Recently, Mario Safi, a Syrian-American student attending Pitt (the University of Pittsburgh) wrote an article in The Pitt, the school’s student newspaper, criticizing race based admissions. I wanted to bring up the issue of affirmative action at Pitt. Mario’s article reminded me of my own experiences posing as a black Affirmative Action candidate (I’m Indian-American) when I interviewed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1999. By pretending to be black, I hoped to take advantage of the Pitts’ affirmative action admissions policies.
On Monday, January 11, 1999, I visited Pittsburgh to interview at the medical school. The whole time, I had my head shaved and eyelashes trimmed. I have a dark South Indian complexion like my sister, Mindy Kaling, so I appeared as an African American. During my tour of the anatomy lab, I remember seeing the charcoal black lung of deceased worker at one of Pittsburgh’s famous steel mills. That afternoon I interviewed with Dr. Ellen Frank who brought up the subject of Pittsburgh’s African American community. She leveled her gaze at me and very genuinely offered, “Jojo, I think you’re a role model for African Americans everywhere.” I had a lot of trouble not laughing because, of course, I was not actually African American. That’s affirmative action at Pitt I guess.
When I returned to the University of Chicago, I told my friends I had been called “A role model for African Americans everywhere” at Pitt and at first they all laughed at how gullible and patronizing Dr. Frank was. But apparently it resonated with them so they sardonically started calling me “The role model for African Americans everywhere” every time they saw me. It got tiresome, particularly when Pitt rejected me. I was a little disappointed that Pitt did not want a “role model for African Americans everywhere” but it could have been worse. They could have confronted me about my lie. Perhaps someone in the Pitt admissions office realized I was not black and quietly rejected me. Fortunately, I was able to convince another medical school to accept me despite the fact that my grades and test scores were mediocre and I wasn’t really black. I intend to describe all of my experiences applying to medical school posing as a black man in my upcoming book Almost Black.
In light of my story, I think that it’s time that Pitt reexamine it’s racially discriminatory affirmative action admissions policies. Race should not play a role in admissions at Pitt. My experiences posing as a black man when I applied to medical school showed me that it was wrong to discriminate based on race.
*If anyone questions the truthfulness of my story, I have posted documentation on my website AlmostBlack.com supporting my claim that I applied to Pitt in 1998/1999 as Black. You can see my supplemental application to the University of Pittsburgh and my Interview documents from the University of Pittsburgh.
