Lessons from Professor Kenji Yoshino
Professor Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law, Director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, and Member of the Meta Oversight Board. He recently shared insights with AESC about his personal journey, work on inclusion and the law. He offers valuable lessons for anyone committed to capturing the value of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in their organizations and communities.
Authenticity and Covering
As an openly gay man, Yoshino felt the need to downplay his identity at different points in his career. “No one was asking me to become straight, no one was asking me to pass,” he explains. “But they were saying, it’s fine for you to be gay and say that you’re gay—but make it easy for us to forget that you’re gay.” Yoshino looked for a word to describe the experience, and found “covering,” which he defines as the pressure to downplay a stigmatized identity to make others more comfortable. “The thing that fascinated me about this kind of demand was that I saw it being made across the board, of all marginalized groups.”
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