Ronald Mason: Crazy or Genius?
The consolidation of Mississippi’s 3 Historically Black Colleges and Universities took an awkward turn this week when JSU President Ronald Mason’s PowerPoint doodling project came out into the public eye. The presentation starts out similar to something you would see released by the Black Panther’s with anti-establishment and black power rhetoric. Then about halfway through Mason turns the presentation into a strange proposal to merge all three HBCUs and rename them Jacobs State University (Notice it would still be JSU).
I am really not sure how to feel about it after reading through it several times and trying to make sense of it all. It is crystal clear to me that first off Mason seems to carry a huge chip on his shoulder and I’ll go ahead and say it that he comes off as sounding racist. He also seems to be completely paranoid of how the state is run. If you are to believe his presentation, which he wrote with his own thoughts, the guy is convinced that the state of Mississippi is intentionally trying to limit the human potential of black people. Keep in mind this is a well-educated man who is running one of our state-funded universities with these ideas.
The Jacobs State Proposal is exactly what the consolidation talk has been about. It would create one large and potentially very successful HBCU in the state of Mississippi. Now I’m not sure about calling it Jacobs State or having the Phoenix as a mascot, but those are minor details anyway in my opinion. Whatever Mason’s reasoning may be I think he sees the need for the consolidation in order to survive and be successful and viable at the same time. Yes, he thinks there is no other option because Mississippi is letting the 3 schools down and this is what they have to do and I don’t agree with that at all, but that thinking ultimately leads him to the idea of consolidation. It just goes to show it doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you still get there. Some people see it as an economic solution to better educational opportunities in this state while Mason sees it as Mississippi forcing the schools to have no other options. The end result is still the same.
In the end Mason upsets everybody with his PowerPoint presentation for one reason or another. I’m not sure if this could lead to his ouster at Jackson State, but I think it is safe to say he has really ruffled the feathers of the powers that be. The lesson learned here should be to keep your presentations and thoughts to yourself unless you are ready to deal with the backlash that Mason is getting now. To answer the question posed I believe Mason hits on both: crazy for trying to buck the anti-consolidation stance of black leaders and genius for his Jacobs State Plan.
It’s important to keep in mind that Mason was speaking of the historical legacy of education in Mississippi. For the first 60 years of the 20th century, MS not only had a segregated system of public education, but spent significantly less on its black students. Even after Brown v. Board found this practice unconstitutional, it was not until the 1970s that could say that at a state level, the government was demonstrating some real commitment to integration and equality.
This is not to say that the state hasn’t made real progress in education. It has. But we were the last state in the country to implement universal kindergarten (1986), the public school system, we are still behind the national curve in early childhood education; in addition, the move towards suburban schools, private schools and academies continues to divide legislative will in the statehouse against changes that will benefit all of Mississippi’s children.
With future cuts to higher ed a certainty, it seems like Mason is simply stating a sober perspective on what HBCUs need to do next.
I think Mason is brilliant. He simply didn’t go far enough. We also need to merge Ole Miss, USM, and MSU.
Umm hello, black people have every right to be angry. I grew up 5 minutes from the west Mississippi border, and I’m mad as hell for them. You can take that however you want.