By Rosetta Miller-Perry The Democratic Party fully understands the threat to progress and democracy that convicted felon Donald Trump represents. He has already publicly promised to use the Presidency as a weapon of revenge against his enemies if he’s put back in power, and to pardon and excuse all those convicted in the attempted January 6 coup attempt by his followers. Joe Biden put the good of the nation ahead of personal ambition when he ended his re-election campaign last Sunday. That was the first big decision that needed to be made. A Democratic Party that once seemed divided and…
Author: Rosetta Miller Perry
By Rosetta Miller-Perry The students at Morehouse College gave many of their peers across the nation a lesson in the proper way to make a statement and protest this past Sunday. When President Joe Biden gave the commencement address, there were those who protested, but they didn’t disrupt anything. They didn’t issue any death threats towards other students, and they didn’t make such a spectacle of themselves that the cause they were highlighting, the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza, was ignored due to their conduct. A key part of the President’s speech was about HBCUs and their importance. Had…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry There is a subtle, yet important and distinct difference between change and progress. Change is inevitable in all phases of life, but can be either positive or negative, depending on the circumstances, events and personalities involved. Progress represents improvement, something and/or someone seeing their situations benefited or advanced. For Nashville’s Black community, too many times in recent years we’ve seen more and more evidence of how much Nashville has changed, but we haven’t exactly seen or enjoyed many benefits from it. While other communities may indeed have progressed as a result of the continued, often unregulated and…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry News Analysis The decision by NAACP Tennessee State Conference President Gloria Sweet-Love to suspend without warning Nashville branch President Venita Lewis leaves the local office without leadership or direction. The action was taken this past Saturday, but not announced until Tuesday Oct. 16. Sweet-Love did this through an email rather than after the results were released of any official inquiry or investigation, and she did not personally contact Lewis regarding the action. Instead, Sweet-Love spelled out her reasons in a press release, claiming among things that it was done because the NAACP “would not allow anyone to…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry There are few things worse in life and society than people who deliberately embrace evil principles for personal goals. Dictators and mass murderers are prime examples of that, but so are people like Vidkun Quisling who founded a pro-Nazi party called the Fascist National Union Party. He was a Norwegian politician who volunteered to help the Nazis take over Norway. His betrayal of Norway to Germany has made his name a label for all collaborators and traitors. After World War II, Norwegian authorities arrested Quisling, tried and convicted him on charges of treason and he received a death sentence. …
By Rosetta Miller-Perry Sometimes things which seem like progress instead turn out to be huge steps backwards. As editor/publisher of the Tennessee Tribune, one of the causes that we have championed over the last three decades is equality and opportunity for women. But just as there are some Black folks whose ascension to power actually represents a negative rather than positive event (Clarence Thomas, my former boss, for example), so there are also some women whose behavior, actions and stances on public policy are no better, and in some cases worse, than the men they replaced. A prime example of…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry America has at least advanced far enough in the 21st century that anyone who is publicly identified as a racist finds themselves at a disadvantage. So the new con game of the Republican Party is to pretend they aren’t being racist by taking bigoted stances and trying to repackage them as being “anti-racist.” In their view this insulates them from the charges of spreading hatred and discord, especially if they also happen to be people of color. One of the biggest perpetrators of this fraud is current GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, who in reality has little…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry In today’s super-heated, overly-personal political environment, it is often quite difficult to make the distinction between personal affection and political preference, but that is precisely what we are doing in our approach in the Nashville mayoral race. The Tribune has endorsed Freddie O’Connell for mayor and we stand by that. In our view, he is the best choice for the job in 2023. Despite the idiotic comments of neophyte psuedo-political observers writing for knock-off imitation would-be journalist, the Tribune doesn’t tell people HOW or WHO to vote for, but offers our RECOMMENDATIONS. People with genuine political savvy…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry Dr. Glenda Glover’s career as president of Tennessee State University is coming to a premature close, and that’s not a good thing for either the university, or the community as a whole. Despite serving with distinction for over a decade, Dr. Glover was literally forced into retirement due to the ignorance, blatant disrespect and just plain racist attitudes she had to endure from people in state government, most notably anti black comptroller Jason Mumpower, whose open contempt and disregard for both Dr. Glover especially Black students and education as a whole was enormous and publicly displayed on…
By Rosetta Miller-Perry Now that the mayoral race is down to two people, it is being accurately framed as a choice between political philosophies. Freddie O’Connell has represented District 19 honorably for eight years. He is part of our community. His office has been in the heart of the Black community for eight years. He voices concern about the impact of gentrification and unregulated business development. He is on record wanting to make certain Nashville’s Black neighborhoods are not left out of the constant push towards rampant 21st century infrastructure and technological expansion. He wants to see affordable housing and…