Anthony Harrison (’81) on Finding His Path as a Black, Gay Communicator

COMtalk: The Black Media Symposium is happening again, which must mean the reaction to last year’s was positive. What impact do you think it had?

Anthony Harrison: When you do something like this for the first time, you have high hopes, but you’re never quite sure. I have been in communications my entire career, and I still get that knot in my stomach before an event: Is anybody really going to show up? But I think the enthusiasm from the participants, from the panel members, from the students, from the alumni—across the board—was really good. They were so proud BU was doing something like this. So proud and excited about the quality of the panelists, both the alums as well as the outside speakers. I’m always pleasantly surprised at the caliber of other BU alums, other COM alums. The accomplishments they have in the field, the things that they’ve done, the point of view that they’ve taken. It’s interesting to see how people have taken their degrees and morphed into the different variations of themselves, and have found their own path. Particularly, I think, when you look at grads of color, the path is not always straight and clear. And so, there were folks there that forged their own way, whether it was through an entrepreneurial thing, or figured out what their space, their niche was in this world, which was also exciting. So, I think it was particularly great for students of color to see people who look like them in positions of leadership, in positions of power, in decision-making positions. 

COMtalk: You just said the path is not always straight for communicators of color. Were there ways in which that was true for you?

Anthony Harrison: My path is interesting. I came out of BU into the working world at a time when, for me, success meant downplaying the fact that I was Black. It definitely also meant downplaying the fact that I was gay. Success early in my career was about blending in and making the people around me comfortable with me, so that they would focus on my professional skills, and not on those other things. And certainly, the working world in general, and [communications] in particular, has changed dramatically, where it really is about bringing your true and authentic self [to work]—personal Anthony with professional Anthony—so that there’s no code-switching. I am what I am, I am what you see, and I am unapologetic about that. Certainly over the arc of my career, I’ve moved to a place where I am unapologetically Black and all of the other things I am: a man, the oldest child, a first-generation student, grew up in the city. All of those things contribute to who I am as a person today and what I bring to the workplace. And I think there’s a much broader appreciation for that in the workplace today, and I think younger people coming up really want to find workplaces where they can be [themselves]. So, when they see someone like me who’s being all of those things simultaneously, that encourages them to do the same, and to find a workplace where all of those different facets of their being are appreciated and valued—and not just the skills they bring to the table.

COMtalk: Was there a moment when you decided, “I’m going to be my authentic self in the workplace” rather than downplay aspects of yourself—such as your race or sexual orientation?

Anthony Harrison: Yeah, there certainly was. It was probably in my early 30s that I had, up to that point, a series of traditional corporate roles with big companies—Verizon, The New York Times, that kind of thing. And I made a decision to take a job with a nonprofit that was working primarily in the HIV and AIDS area [with a] focus on the gay community. And when I was contemplating taking that job, several people—mentors—told me it would be the end of my career in corporate life, that I couldn’t go to work for this openly gay-focused HIV nonprofit and think I could come back to corporate America. And I was like, “Okay, respectfully, thanks for sharing. But this is something I feel I need to do.” And so I went and I did that for a few years. When I came back to the corporate world from that bubble where I could be all the things I had been downplaying, I ultimately couldn’t shove all of that back into a closet. I couldn’t dial it back again. I couldn’t code-switch. I couldn’t not be who I was. It was scary at the time because it felt like a huge leap of faith, but it’s paid off 1,000 times.

COMtalk: You kept the same theme as last year, for this year’s symposium: “Black Media: Reflecting on the Past, and Reimagining the Future.” Why did the organizers decide to stay there, as opposed to going in a different direction?

Anthony Harrison: We felt there was still more that we can do around that topic, that we had barely scratched the surface. There were things that we didn’t have the time and resources to do last year that we could do this year. There were things that we touched on that really resonated, there were new opportunities and things that came under that umbrella that we could sort of take a look at. Collectively, the group felt there was still gold to mine in those hills, and we wanted to dig deeper.

COMtalk: Can you give me an example of a topic or a speaker for this year’s symposium that exemplifies going deeper?

Anthony Harrison: Speaking personally, the topic that I’m going to lead a discussion on: navigating as a queer person of color in the media space. How do you navigate and how do you be your authentic self? Last year, I was part of a panel that talked about [diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI], in its broadest sense. So, this is sort of diving a little deeper into one aspect of DEI, and thinking about how you navigate as a queer person in these spaces, be your authentic self, find your community, speak to your community, connect with your community, and all of those things. And looking at it from a multigenerational point of view, as I said, my experience coming up is very different from someone who graduated 10 years ago, or five years ago. The world continues to evolve. You know, there’s a lot more misinformation, and animosity about aspects of the queer community today that we need to address as a community. So there’s lots of ways that we can take this session.