TillI'm TiptoeJoo.com. The podcast about pop culture, black history, and spirituality. It's about to be a great part. Doctor Till, go on and take it away.
Till I'm TiptoeJoo. Hey y'all, hey, it's your girl Till. Thank you for joining me for another edition of Tellin' TiptoeJoo. The podcast where I share with you all my musings about black history, black culture, and black spirituality.
Listen, it ain't nothing like some drama in the black community to get your girl back on a regular posting schedule with the podcast, OK? All right, so you probably already can guess what I want to rant about today. And that is Dion Sanders and his exploitation. I don't care what you say, Jackson State University.
So that's pretty much all this podcast is going to be about. Let's just get right into it. So yesterday, we got to watch the game between Jackson State University and Southern University, the Battle for the Swack Championship. Congratulations to Jackson State University for coming out victorious in that game.
I think one of the most frustrating and angering things that I think about when I think about Dion Sanders' announcement that he's going to be going to Colorado was that he didn't even let his players have a full 24 hours of victory celebration. I want you to think about that right quick. Now, unless you've been on a rock, you know what I'm talking about, Dion Sanders has made the decision to leave Jackson State University and take his talents elsewhere to a larger PWI because he sees that as a better opportunity. And I'm using the words he used in the conversation with his players after the game.
He says it's an opportunity, OK? All right. Now, I know some of you are saying, oh, well, we knew he was going to leave. Oh, yeah, I knew he was going to leave.
Yeah, OK, listen. I'm pretty sure all of us had some inkling that he would leave. But the idea that he would not even let his players fully celebrate, not even let his son fully celebrate before dropping that news at their feet. And let me tell you this, I truly believe the only reason he came out with it then was because he had no choice.
The news had already released it. All right. I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me back up, son.
Let me tell you what this podcast today's episode is. Today's episode is really about me. I'm going to get on my soapbox for a little bit because I want to. And it's my podcast, Argy, which man is now with me.
But the other part of it is it convicts me. This thing has made me so angry that it has put me in an emotional state, not only about the specificity of this particular issue, but about what it represents more broadly for our communities and for our people, most specifically what it represents to me and my commitments to the community. And so this particular podcast is going to turn into two parts. The next part will be more about the generalities of HBCUs and what we need and the loyalty that it will take to keep our institutions safe and healthy.
This episode really is just going to be a rant. I'm sorry. I'm telling you in advance that's what it is. I'm a Scorpio.
And if you know anything about that sign, if you believe in this kind of stuff, we are loyal, extremely loyal. And so I'm coming to you. Let me be completely transparent and say, loyalty matters a lot to me. It matters a lot to me.
So that's part of my context. If you're new to me, you may not know that I'm an HBCU grad. I'm an HBCU maid. I'm an HBCU legacy.
My parents graduated from HBCUs, my aunts and uncles, my cousins, my sister, my brother, hopefully my nephews. We are an HBCU family. That's part of the context that I'm speaking to you from. When I was a college dropout, the only institution that would take me back was an HBCU.
That's part of the context I speak from. I'm employed by an HBCU. It's part of the context that I speak from. And I'm also pro-black.
So that's part of the context that I speak through. I want to be completely transparent and open with you that you are talking to someone incredibly loyal to these institutions. So they feel about this a little bit more strongly than some of you. I also have the privilege of studying our institutions and their impact on some of our social realities in the United States.
And so that gives me a privileged glimpse at their role in our communities. And so that's part of my context in speaking to you. And then the other part of this is I've made some sacrifices in my career because I'm dedicated to HBCUs. I'm going to talk about that probably more on the next podcast.
But I want you to know that. Before I get started, I'm also, as I said earlier, I use Black History, Black Culture and Black spirituality to work with my clients. And with my students, it's a part of how I frame this podcast. And so I want to start with the history if you'll allow me to do so, please.
In January, some of the same people I see defending Dion Sanders' actions will be yelling and wearing T-shirts and celebrating and being in the day of service and marching for Dr. Martin Luther King in junior day. And I don't have a problem with you celebrating him in that way. I do have a problem though, if you trivialize his work, by just celebrating the holiday and knowing what the hell he talked about.
And so I want to talk to you a little bit about Dr. King's words, about poverty, before I continue this conversation. And let me tell you why. I am 38 hot with those people trying to justify Dion Sanders' behavior by saying he's going to get paid more.
I have a problem with that. I have a problem with that because you're telling me capitalism means more to you than community. And if you feel that way, go ahead and turn off this podcast. Unfollow me and never talk to me again.
If you think, anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself, let me just, okay. So I'm going to be reading a little bit from Dr. Martin Luther King's speech. You know, a lot of his speeches are written, and you can Google them.
You should read them for yourselves, because in the United States, we tend to make our heroes bite-sized, right? We're a microwave society. Some of us have turned towards superficial understanding of the commitments some of our leaders had. And because of that, we allow them to be diluted to a single quote or two.
But Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a learned man. He recorded many of his speeches.
And it's important that we turn to the philosophies of some of our intellectuals in moments like this as we discuss what has happened and where we should go. So I'm going to quote a little bit from his address called the Three Evils of Society, all right? This was delivered at the National Conference on New Politics in 1967. You can listen to it online.
If you just Google it, you'll find recordings of it. I'm just going to read to you a few parts of it. But in this speech, Dr. Martin Luther King said that there were three evils that we had to do with way with.
Number one was racism. Number three was materialism. But I want to draw your attention to what he said was the second aspect of our afflicted society. All right, you ready?
Hold on till you see those of you like Cadillacs and Firs who want to have Instagram photos from Tulum who think the exam center has made a better decision because he walked away from $300,000 to go to an estimated $5 million plus. Dr. King said the second, and I'm quoting, the second aspect of our afflicted society is extreme materialism. Did y'all hear me?
See, King understood that white supremacy is a multi-pronged system. And one of its effects is extreme materialism. He says, and I quote, excuse me, we have diluted ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifice. Yeah, a lot of y'all, things y'all did, what coaches are supposed to do because capitalism and white supremacy has diluted our belief.
Okay, so let me keep going. He says, the fact that capitalism was built on exploitation and suffering of black enslaved people. Now he says slaves, but you know how I go. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black enslaved people and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor.
All right, let's go back to what Deanna Sanders has done. And let's talk a little bit about how y'all are justifying his behaviors. Now a lot of you keep saying, go to the bag, get the money. Loyalty never paid a bill.
I'm talking about real life black folk, I have seen, say these things. And I believe that you're only saying them because we have diluted ourselves into believing the myth of capitalism. If capitalism was good for our people, these HBCUs would not exist. The founders of these institutions didn't found institutions just to make money.
They found the institutions for the health of our people. Do you think Deanna Sanders is thinking about the health of our people? He didn't wait a full 24 hours for his players to enjoy the victory that came from their hard work and labor. He used them.
Now some people have hit me with, wouldn't you leave your job if somebody offered you that much more money? Probably not, if I am a multi-millionaire, which he is, with existing endorsements to make continued money, which he has, no, I wouldn't. Sure not. Ask the question of somebody else, I told y'all I'm loyal.
I also know what these institutions do. And let me also say that I am not alone. I work with colleagues every day who are here in it. I told y'all I'm speaking from the context of an HBC faculty member.
I am in it because of what these institutions can do, have done, and will continue to do if I got blood in my body for our people. Do you understand what, you can't, no, not all of us, you know, I had a conversation with a friend of mine. And he said everybody has a price. I don't disagree with that.
In fact, he said it with a lot less tech. He said, we all hoes. If you don't understand Black and American English, African American English, let me just say, we're all whores. We're all prostitutes.
Everyone has a price. Some of us just have higher prices. Now, I'm not going to say there would never be a time that I would leave a job for a higher-paying job. I'm not going to say that.
I won't pretend to do that. I'm not hypocritical. But I can tell you that if my family is set, I probably would not do anything that I thought would negatively impact my students. I just wouldn't.
And I know there are a lot of people like, you know, teachers don't teach to make money. You got some teacher friends. You know, we don't teach to make money. Think about the teacher friends you have.
Do you think they're going to hurt their kids just for a dollar? No, not all of us have built like that. And I also want to remind you that the problem that most of us have about Deion Sanders choosing to leave Jackson State and to go somewhere else is how he did it, not what he did. He, y'all can say he was going to leave.
He said it this season, in the middle of this season. He didn't say that when he was trying to get the job. He didn't say it when Florida State was saying you couldn't, you can't coach here. He didn't say it when NCW, they said you ain't got no degree from your beloved PWI.
So you got to go get one from Talladega. He didn't say it then. What he did was cried in front of us and said that this was about the culture. That God sent him on a mission.
And now y'all see him shucking and jiving, trying to clean it up to my his black players at Colorado. Yes, his black players at Colorado, but you said God sent you to Jackson State. Let me say something to y'all. We cannot afford to teach our children that they deserve to be exploited or that that exploitation should be normalized.
It wasn't Florida State that came back and said, prime, here's a degree so you can coach. It wasn't Florida State that gave him his opportunity. That was our institution. What players won him that championship yesterday?
The ones that look like us. What players did he shit on? Not even five hours after the game. The ones that look like us.
And then he sat there giving a historical information talking about this is what coaches do. Nah baby, you normalizing some other stuff. That ain't what HBCU coaches tend to do. Let them have a winning season.
They not really trying to go nowhere. Y'all Eddie Robinson didn't leave after championship? Some of y'all owe Eddie Robinson Jr an apology when he said you ain't swacked. Listen, some of us believe that all the glitters is gold.
Y'all the same Negroes. I haven't forgotten. And I pay attention to who says what on my social media. Some of y'all me girls are the same ones that we tried to say Kanye was playing chess until he got so ridiculously foolish the last couple of weeks.
Now you're trying to distance yourself from previous attempts to protect him and talk about we just didn't understand. He's complicated. It's more nuanced than that. That's what y'all doing for prime?
Y'all want to act like celebrity and money means integrity and intelligence. And it don't. And it don't. See, I know that I institute go Google the stats of what HBCUs do.
These institutions must be protected. And if someone who is worth an estimated $40 million will not protect them, I'm saying stop telling that man. I hope he lose every single game for the rest of his life. And you can tell him I told him.
I hope the AD and Jackson state don't let him coach in the next game. How you going to show up the night of at the new school? Y'all don't see that as disrespectful. He threw the money on the dresser and left.
Do you know that that's what that was? He threw the money on the dresser and left. Said peace on the way out the door. That's what he did to our baby.
Because a lot of y'all defending him had to say a cat rat dog about how these students are impacted. Students who change the trajectory of their life through choices related to following him. When he's set with people's parents and said I will take care of them. He can't take care of them if he gone y'all.
What's your price? I feel like everybody defending Deon Sanders in this moment needs to go on the name of a price. I ain't that cheap. I'm sorry.
But y'all didn't tell me the same. If I go through my social media right now, not everyone of y'all defending him has talked about the students. And let me say this. All y'all keep saying he did so much from Jackson.
You name me a lasting legacy. Be honest, season the two. Name me a lot. Look, this Negro was out here trying to get us to change where y'all are.
Okay. I really can't. He was trying to tell us where to play classics. When he's like I know he wasn't going to be there anymore.
The impact on tradition he was trying to have. When he knew he wasn't going to be there anymore. Let me tell you something. There are two things.
There's in culture and there's a culture. In culture, is the acquisition of culture from inside your culture group. It's about how we teach folk to be black in other words. HBCUs in culture, HBCU culture.
You can't learn that from somewhere else. Y'all let him come in here. He drew a lot of attention to HBCUs. Good, bad, or indifferent.
He did do that. All right. They sold the hell out some tickets this year. But I want to ask you what the lasting impact of that is.
We had a boom in HBCU enrollment. That in some ways, I think was affected by. Y'all know I called it the D.I. Is phenomenal.
So we did have a boom in enrollment this year. But what happened as a result of that increased enrollment? North Carolina A&T got their budget cut about $11 million. Because they had too many out of state students.
And then the Glover got called before the state to explain why TSU had as many students as they did. All of the attention that he called to our institutions wasn't necessarily good attention. Are we ready for that part of the conversation? When you talk about he made an impact?
What is the lasting impact? He argued that the players need their names on the back of the jersey. Now that he's gone, and some of his friends money is going to leave with him, who's going to pay for that? Did he establish a major on campus?
Did he start a center? Did he write a book? What is his, y'all keep saying he did something? What did he do?
He put your, I read something with somebody foolish there. He put Jackson State on the map. Baby, have you never heard of HBC football? Jackson State didn't mean him to be put on the map.
They'd be on the map. They'd be on the map. They'd be on the ask anybody who goes went to Jackson State University. They didn't need him for that.
And quiet as his kept listening, we, listen y'all, we really don't know what his coaching ability looks like. Can we be on, can some real sports fans listen to me right quick? We don't know what his coaching ability looks like. There are many of us who have said for many years, if we could draw top players to our institutions, these programs would do miraculous things.
The magic, what, Deion, the magic was who he attracted. The players are the magic, not him. Don't give him that credit. These boys that he's walking away from, they're the magic.
And if y'all are certain, listen to him talk to those children after they go. Listen I want to go through the TV. When you basically telling them you're going to pick and choose who to take with you, do you know what that can, listen, I, you gotta talk to somebody who teach out of HBCU, you gotta talk to somebody who mentors young people and ask them, do our children deserve someone who sees them as that disposable? Listen, I said it last week in a meeting.
I'll say it to God himself. Everybody doesn't belong at HBCU. Everybody does not deserve to teach at an HBCU. Everybody should not have access to our babies.
And y'all can get mad because he was on your favorite team, you got his jersey and you used to listen to them songs. But I want you to ask yourself, what is the lasting impact? Ticket sales, that's the lasting impact. A locker room, that's the lasting impact.
Beyond those few things, a winning season, okay, they haven't been other HBCUs with winning seasons before? Come on y'all, let's be. He put the money on the dresser and left you. And some of y'all are defending it.
And this is not a dig in the face of sex workers. Let's skip y'all now. I'm just using that analogy that many of us can relate to. Y'all.
Anyway, I'm gonna go on in this episode here because I just can't. I can't. I can't. Let me see, did I cover everything?
I asked y'all what your price is. I just wanna, the last thing that's on my list is to ask y'all, when we gonna learn, when are we gonna learn that white and white and white are anywhere? Because some of y'all keep saying he wants to play for a power power power school. That's what he say, it's an opportunity.
It's an opportunity to do what? To build our community, to invest the institutions that have invested in us, to go to a place that deserves to be your first choice. Okay, well, what up? Y'all gonna be mad at me if you want to.
I say what I wanted to say. Don't try me. Like I said, are you what you mean by me? Next episode, next week, I really want to talk about, now that the anger is out, I really want to talk about what it means to be an institution builder.
Not all of us are those things. And I think my biggest disappointment in Dion's standards is that he pretended to be about it. He pretended to be an institution builder. He pretended to have commitment to these institutions.
He pretended to have commitment to the culture. When in reality, much like your brother Yay, his definition of success lacks a melody. All right? He's not chasing the pinnacle of our championships.
He's chasing something that don't look like us and using us to get there. I need for you to have some, some, some, I don't know what to call it. I just, I want y'all to be upset that he exploited these babies. Think about this.
I want you to think about, you just played your heart out. I may already be rumors on campus, but he didn't coach the huddle of you this game and your adrenaline is still flowing. You just won a championship. Your school hasn't seen that.
You just, you just, you just, and then he tells you it's time to move on. I want you to think about that. That you may have turned out other offers to be there. I want you to think about what that probably felt like to our students.
So if your conversation, if your rebuttal to this podcast starts with the money and not with the students, you can go straight to hell and tell them I said, it's take you there. Okay? Anyway, I promise next week I'll be a lot more calm. I have more information.
I'm going to bring on a guest to talk about what historically black colleges and universities have done for our communities. Some of you may not understand why I'm so angry. Some of you might not understand, do you know, I'm trying to end this episode y'all, but do you know during the civil rights movement, there are stories about activists having to run, like try to escape from white terrorists and find safety on historically black colleges and university campuses. Did you know that?
Like physically these have been harbors of safety. Historically, these places have literally been safe spaces for our bodies and our minds. And I don't care who you are, you don't get to play with that. Anyway, tell me to tell me y'all have a good one.