Beyong Sombreros, Tequila, and ‘Gangster’ Parties
A couple of months after Ryan Wilson arrived at Yale University, a friend asked if she could borrow his clothes for a theme party. The theme? "Gangsters." Mr. Wilson, who is black, hadn’t yet found his voice as a campus activist, and that moment sticks with him clearly, even years later. "She took my own clothes. That blew my mind," Mr. Wilson said in an interview. "When they dress up as gangsters, they dress up as black youth. It just went to show when they thought of gangsters, that was the image that was in their head."