly American or to be more blunt-not white enough.   

Today, affirmative action and DEI policies that were supposedly lauded and supported by institutions of higher education, corporate America, and local, state, and federal agencies and departments have come under attack by many white Americans who believe that they are the ones who have suffered from discrimination. State legislators, especially in red states like Texas, Florida, and several others, have passed laws to abolish or limit the use of offices that help students and employees of diversity navigate organizational obstacles. White students and employees are not denied assistance as some of them like to suggest. 

Where are those colleges that thought that it was right to limit the admission of students of color to keep their classes filled with mostly white students? Where are those corporations and institutions that thought it was right to employ mostly white men and restrict the hiring of women and people of color in the workplace? The answer is that they never left and are ready to go back to the pre-affirmative action era. 

When I left the UT College of Pharmacy in 1996, there were two Mexican American Ph.D. professors on the faculty. When I returned to Austin for my retirement years, there was only one full-time professor; no progress has been made in the 50 years since I joined the faculty as one of those two Mexican American professors in 1974. There has been some improvement for people of color and women in the classroom and workplace, but the Supreme Court has now declared that it has seen enough of this intrusion into the lives of white men. American universities must turn a blind eye to matters of race and gender in student admissions. It will happen very soon in the workplace, but that does not mean that we should stop trying to admit more students of color and to hire more faculty of diversity. My biggest regret was that I did not speak up sooner about what I faced as a student and professor during my career in Texas and elsewhere. 

It took me a lifetime to realize that my generation has failed in maintaining America's faith in our inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. I write this story to reach out to the young people of the country with the hope that they will restore and secure those rights for all. If they don't, who will?

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Dan Acosta is a first-generation Mexican American, whose mother and grandparents emigrated from Mexico. He is a former professor, research scientist, and administrator, who retired in 2019 at age 74. He writes about his experiences as a Mexican boy trying to succeed in white America. His stories have appeared in The Acentos Review, Sky Island Journal, Somos en Escrito, The Rush, Toasted Cheese, Latin@Literatures, Midway Journal, and The Manifest Station.