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OP-ED: Thena Robinson Mock: My American History

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Coming up this month, hundreds of families will gather for Hampton University’s annual Homecoming weekend. Hampton’s football field is about so much more than a game, it’s a sacred place for reunions and renewal. Alumni, students, and families will gather to celebrate Hampton’s enduring legacy and the shared pride that binds us together.

Published

3 months ago

October 24, 2025

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Public Welfare Foundation’s Legacies Rooted in Resistance and Resilience Series

By Thena Robinson Mock
Vice President of Programs at Public Welfare Foundation

My grandparents lived just two miles from Old Point Comfort in Hampton, Virginia, a strip of land where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic. It was there in 1619 that a Dutch ship brought the first group of enslaved Africans to the English colonies, reshaping the course of history and ushering in centuries of racialized slavery and anti-Black racism.

That same site, centuries later, became Fort Monroe, a military post held by the Union Army during the Civil War. The Fort earned a new name over time, Freedom Fortress. It became a place Black people held in captivity risked everything to reach. First a few, and then many, crossing rivers and waterways to seek refuge behind the fortress’ lines.

When I reflect on my family’s history, I think of this American history. In these times, some suggest that we not dwell on the horrors of slavery, as if burying the record might spare us discordant notes. But to turn away from the past is to deny more than America’s inconvenient truths of captivity and cruelty – it is to erase the courage and resilience born of it.

During the summers, my grandmother – a retired schoolteacher – would pile her grandchildren – all girls – into the car for a field trip to Freedom Fortress. We squeezed into the back seat of her gold Oldsmobile Cutlass for the short drive. We were a band of Black girls in coordinated summer sets and hair ribbons, baking beneath the Virginia sun as we posed next to antiquated cannons. My grandmother – always more show than tell – didn’t lecture us about history, but it was clear: she wanted the legacy of Freedom Fortress to embolden our paths, just as it had for her.

We’d then climb back into the Oldsmobile and drive to Hampton University, the historically Black college founded in 1868 to educate newly emancipated people, of which, my grandmother was a proud graduate. She would narrate the visits with stories of our family history – the famed campus waterfront where she and my grandfather once strolled together as young students, the dorm where my grandmother lived, the steps of Stone Manor where my parents met. She’d quietly, but confidently, slip in, “When you girls go to Hampton…”, foreshadowing our own futures.

My second great-grandfather was among Hampton’s earliest graduates. Born enslaved on a Virginia plantation in 1851, he enrolled at Hampton in 1884 as part of the first pastors’ class. Decades later, between 1930 and 1940, my grandmother and her three sisters would follow in his footsteps, launching them into careers. My mother would graduate in the late 1960s, alongside a host of relatives. I would begin my own journey as a student at Hampton nearly thirty years later. To date, five generations of my family, challenged by the gravity of the times, have returned to Hampton to continue the unfinished business of those who had come before.

Why did we keep returning to Hampton? Maybe it was the same thing those early freedom dreamers sought when they crossed into Freedom’s Fortress – refuge.

When I arrived at Hampton University, I was seeking my own refuge. My mother left Virginia when I was young and relocated my sister and me to a predominantly white Texas suburb. There, my early educational experience was marked by isolation. I was often one of the few Black students, a reality that proved detrimental to my sense of self-worth. At Hampton, I returned to a place that nurtured me, preparing me for a world all too insistent on doing the opposite. At Hampton, which proved no echo chamber, political debates sparked, and my intellect was fed. Ideas collided. It was in this environment that my critical thinking skills were sharpened.

As a student, I spent hours in the University’s archives, uncovering evidence that at every critical juncture in history, Hampton students had been actively engaged in civil and human rights struggles – even challenging the University and questioning the paternalistic intentions of its white founders. On one visit to the archives, I discovered my mother’s signature on a petition. She had protested the unequal curfew rules for men and women. In that moment, the continuum of struggle and resistance felt profoundly personal, a tangible reminder of the interconnectedness of our individual and societal histories. This is not just the history of the Lively family or even of Hampton University; it is the history of America.

Coming up this month, hundreds of families will gather for Hampton University’s annual Homecoming weekend. Hampton’s football field is about so much more than a game, it’s a sacred place for reunions and renewal. Alumni, students, and families will gather to celebrate Hampton’s enduring legacy and the shared pride that binds us together.

For nearly two decades, I’ve dedicated my career to challenging incarceration in America, looking to history for lessons to help guide my steps.

Here is what I believe to be true: I believe that Freedom Fortress and Hampton’s campus were never meant to be final destinations. For me, they represent something more profound: places to be fortified, affirmed, find solidarity, and experience joy. They are spaces where truth and history are acknowledged and shared. Those places are emblematic of the kinds of spaces, communities, and collectives we must continue to build. We need spaces that strengthen our resolve and bolster our courage for the next leg of freedom’s journey now more than ever. As for me, I’m doubling down my efforts to help create – and hold – these spaces. I hope you’ll join me.

Thena Robinson Mock is Public Welfare Foundation’s Vice President of Programs, overseeing the Foundation’s adult criminal justice and youth justice grantmaking strategies. She is a graduate of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law and Hampton University.

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A Nation in Freefall While the Powerful Feast: Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything.

Published

2 months ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything. It enters the grocery aisle, the overdue bill, the rent notice, and the long nights spent calculating how to get through the next week. The latest numbers show that this season has not passed. It has deepened.

Private employers cut 32,000 jobs in November, according to ADP. Because the nation has been hemorrhaging jobs since President Trump took office, the administration has halted publishing the traditional monthly report. The ADP report revealed that small businesses suffered the heaviest losses. Establishments with fewer than 50 workers shed 120,000 positions, including 74,000 from companies with 20 to 49 workers. Larger firms added 90,000 jobs, widening the split between those rising and those falling.

Meanwhile, wealth continues to climb for the few who already possess most of it. Federal Reserve data shows the top 1 percent now holds $52 trillion. The top 10 percent added $5 trillion in the second quarter alone. The bottom half gained only 6 percent over the past year, a number so small it fades beside the towering fortunes above it.

“Less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes,” John Campbell said to CBS News, while noting that the complexity of the system leaves many families lost before they even begin. Campbell, a Harvard University economist and coauthor of a book examining the country’s broken personal finance structure, pointed to a system built to confuse and punish those who lack time, training, or access.

“Creditors are just breathing down their necks,” Carol Fox told Bloomberg News, while noting that rising borrowing costs, shrinking consumer spending, and trade battles under the current administration have left owners desperate. Fox serves as a court-appointed Subchapter V trustee in Southern Florida and has watched the crisis unfold case by case.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump told those present that affordability “doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” He added that Democrats created a “con job” to mislead the public.

However, more than $30 million in taxpayer funds reportedly have supported his golf travel. Reports show Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel have also made extensive use of private jets through government and political networks. The administration approved a $40 billion bailout of Argentina. The president’s wealthy donors recently gathered for a dinner celebrating his planned $300 million White House ballroom.

During an appearance on CNBC, Mark Zandi, an economist, warned that the country could face serious economic threats. “We have learned that people make many mistakes,” Campbell added. “And particularly, sadly, less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes.”

Stacy M. Brown

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The Numbers Behind the Myth of the Hundred Million Dollar Contract

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut.

Published

2 months ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut. He looked into the camera and tried to offer a truth most fans never hear. “You give somebody a five-year $100 million contract, right? What is it really? It is five years for sixty. You are getting taxed. Do the math. That is twelve million a year that you have to spend, use, save, invest, flaunt,” said Beckham. He added that buying a car, buying his mother a house, and covering the costs of life all chip away at what people assume lasts forever.

The reaction was instant. Many heard entitlement. Many heard a millionaire complaining. What they missed was a glimpse into a professional world built on big numbers up front and a quiet erasing of those numbers behind the scenes.

The tax data in Beckham’s world is not speculation. SmartAsset’s research shows that top NFL players often lose close to half their income to federal taxes, state taxes, and local taxes. The analysis explains that athletes in California face a state rate of 13.3 percent and that players are also taxed in every state where they play road games, a structure widely known as the jock tax. For many players, that means filing up to ten separate returns and facing a combined tax burden that reaches or exceeds 50 percent.

A look across the league paints the same picture. The research lists star players in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, all giving up between 43 and 47 percent of their football income before they ever touch a dollar. Star quarterback Phillip Rivers, at one point, was projected to lose half of his playing income to taxes alone.

A second financial breakdown from MGO CPA shows that the problem does not only affect the highest earners. A $1 million salary falls to about $529,000 after federal taxes, state and city taxes, an agent fee, and a contract deduction. According to that analysis, professional athletes typically take home around half of their contract value, and that is before rent, meals, training, travel, and support obligations are counted.

The structure of professional sports contracts adds another layer. A study of major deals across MLB, the NBA, and the NFL notes that long-term agreements lose value over time because the dollar today has more power than the dollar paid in the future. Even the largest deals shrink once adjusted for time. The study explains that contract size alone does not guarantee financial success and that structure and timing play a crucial role in a player’s long-term outcomes.

Beckham has also faced headlines claiming he is “on the brink of bankruptcy despite earning over one hundred million” in his career. Those reports repeated his statement that “after taxes, it is only sixty million” and captured the disbelief from fans who could not understand how money at that level could ever tighten.

Other reactions lacked nuance. One article wrote that no one could relate to any struggle on eight million dollars a year. Another described his approach as “the definition of a new-money move” and argued that it signaled poor financial choices and inflated spending.

But the underlying truth reaches far beyond Beckham. Professional athletes enter sudden wealth without preparation. They carry the weight of family support. They navigate teams, agents, advisors, and expectations from every direction. Their earning window is brief. Their career can end in a moment. Their income is fragmented, taxed, and carved up before the public ever sees the real number.

The math is unflinching. Twenty million dollars becomes something closer to $8 million after federal taxes, state taxes, jock taxes, agent fees, training costs, and family responsibilities. Over five years, that is about $40 million of real, spendable income. It is transformative money, but not infinite. Not guaranteed. Not protected.

Beckham offered a question at the heart of this entire debate. “Can you make that last forever?”

Stacy M. Brown

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FBI Report Warns of Fear, Paralysis, And Political Turmoil Under Director Kash Patel

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership.

Published

2 months ago

December 2, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership. The 115-page document, submitted to Congress this month, is built entirely on verified reporting from inside field offices across the country and paints a picture of an agency gripped by fear, divided by ideology, and drifting without direction.

The report’s authors write that they launched their inquiry after receiving troubling accounts from inside the Bureau only four months into Patel’s tenure. They describe their goal as a pulse check on whether the ninth FBI director was reforming the Bureau or destabilizing it. Their conclusion: the preliminary findings were discouraging.

Reports Describe Widespread Internal Distrust and Open Hostility Toward President Trump

Sources across the country told investigators that a large number of FBI employees openly express hostility toward President Donald Trump. One source reported seeing an “increasing number of FBI Special Agents who dislike the President,” adding that these employees were exhibiting what they called “TDS” and had lost “their ability to think critically about an issue and distinguish fact from fiction.” Another source described employees making off-color comments about the administration during office conversations.

The sentiment reportedly extends beyond domestic lines. Law enforcement and intelligence partners in allied countries have privately expressed fear that the Trump administration could damage long-term international cooperation according to a sub-source who reported those concerns directly to investigators.

Pardon Backlash and Fear of Retaliation

The President’s January 20 pardons of individuals convicted for their roles in the January 6 attack ignited what the report calls demoralization inside the Bureau. One FBI employee said they were “demoralized” that individuals “rightfully convicted” were pardoned and feared that some of those individuals or their supporters might target them or their family for carrying out their duties. Another source described widespread anger that lists of personnel who worked on January 6 investigations had been provided to the Justice Department for review, noting that agents “were just following orders” and now worry those lists could leak publicly.

Morale In Decline

Morale among FBI employees appears to be sinking fast. There were a few scattered positive notes, but the weight of the reporting describes morale as low, bad, or terrible. Agents with more than a decade of service told investigators they feel marginalized or ignored. Some are counting the days until they can retire. One even uses a countdown app on their phone.

Culture Of Fear

Layered over that unhappiness is something far more corrosive. A culture of fear. Sources say Patel, though personable, created mistrust from the start because of harsh remarks he made about the FBI before taking office. Agents took those comments personally. They now work in an atmosphere where employees keep their heads down and speak carefully. Managers wait for directions because they are afraid a wrong move could cost them their jobs. One source said agents dread coming to work because nobody knows who will be reassigned or fired next.

Leadership Concerns

The report also paints a picture of leaders unprepared for the jobs they hold. Multiple sources said Patel is in over his head and lacks the breadth of experience required to understand the Bureau’s complex programs. Some said Deputy Director Dan Bongino should never have been appointed because the role requires deep institutional knowledge of FBI operations. A sub-source recounted Bongino telling employees during a field office visit that “the truth is for chumps.” Employees who heard it were stunned and offended.

Social Media and Communication Breakdowns

Communication inside the Bureau has become another source of frustration. Sources said Patel and Bongino spend too much time posting on social media and not enough time communicating with employees in clear and official ways. Several told investigators they learn more about FBI operations from tweets than from internal channels.

ICE Assignments Raise Alarm

Nothing has sparked more frustration inside the FBI than the orders requiring agents to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The reporting shows widespread resentment and fear over these assignments. Agents say they have little training in immigration law and were ordered into operations without proper planning. Some said they were put in tactically unsafe positions. They also warned that being pulled away from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations threatens national security. One sub-source asked, “If we’re not working CT and CI, then who is?”

DEI Program Removal

Even the future of diversity programs became a point of division. Some agents praised Patel’s removal of DEI initiatives. Others said the old system left them afraid to speak honestly because they worried about being labeled racist. The reporting shows a deep and unresolved conflict over whether DEI strengthened the organization or weakened it.

Notable Incidents

The document also details several incidents that have become part of FBI lore. Patel ordered all employees to remove pronouns and personal messages from their email signatures yet used the number nine in his own. Agents laughed at what they saw as hypocrisy. In another episode, FBI employees who discussed Patel’s request for an FBI-issued firearm were ordered to take polygraph examinations, which one respected source described as punitive. And in Utah, Patel refused to exit a plane without a medium-sized FBI raid jacket. A team scrambled to find one and finally secured a female agent’s jacket. Patel still refused to step out until patches were added. SWAT members removed patches from their own uniforms to satisfy the demand.

A Bureau at a Crossroad

The Alliance warns that the Bureau stands at a difficult crossroads. They write that the FBI faces some of the most daunting challenges in its history. But even in despair, a few voices say something different. One veteran source said “It is early, but most can see the mission is now the priority. Case work and threats are the focus again. Reform is headed in the right direction.”