It is with great pleasure that I turn my blog over to Nonnie Jules where she will tell you about her new book, “No Pedigree.” Nonnie is the founder of the RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB and the RAVE WRITERS – INT’L SOCIETY OF AUTHORS.
Giveaways: (2) e-book copies of NO PEDIGREE, (2) $5 Amazon gift cards & (1) 3-Day Weekend blog tour! Total of 5 Winners! To be entered into the drawing for either of these gifts, you must leave a comment below as well as a comment on the author’s 4WillsPub tour page.
Hi, and thanks for dropping in on Day 5 of my NO PEDIGREE blog tour! I’d like to thank Jan who is so graciously allowing me her space today so that I can enlighten you a bit more on the troubles of Oklahoma, during 2014, the time period of which this tale was written.
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7 YEARS SHORT OF 100 AND NOT MUCH HAD CHANGED
Since NO PEDIGREE was set out of Piedmont, OK beginning in 2014, I thought I’d share some additional data on the area, which will shed a much brighter light on what Baylee had to suffer through – even in the 21st century.
There were 93 years resting between 1921 when the TULSA RACE MASSACRE occurred until 2014 when Baylee arrived in Piedmont. Sadly, not much had changed.
In 2015, there was controversy over a racist chant made by a white student at a University of Oklahoma fraternity, which brought attention back on the state’s race relations.
Even today, reports show that blacks struggle in most of the quality-of-life factors in the state. Oklahoma is first in the nation for blacks to die at the hands of police officers (this data from those states reporting). Blacks are about half as likely to own a home, are more likely to go to prison, less likely to go to college and less likely to graduate.
Blacks in Oklahoma are more likely to be the victims of a crime or charged with a crime when compared to their white counterparts and other racial groups.
This atmosphere created a stressful dynamic where some in the black community worked hard to see better policing to keep their neighborhoods safe, but they also felt unfairly targeted by police, which bred mistrust.
Black students were faced with higher rates of school punishment along with higher juvenile arrest rates for violation of zero-tolerance policies. This helped to create the so-called “school to prison pipeline” by pushing these students out of school.
Even as some states shifted to lighter punishments or legalization for marijuana possession, black Oklahomans were disproportionately charged with possessing the drug.
In 2014, minorities were underrepresented in Oklahoma’s two flagship universities: The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. Today, in 2020, this is still the case. I know this as fact, because I have a child at one of these universities.
Both universities also struggle to retain, and graduate minority students compared with white students.
Oklahoma is rich with history – much of it hidden away. I’m thankful that I had the opportunity to write NO PEDIGREE, giving me an even greater reason to dig deeper into Oklahoma’s background. I’m honored to be able to share it with you.
Racism resides everywhere, not just in Oklahoma, but, so does strength, bravery and resilience. It is up to us to decide which end of that spectrum we want to stand. Racism is not born, it is bred … and the same goes for strength … it isn’t born – it is modeled.
**Resource:** Oklahoma Watch News
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BOOK BLURB…
Growing up on the wrong side of the tracks, Baylee never quite fit in… anywhere. She was taunted and teased because her clothes had no designer labels, and spit upon because her only pair of shoes had holes in the bottom. The butt of many jokes, she was excluded from all social activities, sneered at by the parents of her peers after school as she waited for the bus, watching them drive away in their fancy cars; assaulted in the most unthinkable fashion.
Having been born to a white father and a black native American mother didn’t make things any easier. In fact, that circumstance made her life ten times harder – until the day she made them all stand up, take notice, and regret every ugly word and deed they had inflicted upon her.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Hi, I’m Nonnie Jules – President & Founder of RAVE REVIEWS BOOK CLUB {RRBC} and RAVE WRITERS – INT’L SOCIETY OF AUTHORS {RWISA}. As a writer who values the (polished) written word, it is my mission to help my fellow authors understand that their reputations as writers should be treated as rare treasure, and that the only way to be taken seriously in this business, is to ensure that your writing (no matter the forum) is impeccably written and well edited. If not, you’re just another “Joe” with a pen who was the first to raise his hand when Amazon asked, “Hey, any old Joe out there wanna publish a book? Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be good and there’s absolutely no hard work involved.”
FYI: If you don’t care what you put out into the world, you’re just a laughingstock in the literary community … and your name is “Joe.”
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Connect with Nonnie via Twitter: @nonniejules
To purchase your own copy of NO PEDIGREE, https://www.amazon.com/NO-PEDIGREE-Really-Short-Story-ebook/dp/B083SB1RMN/
To learn more about Nonnie and other ways to connect with her, please drop in on her RRBC Author Page!
To follow along with the rest of the NO PEDIGREE blog tour, visit the author’s tour page.
If you’d like to schedule your own 4WillsPub tour to promote your books in similar fashion, click HERE.
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