Shut Up and Dribble

Dr. Rodney D. Coates

Professor of Sociology

Department of Global and Intercultural studies

I am a public sociologist studying critical race, social justice, social movements, and social policy. I focus on how society, social behavior, institutions, norms, and culture, impact social relationships and interactions. I strive to link my areas of study to the community, and as such, I have conducted bias training with police, educators, and corporate leaders. My work engages local communities, corporations, and Miami University to establish pathways to progress for under-represented students in various areas, including STEM, business, and law. Over the past few years, I have been proud of the awards and accomplishments, but most importantly, my ability to impact my communities.  

As a teacher-scholar, I take an interdisciplinary approach.   I actively engage my students in research, knowledge production, and critical reflection. My pedagogical approach utilizes the tension between teaching and research to challenge students to go beyond simply regurgitating concepts, theories, and ideas. Instead, it requires students to critically reflect and analyze, using various approaches, methods, and research to examine and understand the social structure and individual agency. As a result, students become active participants in engaged learning as they challenge their assumptions.

I have designed and taught various interdisciplinary courses in BWS, CRE, and SOC, from introduction to critical race and ethnic relations to social justice, movements, and human rights. In my classes, students learn that the beginning of research involves asking the right questions and guiding them to the appropriate research methods and outcomes. In this way, we teach students the different types of theories, methodologies (from qualitative to quantitative), and policy implications of the research. Students take from this a practical guide to the efficacy of research and the importance of such research in dealing with real-world problems. My pedagogical approach challenges students beyond simply regurgitating concepts, theories, and ideas. This dynamic learning approach challenges students to perform at their highest levels. I first utilized this approach eight years ago as part of a summer bridge program for incoming scholar-athletes. In this program, the scholar athletes are expected to perform at the honors level, way above what they believed they could ever accomplish. As a result, GPAs and graduation rates have increased each year the program has been offered.

This year I received the Mid-American Conference Outstanding Faculty Award for Student success for these efforts. MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher stated, "I want to congratulate Dr. Coates on his selection for this honor. His passion for working with students and assisting them in their educational pursuits is impressive. Dr. Coates is most deserving of this honor." Finally, over the years, the questions and research deriving from these classes have informed my scholarship, resulting in  46 peer-reviewed journal articles, 25 book chapters, and 14 authored and co-authored books and special journal issues. I have also edited four special issues and volumes that use critical inquiry to examine contemporary race and ethnic relations.

My research, spanning several decades, has some central features. First, I am a Critical Race Theorist (CRT)  concerned with understanding how it operates and continues to be redefined. As a result, I have provided clarity by understanding and exploring some of the central concepts of CRT. One such component and recent manifestation is covert racism, which has been featured in several papers, special issues, and books. For example, in 2011, I argued that covert racism, subtle in the application, often appears hidden beneath/by norms of association, affiliation, group membership, and identity. As such, covert racism is often excused or confused with mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion, ritual and ceremony, and acceptance and rejection. Covert racism operates as a boundary-keeping mechanism whose primary purpose is maintaining social distance between racial elite and non-elite. Such boundary mechanisms work best when assumed natural, legitimate, and normal. These boundary mechanisms are typically taught sub-consciously or unconsciously as part of the dominant socialization processes operant within society/ institutions and social groups.

Consequently, covert racism, often undetected, is often inherently inculcated with each generation of new members of any given social situation. The process, operating within the racial elite and non-elite groups, represents a closed feedback loop. At the heart of covert racism, one finds a deliberate policy of denial, omission, and obfuscation of black, brown, red, tan, and yellow issues/persons/and groups. In this pseudo-color-blind universe, race appears nullified under the veneer of 'benign neglect.' Thus, 'anything but race' becomes the clarion call to justify differences in outcomes as 'race declines' in significance. And when this does not work, we define race out of existence, make it seem insignificant as in 'the social construction of race,' or reduce its' effect as in the 'culture of poverty' or 'cultural competency.' (Coates 2011) .

My 2022 book chapter, "Othering," discusses racial identities, stereotypes, and stigmas attached to specific individuals and groups. The process formally is called othering and has consistently been a part of the US societal, cultural, and historical reality. As such, it manifests in a series of events, structures, laws, and practices. For some, racial amnesia becomes a way of avoiding it. For others, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Band-Aids are prescribed. Both result in the consistency of racial othering processes. The chapter concludes by articulating a strategic diversity plan incorporating anti-racism practices, equity, and accountability into our major institutions. Only by doing this can we move forward. (Coates 2022)

In 2020, I was invited by SAGE to do a webinar on a series I had begun circulating on various social media outlets entitled 'The 12 Steps to Decolonizing the University". This presentation, attracting over 8 thousand viewers, was truly humbling. (Coates 2020)  It has also resulted in a peer-reviewed publication by the International Sociological Association in its Pedagogy Series. In this, I argue that long-standing calls to uproot structural racism worldwide have gained impetus, especially within academia, in the wake of dozens of killings, including the murder of Breanna Taylor and George Floyd. As one of the principal sites of European dominance, universities are central to any decolonizing efforts. As Europe colonized much of the world, it installed its major institutions, such as politics, family, economic systems, religion, and education. Universities have become the site of contested spaces in the United States and worldwide as symbols of our colonial, confederate, and imperial past have been challenged. Decolonial processes within the University refer to curriculum, pedagogies, and methodologies that delink, deconstruct, and unhinge Eurocentric stereotypes. Decolonizing the University means recentering the various voices of people of color, taking them from the margins to the core. Indigenous counter-narratives are then utilized to challenge Eurocentric knowledge systems. Thus, these counter-narratives become legitimized and assert indigenous peoples' agency. I detail how through 12 steps, we can accomplish this. (Coates 2021)

 Another paper, co-authored by a team of professors stretching 18 nations, examines our innovative approach to teaching across international and cultural boundaries. The course was created to address unmet needs in the traditional higher educational systems. These included but were not limited to a lack of cross-cultural and interdisciplinary collaboration among students, faculty, and institutions. And although economies, polities, environments, and human societies are experiencing great connections across the globe, educational systems continue to be modeled on nineteenth-century assumptions and structures. This course demonstrated what and how transnational pedagogy can help bridge this gap and move past these limitations  (Coates et al., 2016)

While it seems that everyone is now discovering, getting caught up in, confused by, or fighting to curtail critical race and ethnic studies, I was writing about it as early as 2004 and argued that Critical racial and ethnic studies were an attempt to understand the process by which systems of racialization are preserved, maintained, and perpetuated. I argued that the critical designation implies that such studies recognize the multiple dimensions in which systems of oppression operate. The various dimensions, of which race and ethnicity are but two, work interactively and systemically to produce and reproduce structures of exploitation. The social and cultural institutions provide the situational context in which this dynamic unfolds. Therefore (either implicitly or explicitly), courts and police, schools and churches, friendship and family networks, and various media outlets serve to preserve, perpetuate, and modify racial attitudes and group formations and systems of racial oppression and exploitation. Finally, as economic, political, and cultural systems of production change, we note similar changes in the various oppressive and exploitative systems. I argued that the system is a dynamic rather than a static process. One that is multi-faceted, multi-dimensional, and situationally, historically, and geopolitically specific. (Coates 2016)  

These ideas would become the central focus of my co-authored book. My co-authored textbook, The Matrix of Race (Sage 2021), is now being utilized in over 60 universities across the country. This book, seven years in the writing, set a new standard for textbooks dealing with race and ethnicity. It, therefore, reflects a contemporary way of looking at race, minorities, and intergroup relations. Older texts use a "categorical" approach and feature chapters examining one minority group at a time (African Americans, Latinos/ Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, etc.). Newer texts designed within the last 5-10 years are more likely to be organized topically, discuss various racial and ethnic minorities within the context of these topics, and use the most current theories and perspectives in this field. The Matrix of Race is built around these core ideas: -Race is both a social construction and a social institution -Race is intersectional--it is embedded within other statuses (such as gender, social class, and sexuality) -Concepts of race change over time and as we move from one physical location to another -We are all active agents in upholding, reproducing, or resisting constructions of race.

My scholarship has resulted in several awards. For example, I am the recipient of the Association of Black Sociologists Joseph Himes Award for Lifetime Achievement. The purpose of the Joseph Himes Award for a Career of Distinguished Scholarship is to honor members of ABS who have worked over a lifetime career to achieve two goals: (1) to enhance the status of theory and research specifically related to the social condition of African-Americans broadly in the context of a framework of sociological construction and (2) to recognize the contribution of the individual to the support and growth of the Association for Black Sociologists as an institution and an activist network of scholars and academicians.

I am also the recipient of the American Sociological Association Founder's Award. This Award recognizes career excellence in scholarship and professional and community service. It defines scholarship as "substantive academic (theoretical, empirical or applied) contributions."

In 2022 I was honored to be a Co-Pi on an interdisciplinary  $250k NSF grant. The NSF ADVANCE Catalyst Award to Miami University supports data collection and self-assessment to identify systemic inequities that impact STEM faculty related to gender, race, and international status.

Most recently, I was awarded the 2022 Joseph B. Gittler Award by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP). Nominators identified my workshops on microaggressions in local schools, churches, and community organizations as invaluable for marginalized communities. The Award also recognizes publications, academic honors, and significant mentoring work with students, junior colleagues, and scholars across the country.

At the University, I have received several awards. For example, I have received the Global Teaching and Learning Award for my course linking Miami students with students in 18 countries in a Globalization, Social Justice, and Human rights course. In addition, I received the University Distinguished Teaching award. I am proud to be the recipient of the Presidential Medallion in recognition of my "extraordinary service to Miami University and the entire Miami Community." The University Alumni awarded me an Effective Educator Award, and Intercollegiate Athletes awarded me the Teammate of the Year award.   In addition, I received the Spirit of Western Award, which recognizes the advancement of education and human values in diversity, equity, and inclusion at the local, national, or international level SAS Distinguished Educator Award, which was awarded to "A distinguished scholar of national and international stature with demonstrated recognition and projected high-level scholarly productivity in the future." And lastly, I am honored to have been part of a fantastic team of Miami Scholars that put together a DEI course. This course earned bronze from the Telly Awards.

I also take my role of professional service to heart. As a trained ethnographer, I have begun making oral histories in Cincinnati with an organization that is one of the oldest black fraternities in the city -Kappa Alpha Psi. I have done eight interviews thus far; to date, over 31k viewers have seen these oral histories. (CAC History)

This past summer, I created and coordinated the first STEM camp for underrepresented students in the greater Cincinnati area. This camp was recognized and designed to address the following problems. Fifty percent of inbound students need more math, science, and English training. An NCES study found that particularly low-income students that took college preparatory curriculum courses for credit needed remediation when they got to college. And an ACT report found that the key to success in college is not more core courses but a more rigorous set of core courses.   I, therefore, worked to create a Partnership between Miami University and CPS. This partnership recognized that these trends significantly and negatively impact the very students we are recruiting into our pipeline. The summer STEM camp was structured to engage students early in an immersive and intensive experience that helped prepare them for entry and success at Miami University total of 50 underrepresented youth from the 6 ^th to the 9^th grades attended our summer camp this past summer. These camps will provide a return on investment as these students will be more likely to be successful not only in Miami but throughout their lives. It is easier to educate a child than to correct an adult.  

And lastly, I am a photographer fascinated with sunsets. As a result, several exhibits featuring my sunsets have occurred. These have resulted in several donors creating the HOPE Endowed Scholarship, which now has more than $60,000. To date, eight underrepresented students have received scholarships from this endowment. 

Conclusion

My teaching, my research, and my service are linked together with one goal; having an impact on the community. Whether it be high school students in urban Cincinnati, Miami University student-athletes, local or national private or public organizations are addressing efforts to improve diversity, or academic scholars addressing the many questions of equality that face our nation, my goal is the same—using knowledge and experience to impact my community. Ultimately, it's not about the awards, but the commitment to change that is important. We can change our world - one student, one question, one paper, one book, one day at a time.