Ron Robinson is currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology and Cognitive Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the study of race, culture, media, and politics from a transdisciplinary perspective that integrates social science with cognitive neuroscience and psychology. This includes examining the models of how the brain, mind, body, culture and society interact that are used by political parties and the media in pursuing their strategies. He is currently studying how models based on implicit racial biases and stereotypes are used by both conservatives, and mainstream media outlets to advance their political, social, and business interests.

Ron previously taught courses in Cultural Consciousness and Cognition at the California Institute of Integral Studies where he completed doctoral studies in Transformative Learning and Change.

Prior to his academic career, Ron worked for many years as executive in the Commercial Real Estate business after completing Master Degrees in both Civil Engineering and Urban Planning at MIT and his baccalaureate at Cornell. He also taught history and social studies at various predominantly Black and Latino High Schools in California.

On the artistic front, Ron is also well known for his spoken word poetry in both Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

On a personal note, like Obama, Ron’s father is Black and his mother White and he considers himself a biracial Black man. He grew up in Jersey City, New Jersey where he served with his brother and parents as the frontline shock troops in the “Northern Integration Wars” of the 1960’s and early 70’s.

Personal Narrative

As a “colored kid” growing up in 1960’s and early 70’s Jersey City, I was forced to develop competencies that W.E.B. DuBois called “double consciousness” and “second sight.” I had to, just to psychically survive the daily degradation that most Americans associate with Southern style White supremacy. One of the downsides of these competencies is that you can also begin to see yourself through the eyes of those who racially degrade you. That also poses a challenge that “people of color” to varying degrees must also confront and overcome.

As for my personal history, by the time I was seven years old I had already became a conscript in the unfolding “integration war” taking place in the North. In that capacity, I served with my brother, mother and father as the front line shock troops, thrust into some of the war’s most vicious and relentless battles with little support and no preparation. But we served with honor and dignity through thick and thin, day in and day out, year in and year out, and did what we could to break down the walls of exclusion and advance the cause of human rights and justice if not just survive intact as a family.

But even today, most Black folks are forced to develop “double consciousness” and “second sight” in response to the fact that White brothers and sisters pretty much control all of society’s important social institutions and roles and decide the ways of successfully fulfilling them. That means Black folks got to learn White folks’ ways of knowing, being and seeing the world in order to survive and thrive in this society and culture. Even when we live in segregated communities, we’re still immersed in a “White world” whether we know it or not or develop “oppositional” stances in response.

The same necessity for White brothers and sisters learning the “ways of Black folks,” however, doesn’t exist. Very few are immersed in a “Black world” with their success if not survival depending on developing “double consciousness” and “second sight” competencies. The rapper, Eminem comes to mind, whereas Vanilla Ice doesn’t. Many ball players in various sports often do as do many soldiers, especially those who fought shoulder to shoulder in battle. But the fact remains that very few White brothers and sisters have multiple, simultaneous, and/or significant relationships with Black folks. That’s another way to forge these competencies. But like most competencies, it takes time, persistence, and patience, which are hard to come by without sufficient motivation, goodwill, or empathy.

Sadly, regardless of claims of “colorblindness” and “post-racialism” by so many today and the fact that we have our first Black President, on a non-conscious level, many Black and Brown folks, especially males, are still the object of widespread stereotypes and treatment presuming our inferiority. And then we are often accused of playing the "race card" or being racist when we talk about such things or promote social policies to address historic racial injustice.

Like Obama, I’ve explored my own experiences as a biracial Black man, pursued sustained academic study and participated in significant social justice causes. This includes years of teaching social studies and history in majority Black and Latino High Schools in poor communities. Like Obama, I too want to make a meaningful difference in helping heal the lesion in our collective American social brain that we all know is still there.

And we know it comes from having identified Black people as property and Indian land as a property right of Whites to own, enjoy, and use for their own superiority, profit and wealth accumulation. All of this has been passed down through the centuries and is the source of what still divides us. And we know that the expectation that these privileges and superior status remain intact has historically been recognized as a form of property with rights protected by law, though now in an increasingly stealth and “colorblind” manner. And we know that the sense of entitlement that goes along with this and the implicit biases and stereotypes of Black inferiority still encumber our psyches, while our social institutions continue to produce “facts on the ground” that help reinforce these biases and stereotypes.

All of these things comprise the lesion in our collective social brain and mind and the social institutions and cultural practices that keep producing division, injustice and inequality. And that’s why I returned to pursue my PhD at the University of California at Santa Barbara after completing previous doctoral studies and teaching, as well as working in the private sector for many years. In other words, to research how brain, mind, body, culture and society interact so that better ways can be found to heal the lesion and create a more just and perfect union.

This includes promoting the development of “multiple consciousness” and our honest attempts to form relationships with and understand/respect the ways of knowing and being of each other, especially of folks who have been historically portrayed as inferior and whose independent voices in the media are few and far between.

I hope that my writings help bring some of the hidden manifestations of the lesion to light. It’s part of the healing process, which can sometimes be painful. But, no matter how seemingly “critical” or “searing” my writings might at times appear, just know that my intent is to help get us to a more just and perfect union and that a dose of strong medicine and words may be just what the doctor ordered.

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