A Liberal Dose, August 8, 2025 “Tennessee Universities No Longer Allowed to Host Native American Themed Events”

 

A Liberal Dose

“Tennessee Universities No Longer Allowed to Host Native American Themed Events”

Troy D. Smith

 

Most of y’all know I am a history professor- it says so at the bottom of my column every week. Some folks, who don’t know me and don’t know my story, assume that means I am some kind of privileged elite who doesn’t know anything about the real world -but if you do know me, you know I was raised in a very poor working family and that I, myself, did janitorial work for twenty years before I became an academic -but that’s neither here nor there, my point is, I do understand regular working people. I love the job I have now -basically, in every job I had before I got in trouble because mostly I stood around talking about history. I’m getting paid to do what I love and, even better, I get to work with and engage with young people, which gives my life purpose.

But my job has gotten a lot harder the last few years. And harder still in the last six months. First our state government and now our federal government have been trying to interfere in how I do that job (despite me, not them, having the Ph.D. in it, which I worked six years to earn, after four years in college)… and what I can teach, and how I can teach it. What subjects I can address. It is much worse for K12 teachers, in higher education we have (theoretically) the legally established protection of academic freedom. Let me tell you a little about how these government actions have affected me, and therefore by extension my students and the community, and ultimately you.

My primary area of expertise (though I have several) is indigenous history and culture. I teach many classes in that area, from basic Intro to American Indian Studies to Native religion, Cherokee history, American Indian law, and others. In addition to my work in the classroom, I work to expose students to Native culture by helping coordinate events on and off campus, and by leading student research trips to reservations. This is not just an intellectual exercise for me -I have spent half my life deeply engaged in indigenous community and causes and have been blessed to have received a degree of respect and affection from that community. I helped successfully put together an NSF grant that partners Tennessee Tech with the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, a few months ago I helped organize two food drives and led student  groups out to Cherokee to help out after the hurricanes, and I spent years lobbying Tennessee Tech to set aside a small number of scholarships each year for Native American students -who, after all, would BE in-state if our ancestors had not forcibly removed them -and eventually succeeded. I say all this not to blow my own horn, but to demonstrate the depth of my dedication to the indigenous community, past, present, and future.

A few years ago Tennessee passed what they call “divisive concepts” laws which seek to prohibit any meaningful classroom discussion that might “hurt students’ feelings” by making them feel guilty or responsible for the past… and the very mention of the Trail of Tears, other acts of indigenous genocide, slavery, Jim Crow, or the Holocaust could do that. Note that the concern is over making white students feel uncomfortable, they don’t seem the least concerned about how uncomfortable ignoring or minimizing those historical truths make indigenous or other children of color feel. As one Cherokee friend of mine put it, “Hey, my people were the victims of genocide- that makes ME feel bad.”

So there’s that. Then, when the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, we were informed that the new policy of the state of Tennessee was that no public university could earmark scholarships based on race, so that handful of Native American scholarships was canceled right as it was about to start. I and others pointed out that enrolled tribal membership is a political identity, not a racial one, but one administrator said “that’s true, but what would the community say?” By which they meant, of course, a certain SECTION of the community. So the scholarships (which we had promised in our agreement with the Cherokees) were out.

Now Trump and his MAGA base have declared war on the very notion of diversity -NOT just affirmative action, which some have always argued gave advantages to certain minority groups (who were, by definition, disadvantaged), but even stating a DESIRE to HAVE diversity. Which led to Navajo code talkers, Tuskegee airmen, female military heroes, and anyone else who is not a white male having all mention of them scrubbed from military museums and websites.

For years, Tennessee Tech has celebrated Native American Heritage month by putting on a huge indigenous festival, usually with around 40 performers and dancers from all around the country, as well as a couple of smaller events. It is a highlight of the school year, students (and the community in general) love it. We were recently informed we are no longer allowed to do that… because it is not open to ALL groups to perform in, it is racist. So that tradition, overnight, is dead. And that means no more Hispanic Heritage events, Black History month, women’s history, Asian-American history… none of it. Because “we don’t want to be racist.” Meanwhile, NSF has been forced to go through all their grants and cut every one that has words such as “community”, “indigenous”, “African American”, or “woman” in them. Tech lost a couple of grants designed to encourage more women to enter STEM fields.

I hope you managed to attend some of our Native American events and enjoyed them. Because we will not be allowed to have them again for the foreseeable future.

Is that what you voted for?

 

 

 

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE 

A Liberal Dose, August 1, 2025 "Superman and the Meaning of Truth, Justice, and the American Way"

 

A Liberal Dose

“Superman and the Meaning of Truth, Justice, and the American Way”

Troy D. Smith

 

This week I’m going to talk about something near and dear to my heart -comic books and comic book heroes. Anyone who know me knows I have been a comics nerd my whole life. I teach a class at Tech on the history of comics, and last year Mississippi University Press published my book on race and the history of comics, “Shaolin Brew”. So, of course, I am excited about the new Superman movie.

One of my fondest childhood memories is seeing the 1978 Christopher Reeves Superman movie at the Sparta Drive-In. Reeves was the quintessential Man of Steel. Like a lot of fans, I was not impressed with Zack Snyder’s more recent film versions, starring Henry Cavill, because it didn’t FEEL like Superman. It was darker, more pessimistic, and Superman himself killed people and paid little attention to the damage and danger to civilians his fights caused. The Superman most of us grew up with was nicknamed The Big Blue Boy Scout, and STOOD for something: Truth, Justice, and the American Way (which we all understood to mean equality and fair play). He was aspirational. Although their powers are different, DC’s Superman and Marvel’s Captain America have one thing in common (besides their color scheme): their real power was their intrinsic goodness, their kindness, their inspirational attitude, their strict code of ethics. James Gunn’s new Superman has captured this once more, and made it the heart of the film.

And… Superman is an immigrant (and not a legal one). Gunn has referenced this in interviews… and the MAGAsphere has (predictably) gone nuts. “When did Superman go woke!” some are saying (just as some say “when did Star Trek go woke!”) And the answer, of course -in both cases -is FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. Superman debuted in 1938, and in those early years he did not fight aliens or supervillains. He fought corrupt politicians, organized crime, slumlords, and evil industrialists who cheated their workers. So did most of those earliest superheroes. In 1946, in a sixteen-part storyline of his radio show, Superman took on the Ku Klux Klan (at the time trying to make a comeback from their decline 20 years earlier), exposing their methods and evil to a national audience (and curtailing their attempt at a resurgence).

Starting in the 1950s, DC ran house ads in their books that were public service announcements, often made by Superman. Here is the text of one:

“And remember, boys and girls, your school -like our country -is made up of Americans of MANY different races, religions, and national origins, so… if YOU hear anyone talk against a schoolmate or anyone else because of his religion, race, or national origin -don’t wait: tell him THAT KIND OF TALK IS UN-AMERICAN.”

THAT is the Superman we grew up with. A character created by two young men who were the sons of Jewish immigrants. As, in fact, most of the early 1930s/1940s superheroes were, including Batman and Captain America. As was Will Eisner, creator of The Spirit and one of the greatest comics artists of all time, a title for which he is rivaled by Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzburg to Jewish immigrant parents). As was Max Gaines, who created the comic book as an art form. And have you ever heard of Stan Lee? Real name: Stanley Lieber, son of Romanian Jewish immigrants.

These Jewish writers and artists knew about oppression. Their parents had fled it in Europe, and suffered it anew from the KKK in the 1920s when these guys were young kids. They understood the appeal of an aspirational hero who stands up for the little guy, for the oppressed, for the victimized. Who stood against oppression, even when the laws allowed it. Who stood AGAINST corruption in high places, not in SUPPORT of it. Think about the origin story of Superman, then think of Moses… saved as an infant from destruction by being sent forth by his parents in a small vessel, found by people of another race who raised him as their own, but who eventually realized he had to stand up for what is right and embrace his true identity, not the one provided to him… think on that, and realize just how Jewish the story of Superman actually is.

But many on the far right want to erase that version of Superman, and instead make him a cold agent of the establishment with no “wokeness” about him. The same way they want to change how history is learned and taught, to make it align with their own radical and racist agenda (try denying that, and then explain why every picture and exhibit in our military museums that does not show white males was taken down after Trump took office and why books about Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson are being removed from school libraries). And they are now defining “wokeness” not just as positive attention given to women and minorities… but to the very concepts of KINDNESS and FAIRNESS.

In other words, they have declared war on truth, justice, and the (true) American Way.

I’ll quote another of those 1950s Superman ads, in which a white man assumed the white kid had acted heroically when it was actually his black friend who had, to which Superman said: “Because of his color?...You just jumped to a conclusion because of a common prejudice!”, a mistake people make “mostly because they have forgotten an elementary truth! That people are people, and should be judged as such, regardless of color or beliefs!”

I stand with the Man of Steel… not the un-American Man of Steal.

P.S. -a chapter of Young Democrats has formed in White County. If you are under 36 and interested, give me a holler and I’ll hook you up with them.

 

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

 

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE

You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE

A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE

Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com

The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE