Oral History Interview with Raymond Rodarte

Title: Oral History Interview with Raymond Rodarte
Interviewee: Raymond Rodarte
Interviewer: Walker Robinson
Description: Raymond Rodarte of Sewanee, Tennessee was interviewed by Walker Robinson, a Sewanee student, on November 29th, 2023 in person. While their conversation was primarily on the Black Lives Matter Movement, other topics included how George Floyd protests influenced familial dynamics. We hope that this conversation will assist scholars with a further understanding of race in the United States during the early twenty-first century. Please click on the link to see the full interview.
Transcript: 0:00 WALKER: Alright, this is Walker Robinson from Swanee, the University of the South. It is November 29th, 2023, Wednesday, and the time is actually four 20. And I'm here with

0:14 RAYMOND: Raymond Rodarte,

0:16 WALKER: Also at the University

0:18 RAYMOND: Of the South. Yes, also at the University of

0:20 WALKER: The South. And thank you Raymond for being here. So we're going to get into some general questions to lay the ground for this interview. Where are you originally from?

0:31 RAYMOND: Originally, I'm from California, Linwood, California. But I moved to Tennessee. I moved to Clarksville, Tennessee in 2015, and then I moved to Pleasantview, Tennessee in 2022. So yeah, from California, Tennessee,

0:46 WALKER: California. Tennessee. What you like better?

0:49 RAYMOND: Tennessee.

0:50 WALKER: Tennessee, for

0:50 RAYMOND: Sure. People are nice here. It's not as congested with people, you know what I'm saying? There's a whole bunch of people in California. So just like the privacy out here and the hospitality. I like it.

1:11 WALKER: I guess. Can I answer my next, I was going to ask how was different from where you're raised, but where'd you find community as a kid growing up?

1:18 RAYMOND: Community,

1:19 WALKER: Like your people, whoever you hang out with

1:22 RAYMOND: Through sports. So I played three different sports growing up from elementary school to middle school or to high school. And I've met my closest friends through sports. So that's really what I just stuck with. And then that's kind of where I got all my friends and all pretty much people. I consider family too.

1:42 WALKER: Yeah, you feel like it's, the stand now is still where you find

1:45 RAYMOND: Yeah. Yeah. Most deaf. Most deaf, even maybe even more amped up here in college, just because you meet people that are almost exactly like you hungry and actually take something seriously. So yeah, I feel like the feelings are more genuine in college.

2:04 WALKER: For sure. And what is your occupation and what's your journey to this role?

2:10 RAYMOND: Occupation? I'm a student, currently unemployed. And then what was

2:15 WALKER: Your journey? Are you a student athlete?

2:17 RAYMOND: Yeah, student athlete. But I'm unemployed. I don't work or nothing right now. And then what was the second part?

2:24 WALKER: What was your journey to getting here?

2:26 RAYMOND: So my journey pretty much just stayed. I didn't really know about Sewanee until January of this year, so pretty much just played sports. I really didn't think about coming to Sewanee or anything, but once a coach, a prior coach on the football team had to reached out to me, that's when I knew I just wanted to come here. But other than that, it was all the way from elementary school to high school. It was just school sports and work. Nothing crazy. Nothing crazy

2:59 WALKER: With that. Who inspires you and why?

3:05 RAYMOND: My mom inspires me because growing up we didn't have the best situation and she always made it to where I could at least have what I needed and that sometimes even when I wanted. So that's who inspires me. I want to be able to give my kids what they want and of course what they need. Exactly.

3:28 WALKER: Have you done any traveling or?

3:30 RAYMOND: I haven't. So the most traveling I've done was actually through sports, our football team this year. And yeah, I think we went to what, Texas? Missouri, Arkansas. I've never been to half of those places. So yeah, that's really what I've been.

3:47 WALKER: Yeah. And what's your favorite type of food?

3:51 RAYMOND: Favorite type of food? It has to be, I like hibachi. Hibachi. I like hibachi. Yeah.

3:57 WALKER: So you like the white sauce?

4:00 RAYMOND: Yummy. Yum. Sauce. Yum, yum. Sauce. Yo need that. Yeah, it's a must. Exactly.

4:05 WALKER: Have you experienced international cultures in your life through people you've met? Yeah,

4:09 RAYMOND: So

4:10 WALKER: Experience with that.

4:11 RAYMOND: I actually played my senior year in high school. I met two of, one of my closest friends and Giovanni Reyes and they're from Columbia. So to meet them and see how people are down there and stuff, yeah, it's actually very cool. And it touched me in a way because I like meeting people. I'm Hispanic, so I like meeting people who are kind of like me or have the same nationality almost. But yeah, it's cool. They're genuine people. Genuine people. That's what I think. Yeah, for sure, for

4:44 WALKER: Sure. Alright, let's move into some of the Black Lives Matter questions. Do you remember when you first saw the video of George Floyd?

4:53 RAYMOND: Yes, I seen it on social media. Social media.

4:58 WALKER: I was going to say, what's been your experience with social media? Not even just the Black Lives Matter, but just overall.

5:06 RAYMOND: I think it can definitely give you some knowledge as to what's going on, but at the same time it is very dangerous because you don't really know what to believe on social media. So I mean, I don't really get on it a lot unless I'm talking to my friends or my family, but I think it's cool. I think it's a good way for everybody to even meet people you don't know. It's a good way to show off who you are. And so just communicate. Yeah.

5:35 WALKER: Another thing, how has social media changed the way how you communicate with people?

5:41 RAYMOND: I've become, since I've talked to more people and have met more people, I've become more confident and just going out and meeting new people. Usually before I was on social media a lot I would be very shy and just kind of scared. But now you see all these things and you're like, well, you don't really know what everybody's into, so why not go figure out. You know what I'm saying? Yeah,

6:07 WALKER: Exactly. You're saying, yeah, I figure it out. How did you first encounter the Black Lives Matter movement?

6:17 RAYMOND: There was a, well obviously through social media, but the biggest thing I could think about is there was a protest where, I'm from Clarksville, Tennessee, and we have a main road where the mall is and stuff that's called Wilma Rudolph. There was just a whole bunch of people out there, I mean protesting. And that's when I really knew, okay, this is something serious. So that's when I first encountered it and then it just became a really big thing. My cousin, he was in the National Guard at the time and he actually had to get called down to Washington DC to actually go and protect the White House because they were the protestors and stuff. People are throwing riots and stuff, so it's just crazy.

6:57 WALKER: Did your cousin tell you about what it was like?

7:00 RAYMOND: So yeah, he said it was very crazy people, people who are outraged are just going mad. They're just full of rapes, so they don't know what they're doing, but they're just doing it. So yeah, he said he had to stay up all night and they barely got any sleep. There's just so many people breaking into stuff and just threats being made and stuff like that. And he was just like, it was crazy. Experience over Overall,

7:32 WALKER: What is your opinion of the Black Lives Matter movement?

7:36 RAYMOND: I think it's good. I think it's shedding some light on just a race that's being mistreated almost. In some ways I feel like there's still a lot of discrimination when it comes to races other than being white. So I think it really shined the light on just how people other than white people are treated differently or looked at differently when really it should be everybody's equal. You know what I mean? So yeah.

8:10 WALKER: What was your community's reaction to the Black Lives Matter movement?

8:15 RAYMOND: There was a lot of people, I grew up in a mostly African-American community, so there was a lot of people who were outraged. There was a lot of people who were for it. And I mean, pretty much I was just supporting my friends, my family, I mean me, I'm not white myself, so I kind of know how it is to be discriminating. So yeah, that's pretty much that.

8:43 WALKER: Yeah. Speaking of what's it called, being not white yourself, how was your heritage and how has that impacted you throughout your life?

8:54 RAYMOND: So growing up I feel like it didn't really matter, but I feel like now as I'm, I just turned 18, so I'm starting to see things differently. I can definitely see how if you go to certain places, you're discriminated because of your skin color or just automatically people assume you do this or that because I'm Hispanic, so I probably mow lawns or something like that. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. But I mean, for the most part, if I'm around my people back home, I know that I don't have nothing to worry about. But other than that, I feel like there is some places I actually have to be like, okay, I'm not white.

9:36 WALKER: Yeah. What you're saying, how the Black Lives Matter, has it impacted, has it impacted the way it's talking their friends or communicated with people of other races or especially how they communicate with you or how people communicate

9:53 RAYMOND: With you? So I've always been taught to be respectful, so obviously I'm respectful to my friends of that race or something like that. But yeah, it definitely just makes me feel for people if they're going through tough times because of discrimination or something like that, I definitely want to, it makes me want to be there for them to let them know, Hey, you're not alone. This doesn't just happen to you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

10:23 WALKER: Interesting. What do you think the successes and failures of the Black Lives Matter movement were?

10:30 RAYMOND: Success definitely. Like I said earlier, shined a light on the discrimination against people, but maybe a failure was just how far they took it, the riots and stuff. And I feel like that just gives some people a bad opinion on the movement itself because of the things that's caused stores being broken into or people's cars getting blown up, stuff like that. Violence stuff we don't need. It's

11:02 WALKER: Like the bad stuff kind of makes the good stuff look not as

11:05 RAYMOND: Good. Yeah, exactly. I feel like it could have, I'm not saying I know everything, but there's definitely another approach that could have been taken to kind of make people think, okay, it's not negative at all. It is just positive. This is a positive movement. They're not just trying to seek out for help or anything, they just want people to know, hey, we're humans too. Yeah.

11:32 WALKER: And what do you think the state of racial relations is in the United States right now?

11:37 RAYMOND: Elaborate on that.

11:38 WALKER: How would you say the state, just overall as a country, how everyone's interacting it. Different races and stuff like that.

11:47 RAYMOND: I feel like in most places, if you're a different race, other white, you'll be accepted. For the most part. People, especially if they're nice people will take you in. But I think for the smaller places and such as old towns, country towns and stuff like that, I feel like there is definitely some discrimination there. I've been there myself, so I kind of know. What's been your

12:16 WALKER: Experience with seeing the discrimination there?

12:20 RAYMOND: Just dirty looks or if you're talking to somebody, they automatically assume you're doing this and that because you're black or Hispanic or Asian, you know what I'm saying? So in my particular case, people think I build houses or something like that. And it is always funny to me because it's just a stereotype. Yeah.

12:42 WALKER: Interesting. And what do you think the future holds for the Black Lives Matter movement?

12:52 RAYMOND: I feel like if the movement moves gradually and keeps it positive that there will actually be a very good outcome. I feel like the goal of the movement itself is, like I said, to shed light on the discrimination. And I think as life goes on and as time goes on, people will start to realize, okay, just because they're another race doesn't mean they're any different from what I am or you know what I'm saying? So I feel like people will start to understand because of this movement that at it really affects people when they're discriminated. Yeah.

13:31 WALKER: Well thank you so much, Raymond, for your time. That's all we have for

13:33 RAYMOND: Today. Appreciate it. Walker.

Part of Raymond Rodarte