An Open Letter to All Kappas on Recent Attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel

2 min readJun 9, 2016

To The Brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.:

As proud Nupes, we wanted to bring your attention to an urgent matter that threatens the heart of the values we hold dear — honor, service, and “achievement in every field of human endeavor.”

District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana, to immigrant parents from Mexico. He excelled in school, earning both undergraduate and law degrees from Indiana University in the 1970s. He started as a prosecutor in Southern California and, in 2006, was appointed as a judge by Governor Schwarzenegger and quickly rose to the rank of federal judge in 2011.

But what few people know, apart from Judge Curiel’s distinguished academic and legal careers, is that he is a Kappa man. He pledged and crossed Indiana Unversity’s Alpha Chapter in 1974 and is a charter member of the Bloomington, IN Alumni Chapter. In 1977, Judge Curiel founded the alumni chapter along with Brother Michael Gordon, a former professor at Indiana University, in order to provide more direction and mentorship to the fraternity’s very first undergraduate chapter in the nation. His investment and dedication to our Brotherhood and ideals is beyond question.

Recently, Judge Curiel has served as the presiding judge in a class-action lawsuit filed by former students of so-called “Trump University” — a scam operation targeting vulnerable Americans who were cheated out of hard-earned cash by billionaire Donald Trump. Recently, Mr. Trump attacked Judge Curiel, claiming he had “an inherent conflict of interest” in the court case due to his “Mexican heritage.”

Let’s be clear: Judge Curiel is every bit of an American as you or I. The fact that Mr. Trump doesn’t see Judge Curiel and his family as Americans makes him unfit to be president of the United States.

These attacks are patently absurd and we — the Brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. — must denounce the racist, xenophobic rhetoric of a leading U.S. presidential candidate against one of our Brothers. We will never allow Judge Curiel’s distinguished legal career to be tarnished by a man who is temperamentally unfit, unprepared, and too risky to be President of the United States.

We call on all Nupes to stand in solidarity with our Brother, Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

An attack on him is an attack on us all.

#NupesAgainstTrump