2004 Speakers
LEON WYNTER
American Skin
His first essay on gentrification and identity in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was published in The New York Times in 1979, while he was still working as a corporate lending officer at a major New York bank. Shortly thereafter, he joined the staff of the Washington Post and covered education and racial change in suburban Prince George's County, Maryland.
Wynter eventually moved to the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal, where he covered the Capitol Hill beats for federal banking, government telecommunications, and technology policy. A native New Yorker, Wynter returned home in 1986 where, after a stint on the Journal's national news desk, he wrote the "Business & Race" column. While writing his column, he also taught business journalism at Baruch College, City University of New York.
His commentaries on race, popular culture, and life observed have been heard on National Public Radio's All Things Considered since 1993. His two dozen published essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New York Newsday, among other publications.
Wynter's first book, American Skin: Big Business, Pop Culture and the End of White America, highlights the contradictions and paradox of ethnicity and race in marketing, and uncovers the truth about corporate motives for transracial marketing. Publishers Weekly declared, "With vivid, witty prose, Wynter makes an indisputable case."
Wynter is a graduate of Yale University with a degree in psychology. He received his MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business and is currently an assistant professor of journalism at Emerson College in Boston, Mass.