By Rosetta Miller Perry A wasted vote is as worthless as no vote, something the white power structure definitely understands. When they can’t suppress the Black vote, the next strategy is to render it useless by diluting or negating its strength. The best way to do that is by picking candidates with no chance at victory, but whose mere presence grabs enough of the African-American vote to essentially render it meaningless. Nashville’s Black community must be especially wary of this with yet another Mayoral election coming up in August. It is now very easy for folks to be fatigued over…
Author: Rosetta Miller Perry
By Rosetta Miller Perry The calendar may say it’s 2019, but for some white folks and stupid black folks, it will never be the right time for a Black man to be in charge of anything. Especially if that man is smart, confident, experienced, and unwilling to act as though it’s a privilege and honor to be around and in charge of an institution with whites working under and for him. Dr. Shawn Joseph is a super intelligent, accomplished educator. He’s also a Black man who’s unafraid to be assertive and forceful in his presentation and personality. That apparently doesn’t…
By Rosetta Miller Perry NASHVILLE, TN — America is a nation obsessed with youth. So much of what is shown on television, in films and aired on radio caters to young folks. Once a person hits 50, let alone 60, many jobs decide that they’ve become a liability despite the fact in many instances they have experience and knowledge that is gained only through being around long enough to learn valuable lessons and work through problems and mistakes. Demetria Kalodimos has been a valuable and popular part of the Nashville journalistic and filmmaking scenes for over 30 years. During that…
By Rosetta Miller Perry By all accounts James Shaw is a fine fellow, and no one disputes his courage or heroism. What he did this past April at the Waffle House saved several lives and stopped a vile, vicious murderer from killing more people than the four killed. Shaw has also rightly continued to insist that the public focus more on Taurean C. Sanderlin, Joe R. Perez, DeEbony Groves and Akilah DaSilva, the four innocents victims, than on him. It is a wonderful thing that his heroism has earned him national acclaim, and no one can or should take that…
By Rosetta Miller Perry America has had its share of awful Attorney Generals, but few have been as dismal as Jeff Sessions. Last Wednesday his dreadful tenure in office ended when his even worse boss President Donald Tump fired him. The fact that someone as totally unsuitable for office as Trump is even in the White House remains a major disgrace. But Sessions managed to rival Trump in making his position a national embarrassment. He also was turning the Department of Justice, one of the few usually reliable allies of Civil Rights and social justice, into an obstacle of equality.…
By Rosetta Miller Perry America has historically had a problem with racism and bigotry of all types. religious and ethnic. Sadly, this is a time when hate-filled bigots often aren’t content to just spew their venom verbally or on social media. Last Saturday’s despicable mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue that left 11 people dead and six others wounded has been called “the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States” according to the Anti-Defamation League. They’ve been monitoring anti-Semitic violence in this nation over 100 years. It is the latest example of what is…
By Rosetta Miller Perry There are some groups no progressive or socially concerned organization should ever become involved with, and certainly not have as a sponsor for a major event. But that’s precisely what the Nashville Chamber of Commerce has done by allowing CoreCivic to be the presenting sponsor for their 2020 Annual Celebration. The Chamber knows that CoreCivic was under duress in 2016 and then Donald Trump was elected the most racist and divisive President this country has ever had. The rest is history for CoreCivic. For anyone not familiar with CoreCivic, they are a group with a track…
By Rosetta Miller Perry In an accomplished and progressive school system, such as the Metro Nashville Public School System (MNPS) and others, the top priority of the person who runs a city’s school department should be achieving academic excellence. Whether they like to listen to rap, jazz or classical music, their personal hairstyles, attire, choice of cuisine, or even where they choose to live, should not be the primary focus upon which their success is evaluated or measured. Instead, what the people who put them in the spotlight should be examining most closely is whether students are being served and…
By Rosetta Miller Perry, Tribune Publisher School Board Members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering like to play to the cameras each week during Board of Education meetings. They constantly spout out policy to hide behind their nastiness and justify their unprofessional behavior and ridiculous attempts to discredit the Director of Schools, Dr. Shawn Joseph. But the irony is that when it comes to adhering to board policies, the two have failed to practice what they preach. Many people may be unaware that the School Board has quite a few policies of its own that dictates how school business is…
By Rosetta Miller Perry Sometimes it really seems elected officials just recycle the same rhetoric from year to year and administration to administration. It doesn’t take much vision to look around Nashville and see Black owned firms aren’t getting remotely close to their fair share of opportunities to participate in Nashville’s building boom. Neither are companies owned by women, or for that matter by anyone who isn’t a white male, and in most cases an older white male. The Briley administration wants everyone to be encouraged by his rhetoric this week following the presentation of yet ANOTHER disparity study. This…