by David G. Embrick, University of Connecticut
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Professor of Sociology at Duke University, is more than a dedicated scholar. He is a mentor to many.
I met Eduardo Bonilla-Silva in the fall semester of 1998 while I was an undergraduate sociology student at Texas A&M. At the time, I had no interest in going to graduate school and, to be frank, I had no idea what it meant to be a graduate student. I did not see myself existing in that world. Eduardo’s timely arrival to Texas A&M University would be the catalyst that completely changed my life, both in the way that I understand the world and in understanding who I was and who I wanted to be. I am certainly not unique in this regard as he has dedicated (and continues to dedicate) a large part of his life and energy to working with countless students, young and senior scholars, and even staff. Many of my colleagues in the field of racial stratification have told me he is the reason why they went to graduate school and decided to dedicate their careers to better understanding racism in order to dismantle it. And while mentoring takes a lot of his time, Eduardo has managed to profoundly shape the sociological landscape with his many theoretical and empirical contributions and has managed to do so with integrity. He is, in many ways, who we want to be—a dedicated scholar who “keeps it real.”
