Pomona College quietly retired two of most popular songs — “Hail, Pomona, Hail!” in 2008 and “Torchbearers” in 2015 — due to their roots in Blackface minstrelsy and cultural appropriation. While Pomona’s website acknowledges these histories, Zena Ameida-Warwin PO ’28 critiques the College’s choice to remove the songs without engaging the community in any meaningful public dialogue.
