Trust me: After the week this Black woman has had, I’m as surprised by the headline as anyone. Not that a mediocre white man disrespected a Black woman with palpable animosity; that’s every day for us. No, I’m shocked that there were any consequences for this guy being such a jerk, much less such significant ones.
While Black men are the people white folks claim to fear the most so they can shoot them without consequence, Black women are to many, if not most white people, only here to be of service. We’re not here to be treated with dignity, we’re here to give their aging, racist fathers a sponge bath while earning pennies over minimum wage. We’re mammies and maids, cooks and caregivers. We’re welfare queens and whores, until election time, when we’re the workhorses white Democrats swear they couldn’t do without.
Racist perceptions may fuel those racist stereotypes, but we all know that perception is not reality. And as Greensboro, North Carolina’s newest ex-government official Tony Collins just learned, Black women also get doctorates.
It all started with a four-hour slog of a zoning commission meeting, held virtually and televised on Monday. Less than a dozen items were on the agenda, but one concerned the impact of a development “a few hundred feet” from the home of Carrie Rosario, an associate professor at UNC-Greensboro who holds a doctorate in public health. After Dr. Rosario shared her thoughts as a concerned citizen, then-Commissioner Collins, who holds a bachelor’s degree and is a partner in a construction company named Collins & Galyon General Contractors, decided it was his time to shine … like a racist fake diamond.
As transcribed by Greensboro’s News & Record:
Let’s roll the tape. Note that Collins not only rejects her title and uses her first name, but despite multiple corrections, he also refuses to pronounce Dr. Rosario’s surname correctly. He also leans on what’s on the screen—twice—but “Mrs.” is nowhere to be found.
As a preemptive strike against anyone who feels compelled to frame this as a mere mistake with double down sauce, The Charlotte Observer reports that, earlier in the meeting, another commissioner responded quite differently when he received a similar correction.
Multiple people in the meeting apologized to Dr. Rosario immediately. Collins was not one of them.
Council members convened on Tuesday; though the video isn’t embeddable here, I encourage you to go watch the full five-minute clip provided by the News & Record. Councilwoman Sharon Hightower, a Black woman, replayed the incident from the day before. She named the four people who apologized to Dr. Rosario before noting that “I get this regularly, from other folk. I know how this feels.” Hightower also named the racism and white privilege on display in the moment, and added that the council did not appoint Collins to act like this, before stating that the incident was an example of “history repeating itself.”
Next, Councilwoman Goldie Wells, another Black woman with her own doctorate, spoke next, reminding the room that Black women can get multiple degrees, while white women with high school diplomas still enjoy more advantages. She spoke to how much education means to African Americans in general, particularly the journey to a Ph.D.:“That means something. Now this, just was some’ bad manners. We know that if somebody pronounces name differently from what you want to be called, they quickly change (the pronunciation).” Dr. Wells then gave examples of previous oustings of appointees before making the case for ousting Collins.
Discussion continued for about a half hour, with Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann, a white woman, offering to have a talk with Collins. The council then voted unanimously to send the weirdo and his racist nonsense packing.
On Wednesday—two days after the incident and one day after he got the boot—Collins decided to apologize, and left a penitent voicemail for Dr. Rosario, who responded with “a gracious message.”
“I am so appreciative of her reaching back to me after I called her,” Collins told the News & Record on Friday. “She didn’t have to and she did.”
No, she didn’t have to. But she did.
Collins conceded that he behaved badly, but was adamant that his vile behavior had nothing whatsoever to do with race or gender, because “anyone who deals with him” knows that he treats everyone the same!
It’s an interesting defense to claim that you’re an equal opportunity asshole.
On Thursday, Collins sent an email to each member of the council.
Collins claims he sent the email, which doesn’t acknowledge the racial dynamics at play, on Wednesday but it didn’t go through.
Dr. Rosario, being a Black woman, admitted she was “shocked” that a the council voted to kick Collins to the curb. She held it up as an example of the importance of having diverse elected representation—three of the nine council members are women of color. The outcome is also indicates that in Greensboro, Black women fight for each other.
A horrible Wall Street Journal op-ed isn’t so far behind us—you know the one, where Joseph Epstein orders the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, to drop the Doc because it “feels fraudulent, even comic.” In a great interview with The Washington Post’s lady vertical, The Lily, Dr. Rosario pays tribute to her late mother, a powerful Black woman named Janet Kennedy; she also further discusses the importance of her title.
Dr. Rosario is certain that her mom, who died in February, would have celebrated her viral moment, with tweets shouting “It’s Dr. Rosario!” galore. Because, as The Lily’s Carole Kirchener notes, “Collins told Rosario that her title ‘didn’t matter.’ It mattered to Rosario … and it would have mattered to her mom.”
While Black men are the people white folks claim to fear the most so they can shoot them without consequence, Black women are to many, if not most white people, only here to be of service. We’re not here to be treated with dignity, we’re here to give their aging, racist fathers a sponge bath while earning pennies over minimum wage. We’re mammies and maids, cooks and caregivers. We’re welfare queens and whores, until election time, when we’re the workhorses white Democrats swear they couldn’t do without.
Racist perceptions may fuel those racist stereotypes, but we all know that perception is not reality. And as Greensboro, North Carolina’s newest ex-government official Tony Collins just learned, Black women also get doctorates.
It all started with a four-hour slog of a zoning commission meeting, held virtually and televised on Monday. Less than a dozen items were on the agenda, but one concerned the impact of a development “a few hundred feet” from the home of Carrie Rosario, an associate professor at UNC-Greensboro who holds a doctorate in public health. After Dr. Rosario shared her thoughts as a concerned citizen, then-Commissioner Collins, who holds a bachelor’s degree and is a partner in a construction company named Collins & Galyon General Contractors, decided it was his time to shine … like a racist fake diamond.
As transcribed by Greensboro’s News & Record:
Let’s roll the tape. Note that Collins not only rejects her title and uses her first name, but despite multiple corrections, he also refuses to pronounce Dr. Rosario’s surname correctly. He also leans on what’s on the screen—twice—but “Mrs.” is nowhere to be found.
As a preemptive strike against anyone who feels compelled to frame this as a mere mistake with double down sauce, The Charlotte Observer reports that, earlier in the meeting, another commissioner responded quite differently when he received a similar correction.
Multiple people in the meeting apologized to Dr. Rosario immediately. Collins was not one of them.
Council members convened on Tuesday; though the video isn’t embeddable here, I encourage you to go watch the full five-minute clip provided by the News & Record. Councilwoman Sharon Hightower, a Black woman, replayed the incident from the day before. She named the four people who apologized to Dr. Rosario before noting that “I get this regularly, from other folk. I know how this feels.” Hightower also named the racism and white privilege on display in the moment, and added that the council did not appoint Collins to act like this, before stating that the incident was an example of “history repeating itself.”
Next, Councilwoman Goldie Wells, another Black woman with her own doctorate, spoke next, reminding the room that Black women can get multiple degrees, while white women with high school diplomas still enjoy more advantages. She spoke to how much education means to African Americans in general, particularly the journey to a Ph.D.:“That means something. Now this, just was some’ bad manners. We know that if somebody pronounces name differently from what you want to be called, they quickly change (the pronunciation).” Dr. Wells then gave examples of previous oustings of appointees before making the case for ousting Collins.
Discussion continued for about a half hour, with Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann, a white woman, offering to have a talk with Collins. The council then voted unanimously to send the weirdo and his racist nonsense packing.
On Wednesday—two days after the incident and one day after he got the boot—Collins decided to apologize, and left a penitent voicemail for Dr. Rosario, who responded with “a gracious message.”
“I am so appreciative of her reaching back to me after I called her,” Collins told the News & Record on Friday. “She didn’t have to and she did.”
No, she didn’t have to. But she did.
Collins conceded that he behaved badly, but was adamant that his vile behavior had nothing whatsoever to do with race or gender, because “anyone who deals with him” knows that he treats everyone the same!
It’s an interesting defense to claim that you’re an equal opportunity asshole.
On Thursday, Collins sent an email to each member of the council.
Collins claims he sent the email, which doesn’t acknowledge the racial dynamics at play, on Wednesday but it didn’t go through.
Dr. Rosario, being a Black woman, admitted she was “shocked” that a the council voted to kick Collins to the curb. She held it up as an example of the importance of having diverse elected representation—three of the nine council members are women of color. The outcome is also indicates that in Greensboro, Black women fight for each other.
A horrible Wall Street Journal op-ed isn’t so far behind us—you know the one, where Joseph Epstein orders the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, to drop the Doc because it “feels fraudulent, even comic.” In a great interview with The Washington Post’s lady vertical, The Lily, Dr. Rosario pays tribute to her late mother, a powerful Black woman named Janet Kennedy; she also further discusses the importance of her title.
Dr. Rosario is certain that her mom, who died in February, would have celebrated her viral moment, with tweets shouting “It’s Dr. Rosario!” galore. Because, as The Lily’s Carole Kirchener notes, “Collins told Rosario that her title ‘didn’t matter.’ It mattered to Rosario … and it would have mattered to her mom.”