Rodney's Rambling's

  When our elders worked the fields as enslaved peoples, how could they sing “Oh Happy Days.” One of my mom’s favorite sayings was, “You can take my money, you can take my house, you can even take my life. But one thing you can’t take is my Joy.”  It took me years to understand what my mom was saying until I came across the biblical phrase, “The joy of the Lord is my Strength.”   So, If you take my Joy, you take my Strength. Now I also understand how our ancestors, dealing with the trauma of slavery, could laugh and sing “Oh Happy Days.”  They were not particularly happy, but they retained their Joy. And what is this thing called Joy -I would offer that Joy is hope and faith in the unseen future. It is the confidence that, though all hell is breaking out in the now, the future will be more than compensating. What did our elders see -they saw you and me walking in this now. They saw us as doctors, lawyers, dentists, and overcomers. They saw us owning houses, driving nice cars, and acc

CRT and the Search for Truth -my new obsession and book project There are many truths, as many as there are realities.  What truths you subscribe to in many ways reflects the position you occupy.  The truth of a child is different from those of their parents, and the truth of the victim is different from that of the victimizer.  Which truth you choose to adhere to is the truth you will live by.  But all truths, as with all realities, grant you insight.  The more truths you can learn, the more insight you will gain.  And there is nothing worse than those who choose to be ignorant of multiple truths or believe that there is one truth. The basic premise of this volume has been that for far too long, the truth has been externally provided to Blacks and others who do not occupy positions of power within the racial state.  I remember George Orwell's observation that "History is written by the winners". In our current political climate, the truth is dictated by those in power

  Legislative Disenfranchisement  The Civil Rights Era   During the Modern Civil Rights era, two separate legislative disenfranchisement events occurred, Adam Clayton Powell and Julian Bond. Both were critically involved in the movement and intimately involved in their respective communities. But, whereas Powell was a seasoned legislator with major political power, Bond was facing his first term as an elected official. The causes and results of their legislative disenfranchisement varied, but the outcome for their constituents mirrored those during Reconstruction. The Democratically controlled Georgia House of Representatives, on January 10, 1966, overwhelmingly voted not to seat Julian Bond because he was critical of the U.S. involvement in Viet Nam sided with students who were then protesting the war. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Bond's First Amendment rights had been violated and ordered that he be seated. Although Bond would serve for 20 mor

  Legislative Disenfranchisement As a sociologist who studies race and ethnic systems, processes, and practices, I was immediately concerned when two Black elected officials were expelled from the Tennessee legislature.  Some of the questions that immediately intrigued me were: 1)  What were the root causes of these expulsions; 2) how did these expulsions impact the voters who elected them; and 3) what does history tell us about what I choose to call “legislative disenfranchisement.”     My research documents that this is not the first time Black, elective officials have been legislatively disenfranchised.  I can identify at least three other times in U.S. history where this has occurred.  These  periods are salient because they all marked racially tense periods in which transformative social movements attempted to secure democratic rights by challenging laws, practices, and policies.    In each period, electoral disenfranchisement resulted in despair, fragmentation, and the loss of

  The reality of being a Black Man in America Typologies, stereotypes, tropes, internalized racism, victimization, racial trauma -pick the word that best suits you. But regardless of the words you choose, they neither fit nor do they adequately describe what it entails to be Black in America. While normalization of these terms has resulted in static representations and niches such as the Black Entertainer, Athlete, Welfare Queen, and Criminal/Thug -none of these attest to the resilience, determination, drive, and realities that Blacks have created. But what they do accomplish is to preserve and protect the White racial impression of what it means to be Black. Further, to maintain these illusions, stiff penalties are rendered to Blacks who dare to step out of line. The repeated lynching of thousands of Blacks was essentially retribution for those who dared to step across the racial line and dare to be different. The internalization of these stereotypes has obvious outcomes, as we have

  Mandingo -From Nat Turner to George Floyd "Southern trees bear a strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root. Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees." — "Strange Fruit," written by Abel Meeropol and recorded in 1939 by Billie Holiday   "To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time." -James Baldwin.     Slave merchants and owners created the sexualized, strong, brutish, animalistic Black man known as Mandingo. Mandingo, though paraded as being a physically powerful Black man, had to be continually and often brutally subdued and forced into labor. He was the chief protagonist in the 'Birth of a Nation" (1915) after emancipation which raped the innocent daughters of Whites throughout the South. This trope led to the thousands of lynchings of Black men as White men sought revenge for these presumed wrongs.  The Mandin

  Sambo and Uncle Tom   Caption: "I'm sorry to have to drop you, Sambo, but this concern won't carry us both." Source: Library of Congress On August 30, 1861, without President Lincoln's approval, General John C. Freemont took it upon himself to issue a proclamation emancipating the slaves owned by Missouri Confederate sympathizers. Not wanting to anger bordering states, Lincoln was more concerned with saving the "Union" than freeing the slaves. Hence the cartoon depicts papers floating in the water labeled "Freemont proclamation" and the ship flying a pennant with the simple words "Proclamation" in the background.  The Sambo pejorative referring to all the enslaved is more than a coincidence. Sambo was, in many ways, the embodiment of the "perfect" slave, at least in the minds of the Confederacy. So, who was this "Sambo"? One of the earliest Sambo caricatures appears in the 1808 short story "Sambo a

S.B. 83: Perhaps more than you ever wanted to know  Ohio is better when we embrace diversity and strive to be inclusive of all individuals regardless of race, background, gender, religion, or disability. Through Ohio's equity agenda, state agencies are actively engaged in healing those who are hurting, fighting discrimination, creating opportunities, focusing on inclusion, and building awareness of systemic change needed to end disparities. Moving state government forward on the diversity, equity, and inclusion continuum shows that state government is committed to serving all people so they can live up to their God-given potential. Governor Mike Dewine   There is much debate regarding S.B. 83, "the Higher Education Enhancement Act," introduced by Ohio State Senator Jerry Cirino. Versions of this bill have been banned in 7 states while it is being debated in 16 other states. Most of the states included in these comprise the old Confederacy and many within the Midwest.