Mara Gay MSNBC Biography
Mara Gay is a New York Times editorial board member who focuses on New York state and municipal issues.
Before joining The Times in 2018, she worked as a metropolis Hall correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered Mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg, among other stories that transformed the country’s largest and most vibrant metropolis.
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Ms. Gay has also worked for The New York Daily News, The Atlantic, and News Corp.’s all-digital publication, The Daily.
She holds a political science degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is a New York City native, and resides in Brooklyn.
Mara Gay Profile
Full Name: Mara Gay
Hometown: Brooklyn
College: University of Michigan
What I Do: I cover New York for the editorial board.
How I Got to The Times: Before joining The Times, I covered City Hall for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Daily News, writing about Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio.
Interesting Fact: I published a column for my undergraduate newspaper, The Michigan Daily.
Most Important Business Lesson Learned: Great journalism can change the world.
Favorite Movie: “Silver Linings Playbook”
Favorite Book: “The Fire Next Time,” by James Baldwin
Mara Gay’s Detroit Love Story
My parents’ commitment to love one another is the greatest display of political courage I’ve ever witnessed.
I understand, of course, that it could have started as a political statement.
They may have been attempting to prove something to the world and themselves while they were young and naive. Perhaps they were curious.
My white mother and black father met in nearby Detroit, the most segregated city in the country. They fell in love.
I can’t imagine a more odd setting for their relationship than 1970s Detroit.
It is, after all, the city where my maternal grandmother, a single mother of three in the 1950s, supported her children by redlining alongside her real estate colleagues.
She could not have imagined having a grandchild who was “one of them” after refusing to show properties in specific predominantly white communities to black families.
Detroit is also where my father’s father completed his law studies at Wayne State University.
My grandfather tore pages from his legal books and stuck them to the inside of his jacket so he could study on Ford’s assembly line. He was one of just two black students and graduated first in his class.
My grandma specifically requested that my mother not marry a black man. I have white cousins who live in the Detroit suburbs and I rarely see them.
And in over 30 years of marriage, my parents have been denied housing, restaurant service, and even acknowledgement from friends and family.
As soon as their wages allowed them to go, they went to New York City, where I was born and raised. I arrived at the University at 17 years old, completely unaware of Detroit’s troubles.
My freshman year, which began less than a year after the University proved its commitment to diversity in the Supreme Court, was a shocking revelation.
However, the way I had defined myself in New York–biracial, black and white, or simply Mara was no longer important. I was “Black at Michigan,” and some days it seemed like nothing else mattered.
Our separateness is apparent. At an institution that emphasizes the importance of diversity, we recognize that the extent of our segregation from our resident halls to our majors to our events is embarrassing.
However, even those of us who pretend to favor diversity have become bored of discussing it.
After a Supreme Court battle and a two-year fight over Proposal 2, the conversation appears as fatigued as we are. It has become simpler to accept that such segregation is unavoidable or even natural than to oppose it.
The University is, after all, a microcosm of our divided society. The vast majority of us – black, white, and others – were denied the opportunity to grow up in a diverse environment and were nurtured alongside individuals who looked identical to us.
Most students at this university find diversity unimportant. We leave the University, immersed in our narrow universes, with no sense of the richness of our differences.
But when I think about my parents, I don’t see the difference. My mind wanders over all the things that are deeper than race. I think about everything that unifies us. And I’m wondering what and who we are missing out on.
Twenty-seven years later, my parents’ marriage is legal in all fifty states. My grandmother preferred not to discuss the day she asked my mother not to marry a black guy.
But it isn’t the difficulty of their situation that motivates me. It is the depth of their bravery, their willingness to commit to one another and challenge the world.
I go around campus, wondering what it will look like in the next years. I want to believe that we can make the same commitment to one another and be as daring.
We’ve been given a wonderful chance. We can dare to get to know one another and become more educated and intriguing as a result. But we must struggle to make diversity a reality.
The option is ours. We don’t have to isolate ourselves and conform to society’s expectations. We do not have to live our lives exactly as our parents did or do what is easiest rather than what is better or good.
My parents might have spared themselves a life that demanded a thousand acts of bravery. Instead, they did something scarier, braver, and far more wonderful.
They chose to invest in one another, bet on one another, and challenge the status quo by daring to love one another.
Perhaps it is hopeful. Perhaps it is brilliantly naive. But that remains the only way I know.
Mara Gay resides in Brooklyn but went to college in Michigan
According to numerous reports, Gay was born on September 10, 1986, making her 35 years old. Gay was born in New York but obtained a political science degree from the University of Michigan.
According to her NYT description, the writer formerly worked as a City Hall correspondent at The Wall Street Journal before joining The Times in 2018.
Gay reported stories involving persons like Mayor Bill de Blasio, who was publicly disgraced by his former staffer, Lis Smith while working for The Wall Street Journal.
Gay has written for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the New York Daily News, The Atlantic, and the Daily. She also makes occasional appearances on MSNBC, where she discusses current political problems.
Mara Gay is heavily criticized for her ideas and beliefs
Although Gay’s thoughts are frequently challenged, particularly by those who disagree with her, her words have weight and are valued by many. A remark from Gay appears in Wajahat Ali’s book, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American (2022).
The Times also backed the journalist in 2021 when she expressed concern on MSNBC that some people “seeing Americanness as the same as one with whiteness.”
As the scathing comments poured in, The Times promptly responded on Twitter, claiming Gay’s “comments on MSNBC have been irresponsibly taken out of context.” She claimed that Trump and many of his fans had politicized the American flag. The assaults on her today are misguided and based on bad faith.”
What do I enjoy about working with The Times?
We have an impact and are passionate about telling the experiences of people who do not have a voice.
