The Rational Ram

As a black American and native Texan, Juneteenth is a very special unofficial holiday for me, in light of the fact that the holiday originated in Texas. Juneteenth (19 June) marks the day in 1865 that Union General Gordon Granger read General Order #3 to the people of Texas. This is more than two years […]

The meme that opens this post makes a humorous, but salient point. History tends to favor the victors. One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist. One man’s king is another man’s oppressor. The victors typically get to shape how they and the side they vanquished are viewed in posterity. As the meme humorously points […]

I wrote about the concept of “selling out” before on this blog. That post is at the link below: https://therationalram.blog/2019/08/26/when-a-sellout-isnt-actually-selling-out/ I won’t rehash what I said in that post here, but given the events sparked by the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, I am witnessing a resurgence of the term “sellout” on both […]

Who are the 5%? Who are the 95%? The late, great radio personality and motivational speaker Earl Nightingale explains: For those in my audience who decided not to view the video first, or just decided that just over 13 minutes of your time is too long to get to the point of this post, I […]

Life is all about the choices we make. First, two videos I want my audience to digest… Systemic racism explained: The myth of systemic racism, as told by black celebrities: I am not going to suggest that racism, systemic or otherwise, does not exist or is not a problem. As outlined in the first video, […]

As a native Texan who hails from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, I am very much a fan of Mark Cuban and his Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise. I follow him on both Facebook and Twitter. I not only admire his phenomenal business acumen, but his maverick attitude (no pun intended). All of the above said, I […]

I don’t often defend celebrities and professional athletes. Especially when they make stupid or controversial comments on political or racial matters. However, in this post, I make an exception. New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees made headlines and broke the Internet yesterday when his statement regarding his stance on NFL players kneeling during the playing […]

Rush Limbaugh’s interview yesterday on the black radio program The Breakfast Club was supposed to center on the George Floyd murder (by police), but in typical media fashion the interview degenerated into ideological rhetoric which, in my opinion, obfuscated the entire point of the segment. You can listen to the interview in its entirety below: […]

I’m tired… I’m tired of the same thing the late actor Michael Clarke Duncan’s character “John Coffey” in the film The Green Mile is tired of. People being ugly to each other because of tribalism. That’s right. Tribalism. Racism is borne from tribalism. Ideology (political or otherwise) promotes tribalism. Tribalism erodes decency. Yes, I said […]

Greetings to my readers. I want to make three points in this blog post for conscientious consideration. Before I make my points, I provide a definition of the term “qualified immunity” and a synopsis on how it works. Qualified immunity is a legal doctrine that “protects public officials from being sued for damages unless they […]