Dr. Ronnie Taylor was born to extremely young parents who divorced after a few years of marriage. His mom converted to Mormonism and moved the family to Salt Lake City to start a new life. Unfortunately, the missionary who converted and recruited her failed to tell the church Ronnie’s family was Black. They weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.
His mom worked and went to college full time, and eventually she remarried. Growing up in Utah as a Black Mormon was tough. Ronnie moved out when he was 17 and tried to build a life for himself, but he kept getting targeted by police.
“In my life to date, I've been pulled over by the police about 55 times and I've been beaten by the police five times. Also been arrested over a dozen times.”
Ronnie cashed two checks for $300. He didn't have the money in his bank account, but he thought he could just pay the money back and it would be okay. He didn't think the penalty would be that severe…but it was two felonies with zero to five years jail time. He was sentenced to three years, probation, 178 hours of community service, and 6 months house arrest. He also had to pay the restitution and a fine.
Soon he found himself falling into a never-ending series of bad situations that kept getting worse, and he was only 20 years old.
“And if you can't get a job or vote or all these other myriad of consequences that come from a conviction, then you're largely excluded from society as a whole. Being in that situation was much harder because it meant years of job insecurity and financial insecurity…And if you can't make money, you just can't participate in life in many ways.”
The only solution he could find was to move out of state and lie on his job applications. While living in Rhode Island, Ronnie met his wife Kerala and they moved to Washington DC.
“She says I romanticized living in DC, but I remember really enjoying it partially because it's a mostly Black city. We used to call it Chocolate City. It was the first time in my life where I lived in an environment where I was just not special. I was just a normal, everyday person who got to walk around and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I have to deal with. There was also the reverse where, being in a predominantly Black environment that people think I act too white. I don't fit in anywhere."
He went into paramedic school and tried to get his record cleaned up. Eventually he had to pay a lawyer to get his record expunged.
Ronnie realized he didn’t want to be a paramedic his whole life so he went to George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude while also working full-time.
Ronnie’s doctorate program brought the family to Portland, OR. He earned his doctorate in occupational therapy and now he’s on track to become certified as a hand therapist.
Listen to the podcast to hear about growing up as a Black Mormon, how he turned his life around, and what life is like today.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police.
Dr. Ronnie Taylor was born to extremely young parents who divorced after a few years of marriage. His mom converted to Mormonism and moved the family to Salt Lake City to start a new life. Unfortunately, the missionary who converted and recruited her failed to tell the church Ronnie’s family was Black. They weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.
His mom worked and went to college full time, and eventually she remarried. Growing up in Utah as a Black Mormon was tough. Ronnie moved out when he was 17 and tried to build a life for himself, but he kept getting targeted by police.
“In my life to date, I've been pulled over by the police about 55 times and I've been beaten by the police five times. Also been arrested over a dozen times.”
Ronnie cashed two checks for $300. He didn't have the money in his bank account, but he thought he could just pay the money back and it would be okay. He didn't think the penalty would be that severe…but it was two felonies with zero to five years jail time. He was sentenced to three years, probation, 178 hours of community service, and 6 months house arrest. He also had to pay the restitution and a fine.
Soon he found himself falling into a never-ending series of bad situations that kept getting worse, and he was only 20 years old.
“And if you can't get a job or vote or all these other myriad of consequences that come from a conviction, then you're largely excluded from society as a whole. Being in that situation was much harder because it meant years of job insecurity and financial insecurity…And if you can't make money, you just can't participate in life in many ways.”
The only solution he could find was to move out of state and lie on his job applications. While living in Rhode Island, Ronnie met his wife Kerala and they moved to Washington DC.
“She says I romanticized living in DC, but I remember really enjoying it partially because it's a mostly Black city. We used to call it Chocolate City. It was the first time in my life where I lived in an environment where I was just not special. I was just a normal, everyday person who got to walk around and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I have to deal with. There was also the reverse where, being in a predominantly Black environment that people think I act too white. I don't fit in anywhere."
He went into paramedic school and tried to get his record cleaned up. Eventually he had to pay a lawyer to get his record expunged.
Ronnie realized he didn’t want to be a paramedic his whole life so he went to George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude while also working full-time.
Ronnie’s doctorate program brought the family to Portland, OR. He earned his doctorate in occupational therapy and now he’s on track to become certified as a hand therapist.
Listen to the podcast to hear about growing up as a Black Mormon, how he turned his life around, and what life is like today.
Please drop me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com or on social media to let us know what you thought about this episode.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text. Get known in your industry through outstanding thought leadership content. Walk your talk through outstanding, effective communications with your employees and clients.
As a podcaster for justice, I stand with my sisters from the Women of Color Podcasters Community. We are podcasters united to condemn the tragic murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and many others at the hands of police.
Marie: Dr. Ronnie Taylor grew up in Salt Lake City as a Black Mormon, which was not easy. As a teen he began getting targeted by police and he fell into trouble with the law. In his lifetime, he’s been pulled over by the police about 55 times, been beaten by the police five times, andarrested over a dozen times.
That’s not how his story ends though!
Welcome to the Finding Fertile Ground podcast, where I discover stories of people finding their fertile ground through sheer grit and resilience. I’m your host, Marie Gettel-Gilmartin, and this podcast is brought to you by Fertile Ground Communications.
I help professional services firms avoid BORING and boost employee engagement, productivity, and readership. I translate technical, complex, and lackluster language into accessible, dynamic, story-driven text.
This is the last episode of the Finding Fertile Ground podcast. In October, I will be refocusing this podcast around inclusive communications and leadership. More stories of resilience and inspiration, plus tips for becoming more inclusive at work and in our personal lives!
Let’s get back to Ronnie. He’s now a happily married husband and father of three, living in Portland, Oregon. He’s also Oregon’s first Black male occupational therapist and soon to be certified as a hand therapist. He makes music and has turned his life around in spite of a hugely problematic and racist police state.
Let’s hear his story.
[00:00:00] Marie: Hello, Ronnie. Welcome to the Finding Fertile Ground podcast.
[00:00:02] Ronnie: Thanks for having me.
[00:00:03] Marie: I'm so glad to be able to chat with you after we've had to reschedule a few times. So thank you for your flexibility. So you also live in Portland, is that right?
[00:00:13] Ronnie: We do live in Portland and, actually we’ve lived here nine years now, just as of the other day.
[00:00:18] Marie: Okay, awesome. So I always like to start at the beginning with my guests. Can you share with our listeners about your childhood, where you grew up and what your childhood and family were like?
[00:00:28] Ronnie: Yeah. I had a pretty interesting upbringing, largely because my mother and father had me when they were 18 and 19 and they were married about four years before they got divorced. We moved in with my grandmother and some Mormon missionaries came to her house and my grandmother wasn't so interested in what they had to say, but my mother was very interested.
And so she wound up converting to Mormonism. I guess that would've been 1981 or so. And we moved to Salt Lake City with a friend of hers in 1982 when I was almost six. So the missionary that baptized my mother, he told his family that he had converted us and that we wanted to move to Salt Lake to start a new life.
And they were very happy to hear that. But when we arrived, he didn't tell them that we were Black. So they had a problem with that. That created kind of a contentious relationship between us and eventually we were asked to leave. So me and my mother were in our car for a bit of time, but eventually one of the Black church members that she was introduced to by some of the church leadership invited us to live at his home.
so we lived with them until we got an apartment across the street from them. And we were there for a period of time until we got an even nicer apartment, in the same neighborhood. So I was still in the same school. My mother worked full time. She went to University of Utah full time as well.
So she was quite busy. And so we lived as Black Mormons in Salt Lake City for years, which was its own experience because we were quite different than the rest of the people there. Eventually I left the church when I was 18 after my mother got remarried, when I was a teenager and had my sister and my brother, and then they adopted my youngest sister and I moved out when I was 17 or was thrown out, one of the two. And from there I just tried to build a life and live my life, but there was a lot of getting in trouble with, or I shouldn't even say that. I mean, I guess a better way to put it is we were targeted by the police a fair amount.
So in my life to date, I've been pulled over by the police about 55 times. I've been beaten by the police five times. Been arrested over a dozen times. So throughout that young adulthood is when much of that began to occur. So it just presented a lot of other challenges, on the one hand, you get in trouble with the law, at least from my point of perspective, and then you don't do it again, or you pay your dues and you kind of move on, but it doesn't really work like that because once you're convicted of a felony, nobody wants to hire you.
So it's very hard to get a job. And if you can't get a job or vote or all these other myriad of consequences that come from a conviction, then you're largely excluded from society as a whole and being in that situation was much harder because it just meant years of job insecurity and financial insecurity.
And not because I couldn't get a job or work, but cause it was difficult to do those things. And if you can't make money, you just can't participate in life in many ways. So eventually I got my oldest son's mother pregnant. She was on birth control at the time, but that didn't work out very well. So we moved back to Rhode Island where she was from and tried to stay with her family for a period of time, but they were just very, very racist.
She was white. I was like, you never mentioned this.
[00:03:42] Marie: Oh my God,
[00:03:45] Ronnie: but I mean, racist is to the point where like, this is an, an enormous issue,
[00:03:48] Marie: like outright racist yeah. Not subtle racist.
[00:03:51] Ronnie: Yeah. This isn't subtle, you know, bias. This is like, you know me because of my skin color and it's notable type thing. So we were together for about six years, but that just couldn't really work in retrospect. So once we broke up living in Rhode Island, that's where I met my wife, Kerala.
She graduated from Brown University and was working there on a magazine that she founded in college when we met and eventually her magazine got picked up by National Geographic. And so we moved to Washington DC. And once we were there prior to that, I had begun school as a paramedic when me and my oldest son Elijah’s mother broke up.
I started EMT school. I enjoyed it so much that I went directly after that, into paramedic school. So when me and my wife met, I was working full time, going to school full time and going to hospital almost 40 hours a week. So I was doing about a hundred-hour weeks.
And she was working full-time at her magazine and she was bartending on the side to make ends meet. So we really didn't spend our first full day together until the 4th of July weekend. And we met in like January. But eventually after I got my paramedic license and her magazine got picked up by national geographic, we moved to DC.
So that's when she was editor in chief and I was working as a paramedic there. She says that I romanticized living in DC, but I remember really enjoying it partially because it's a mostly Black city. We used to call chocolate city and it was the first time in my life where I lived in an environment where I was just not special.
I was just a normal, everyday person who got to walk around and not have to deal with a lot of the things that I have to deal with when that's not the case. But there was also the reverse where, you know, being in a predominantly Black environment that people think that I act too white oh yeah. I don't fit in anywhere.
It was a great place to live in a lot of ways. And the diversity piece was big and it's just kind of an electric city. But after the 2008 crisis Kerala changed jobs. And throughout that time, I'd gone back to try and get a four year degree because being a paramedic is a hard job and you just can't do a job like that.
Or you probably shouldn't do a job like that for 30 years. So I was looking to move on and I went back to community college for a couple of years until I could transfer to George Washington University. It was a four year school and I was there for two years. And so I wound up graduating summa cum laude from there.
I think I had a 3.8 GPA.
Marie: Congratulations
Ronnie: Yeah, that was rough. And I really didn't even know I won the award for outstanding academic achievement and got to have dinner with like the Dean and department and the president of the school and all this. But when she called.
I had no idea who she was. Okay. I'm on the dean’s list. That's awesome. The goal was just between me and Kerala was just to work as hard as I could to get straight A's because I had to get to grad school pretty much. And so after I graduated, I did two years of prerequisite classes before I got into my doctorate program, which is what brought us to Portland. And I went to Pacific University and got my doctorate in occupational therapy. And now I work as an occupational therapist in hand therapy, and I've been licensed for over three years, which is one of the requirements. You have to do only hand therapy, meaning dealing with people who've had an injury or illness dealing with their upper extremity from the elbow. You have to treat patients for at least 4,000 hours. So I crossed that threshold this year So in November, I can sit for the hand therapy certification, which is being an expert in hand therapy.
So. Studying for that after I get done writing this album.
[00:07:34] Marie: Oh my gosh. What a life, you know that. Just backing up a little bit. So did you actually serve time as well?
[00:07:40] Ronnie: Yeah, I did about a year in jail all told. Part of it was just the police targeting young adults and young minorities in particular. But also I cashed two checks for $300. Each check was $300 and I didn't have the money in my bank account and I knew that at the time, but I thought I could get away with it and just pay the money back. And it would be okay.
Marie: I mean, so many people do that.
Ronnie: Right. Well, yeah, but it's also illegal. But, I really didn't think the penalty would be that severe. But it was two felonies zero to five years, each potentially in time. And they sentenced me to three years, probation, 178 hours of community service, six months house arrest.
[00:08:25] Marie: Wow.
[00:08:25] Ronnie: I had to pay the restitution and also pay a fine. So it was a lot
[00:08:30] Marie: that is over the top
[00:08:31] Ronnie: Yeah. In retrospect, you know, you're agreeing to it, right. You're sitting in court, I'm like, okay, you're gonna let me outta jail. If I do this stuff, that's fine.
I've been in there for like 45 days at the time. So on the one hand, you're like, I'll say anything if you're let me out. But once you see the reality of it, Just like, okay. I stuck to work a full-time job. I had to be on an ankle bracelet for the house arrest.
So they want you to pay for that, which was like $350 a month, plus have a job plus do committee service plus pay. I mean, it was, this is not really possible. And I was trying, I mean, there were a lot of people who were just like, you know, screw it right. But I was making the effort, but it was just too many things to do.
So my probation got violated. That's ridiculous Uhhuh yeah. So the first time I violated my probation they gave me 10 days in jail. Cause I couldn't pay for this stuff. And my lawyer just said, you know, your honor, he doesn't have the finances to pay. Like, this is all his bills is what he has to pay.
And the money's just not left over. And the judge was like, well, you're still in violation of your probation. And he said, you know, you're gonna have to do 10 days in jail. And I said, your honor, I can't just go to jail. Like what about my job? What about my apartment? What about? And he said, well, you can go home and you can get your affairs in order and you can do 30 days or you can go right now and do 10.
So there was a lot of decisions like that, you know, and eventually I got violated again cause I didn't notify probation within 48 hours that I had moved. Oh, I think the reason, and I did notify my probation officer. I left her multiple messages, but I just couldn't get hold of her because their caseloads are so big. They can't keep up with. And so they gave me six months in jail for that. So after that I was like, whoa. And the judge said to me, she's like, if I see you in here again for a probation violation, then I'm sending you to prison.
[00:10:19] Marie: And how old were you at this point ?
Ronnie: I was 20 when I was sentenced to the jail, it was before my birthday. I turned 21 in jail.
[00:10:25] Marie: It just sounds impossible for people to break out of that cycle and for bad checks. I mean, I just, that's just awful. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
Ronnie: Oh, but that's just the system. It’s happening to everybody.
[00:10:36] Marie: I know. it's horrible. It's just amazing that you were able to climb out of that. I mean, at such a young age to have, I mean, it just must have felt like there's nothing that you could do to ever make things better.
[00:10:47] Ronnie: Well, I mean, there wasn't, that's why I had to leave. Yeah. That's why when my son’s mother was pregnant, I said, we just need to leave. We're gonna try and make this work. If we're gonna try to raise him, I can't. You just can't live. You can't work, you can't live.
If you're just completely separated from everything that's happening. So when I got to Rhode Island, I had to just lie and said, I've never been convicted of a crime cause nobody would even look at your application if you said yes. And so I wound up getting a job and eventually I got caught out there.
Fugitive felon mm-hmm and, but they refused to extradite me back to Salt Lake. Because the crime was so minor. So I was like, okay. Oh good.
[00:11:24] Marie: And so is that finally expunged from your record or are they still wanting you back in Utah?
[00:11:29] Ronnie: I've tried to get it expunged several times.
No, not, not wanted anymore. I finally got it squared away five or six years ago. But I had to pay for the lawyer. It was like $2,500 for lawyers. Yeah, so, I couldn't go home for many, many years. Because I was wanted, so it just made it so hard.
Since I left, I had the opportunity to get out from under that cloud that had just been built up for me at such a young age. But if I'd stayed, I don't think I would've been able to climb out of it. Right. There was no way to do it.
[00:12:01] Marie: And so let's talk a little bit about Utah and Mormonism and wow, being a black Mormon. I mean, what was that like? Obviously I mean, you got a shock when you went to Utah. I don't know how much you remember about that when you were six.
[00:12:13] Ronnie: I remember pretty vividly and it was a major turning point in my life too. It was a three day drive.
We had a Chevy Chevette. I was in the trunk, and one of the big things is we got there and we saw the Mormon temple, which was one of the attractions. And I was like, well, we seen the temple, can we go home now? Yeah, right. it wasn't all bad. You know, one thing about Mormon is, is it's a really, really solid group of people having families and having kids.
That's the one thing, so they all kind of stick together. So you have the infrastructure to have people help you , you're going to church. You're dealing with the same members all the time. You're helping each other out, they would help at Christmas if we didn't have much money or we would all help, neighbors with their house projects. It was just very communal. But I was also different than many of the people that I was around. And so people would treat me differently. And in discriminatory ways and sometimes it was intentional and sometimes not sometimes it was just the way that they were raised. So it was a very interesting upbringing, but I never felt fully a part of it.
So even now my mother and family, they're all still very Mormon. And in church every Sunday, but that's a lifestyle that I decided wasn't for me.
[00:13:17] Marie: Yeah. Are you able to talk to your mom about the history of Mormonism and how she feels about that as a person of color?
[00:13:24] Ronnie: That's a good question. I mean,
partly because I left the church. We were estranged for many years. It's only been very recently that we've been in contact. In fact, I only saw her once she came for my graduation when I got my doctorate degree. And then just two weeks ago when we drove down to Utah for a visit.
And that was only the second time that she'd seen her grandchildren. So it’s kind of kind of a huge rift partly because I left the church. From her perspective, she raised me in this very specific way that I was rejecting by leaving. And from my perspective, I'm like, this really isn't a place for us and it's kind of a mismatch.
[00:13:59] Marie: Yeah. And I know it's hard to leave the church. I actually interviewed a woman who left the Mormon church. She came out as a lesbian and could not stay in the church. And yeah, it's hard to leave.
[00:14:08] Ronnie: Yeah. It's very difficult, especially cuz you just don't realize you're leaving the complete infrastructure of church, community, community, everything, friends. Yeah. And without it, you just don't have anything. It's just like, whoa. So that was the biggest wake up call. That's why me and Kerala, my wife wasn't raised religious, but she was raised in a very strong community where she was. So we both have that connection even through very different means of really valuing family community and being a part of, of all of that in a very active, engaged way. So there was a good part about Mormonism in that way, but it was just too stifling for me.
Marie: Yeah. Well, there's just so much about the way the religion was formed and you know, like, I'm sure you've seen the book of Mormon, the whole thing about changing their mind about Black people.
[00:14:52] Ronnie: oh, that's so that's so funny, you know, I actually haven't seen it.
[00:14:55] Marie: you haven't oh my gosh. You would love it.
Ronnie: I heard it's really good. I mean, you know, because there's a lot of that stuff, especially when you're raised Mormon, you know, the story, I mean, Joseph Smith, the founder, he didn't exclude African Americans. In fact, there's several prominent black Mormon families that have been Mormon since he baptized them many years ago, generations ago.
Marie: Oh, I didn't know that.
Ronnie: Yeah. So it wasn't until Brigham Young became the head of the church that he decided that that's the direction they wanted to go. So that was one of many changes that was implemented that weren't there initially. I think partly with my mother, when we got to Salt Lake, we'd been thrown out on the street. We went to the church office building downtown and she demanded to see the prophet of the church. And she's like, I can't believe this. We came here. This is all supposed to be about family and community and God and all these things. And we're rejected because of a race.
And one of the church leaders, Thomas S Mo said, I think he's president now. Or he was. He said to us, if you join the church for the people in it, you joined for the wrong reason. His point was just that, you know, if you believe in what the church is about, which is really family and community, et cetera that has to stand on its own. Because if that belief is shaken based on people's behavior, maybe that's not something that you're fully believe in, so I think my mother believes in the ideas of the church and I think that that's how she lives her life by, and those are the values that she has raised our family with. And I think she sees that as a positive thing. So I don't think she focuses on the more divisive problematic issues that are also a part of it.
[00:16:25] Marie: A lot of people who are very religious have to do that. Catholicism is another example of that. A lot of people are Catholic, but they don't believe in everything that the Catholic church stands for. I think you kind of have to pick and choose sometimes.
[00:16:36] Ronnie: I have a friend who's Muslim. I asked him about that, about kind of his adherence to all the rules. He said, well, I do all the important things
[00:16:46] Marie: right, exactly. So your educational story is so inspiring. So you dropped out of high school, right?
[00:16:52] Ronnie: Well, I was thrown outta high school, because I took a gun to school because these kids were trying to jump me or had jumped me. Or trying to jump me again. So I had the gun protection. Oh my gosh. It was just rough being there and being Black and I was just a target.
And so some other kids tried to jump me and then I pulled it out and then they threw me outta school because they said that I was danger to society, it was just hard because I just thought, before that happened, I told the vice principal that these kids were harassing me.
I told my parents Nobody did anything. Nobody took it all that seriously. So I felt like I had to protect myself. And being a 15 year old child trying to protect yourself I obviously didn't go about it in the best way, but I didn't know what else to do. And nobody was helping me. So that was kind of a common theme throughout, especially teenage years, where they just wished I would go away.
They just wished I wasn't there and I was just trying to live but people just reacted very strongly to me. But to the point where my safety was constantly at risk. It was a continuous challenge. So after that, I missed a whole year of school cause they wouldn't go. so I couldn't get enough credits to graduate at the end of the day.
[00:17:53] Marie: So it's just really inspiring that you were able to pursue a doctorate after your early days. And what was it that appealed you to become an occupational therapist?
[00:18:02] Ronnie: My father got cancer in his early fifties. He just actually passed a few months ago. But before that, he had an occupational therapist and I was looking at what grad programs I might wanna consider or pursue. And he was telling me about his occupational therapist and I was like, what does she do? She just helps you function. Live your life. Like that's her job. And so, yeah. And he loved her and I started looking into it and I was like, is that what this is like, there's a job. Or you just go to people’s homes and like all right. I can do that.
[00:18:30] Marie: And so you're the first Black male occupational therapist in Oregon.Is that correct?
Ronnie: I am.
Marie: What's it like working in that field? Are there very many people of color in the field is it unusual that you're a man in the field?
[00:18:41] Ronnie: It is. Yeah, I think 80% of occupational therapists are women something like that. So I think that the only Black male occupational therapists ever licensed in Oregon, according to the Oregon Occupational Therapy Licensing Board and I'm the only one currently practicing in the state. According to them. I don't know. I've been in situations in my life where I've been, like I said, I don't really fit in anywhere.
So I'm used to just not really focusing on that. I just focus on the positive. Just try to focus on the things that I have in common with people, which to me is a lot more than things that we differ on.
And I just steer our interactions toward positivity and inclusion and stay away from the things that might take us to a negative place. That tends to work.
[00:19:20] Marie: also, you did grow up in Oregon, what's it like for you living in Oregon at this time?
[00:19:24] Ronnie: Oh, I mean, we love it because you know, when you're back east, you just realize that Portland is just such a gem of a city. If you're into people who are tolerant, if you're into people who are inclusive, if you're into a state as a whole, that just has ideas that are more community minded and civic minded, it's a good place.
When you're in a place like DC, that's fundamentally about power and control. It's this every person for themselves mentality, it doesn't fit my personality or style or my wife. So a lot of places back are like that. But out here, crime is low, the murder rate is low.
There's just not as many people. It's just a very a beautiful place to be as far as we're concerned. It's really interesting in light of recent events, people who are from here though often I talk to them and they don't feel that way. They feel that it’s gone way downhill the last several years, but for us, it's about perspective. The murder rate in Portland last year was around 90. And on the news everybody's like, oh my God. I think the murder rate in DC is like 130 a year, And that's like a 40-year low right. It just depends on your perspective.
[00:20:27] Marie: Yeah. I don't know if you saw recently that Time named Portland is one of the best places to live. And there's a lot of people sharing that on social media saying, ah, can you believe that? I love living here too. I mean, I know it has its downsides.
[00:20:41] Ronnie: but everywhere does. Especially we consider it from a world perspective, if you look at quality of living in Portland versus almost anywhere in the world. It is pretty good. For us this is an oasis. We love raising our kids here. Our house is 115 years old. It was built 1906. It's very modest, but it's a really nice house.
We just love the history. When we think about it, we're like, wow, we've only lived in this house nine years and it's 115-year life. Yeah. You know, so there's all that history. So we just really appreciate it here.
[00:21:09] Marie: Well, you deserve to live at a place that embraces you after the places you've lived in.
[00:21:14] Ronnie: I know. Right.
[00:21:16] Marie: That's great. Yeah. We just got back from our trip to the UK and we spent several days in London and one thing that I feel like we miss in Oregon is the incredible diversity. London was amazing.
But it was frenetic. It was so fast paced. My husband's British, so I often make this observation that it's harder to do things there, living in Portland is pretty easy. To live here, you know, it's easy to do things.
[00:21:43] Ronnie: And I think the ease of living helps us slow down. I feel like I'm living more here because we're living slower. We're living at a pace that we can. Not feel overwhelmed all the time.
[00:21:53] Marie: It feels like living in a big city. You feel the pressure of being really busy, busy, busy, and it's more competitive too
[00:21:59] Ronnie: exactly. And it's really person against person. That's why I say in DC, it's every person for themselves because it's a dog-eat-dog world. That's one thing that my wife Kerala really hated about it. She's like, I just don't like dealing with people in this way.
I couldn't help but agree, especially being a paramedic there because you're dealing with a lot of traumatic events. And when you asked me earlier about why I chose to be an occupational therapist, the other reason is because I wanted to stop being a paramedic I think. The straw that broke the camel's back is I had a patient. He was really high on PCP and alcohol and he was shot and he just didn't even. Oh, so I'm going through the whole thing. I'm like, sir, are you okay? Going through the motions. And he was like, well, it burns a little bit in this area.
Yeah, man. Cuz you're shot, man. you don't even know. Wow. And it was just really hard to feel compassionate at that point. And I just realized it's time to get a different job.
[00:22:47] Marie: Yeah. Too much trauma. Let's talk a little bit about your life now. Tell us about your family and what you've been doing during the pandemic.
[00:22:55] Ronnie: I'm working as a hand therapist at Armworks Hand Therapy. That's where I work--huge shoutout to them. And I have my wife, Kerala and our two kids, Zady and Malik who are 10 and 7. And we're just proud. They go to Portland Public Schools. We live right in the city.
Kerala is working from home now. So I started being a hand therapist almost a year before the pandemic started and then COVID hit. And so we've just been trying to manage that the best that we can. I was off for about seven weeks, in the beginning.
And that's when I had the idea to start recording this for me, I think will be my final hip hop album. And it's gonna be an autobiography of the history of my life. Told through a series of songs. So it looks like it's gonna be about 10 songs and I'm about halfway done writing it as we speak.
And the producer's flying up here in a couple of weeks to record. So it is on, and then I am taking the hand therapy certification exam in November to try and get certified as a hand therapist. And once that happens, I'll have done all the things. So it's a big year.
[00:23:55] Marie: What kind of music do you do?
[00:23:57] Ronnie: I do hip hop. So I've done a couple of albums, but this one was kind of a COVID project. My kids, when they closed the schools, they closed everything. So I became the teacher because my wife was working from home and it just didn't work out very well.
So eventually I just said, look, let me just show you how to do something that I know how to do, and wow. That was making music. So we started all writing songs together and just, that is so great. It was nice. And so they loved it. The kids did. So I thought, you know, I love making it and they love hearing it.
I don't use profanity, like I did in large part cause I have children and I also don't use words, like say the N word anymore.
So it's largely free of explicit words that I used in the past. So it's also kind of a different endeavor.
I'm just gonna do one last album. Have you seen Hamilton? The musical?
Marie: Oh yeah. I've seen it twice.
[00:24:47] Ronnie: So we were also watching it at the beginning of COVID and I got inspired to write an autobiography of my life story as a series of songs. Gosh. Yeah. Kind of like he did in Hamilton.
[00:24:58] Marie: That's fascinating. I love it. We saw Hamilton in Portland and then we saw it in San Francisco and we liked the San Francisco one better. It was a smaller theater. It was a Black Hamilton. Then about three months ago, there's a group in Seattle called Rise Up. And they're a choir that does Hamilton and other theater music. Oh, wow. So we saw them at Alberta rose. And they were fantastic.
[00:25:23] Ronnie: So it's, I'm gonna look out for that. I love the Rose.
[00:25:25] Marie: Yes. I definitely would go see them again.
[00:25:28] Ronnie: I love shows like that, that turn out well.
[00:25:30] Marie: Yes, exactly. I think there were four singers and a backup band and one of the singers apparently went to college with my son. And they were really talented.It was really a great show.
Ronnie: That is so awesome. I really appreciate people making an effort. I have to look out for them that. We saw Hamilton too in Portland just months ago.
And it was so fun to see them. The kids love the songs. Like we'd go on a road trip and we just play the soundtrack. They just really get into it. Just to see it live was just so fun. That's so cool.
Marie: And so what are you gonna do after that? What's your next goal?
Ronnie: A break yeah.
Marie: I mean, it sounds like your mom really modeled that working really hard for you. And then you and Kerala are very busy and accomplishing a lot of things too.
[00:26:17] Ronnie: That's really what it mainly was is I saw her do it, so I knew it was possible. I think a lot of people get hung up believing in themselves. And that's not something I suffered from because I saw how she believed in herself. She made amazing things happen. And I was like, okay, that's what's up? I'm doing same. Yeah.
[00:26:31] Marie: As a single parent.
[00:26:32] Ronnie: Absolutely. Yeah. As a single parent on top of it all. Yeah.
[00:26:35] Marie: Did you say you're actually writing your music with your children?
[00:26:38] Ronnie: I was in the beginning. It's a lot of material writing 10 songs and I'm like, wow, I haven't done this in a while. yeah.
[00:26:51] Marie: Yeah. Interesting. Well, I can't wait to listen to it when you record it. That's really exciting.
So my final question that I'd like to ask people is, is there a story of grit and resilience in your life that has been an inspiration for you?
[00:27:05] Ronnie: I really think my mother's is the best example. She had to overcome so many challenges and moving across the country and all the associated things that come with that.
And my grandmother had five children that she raised, and she also went back to school and became a nurse and she brought her own home back when that was difficult for a woman to do that on her own. So I used them as both my sources of inspiration whenever I get down for like quitting at times where I didn't think I could make it.
I just fall back on. If my grandmother could do it, I can do it. oh yeah. If my mother could do it, I could do it.
[00:27:38] Marie: That's great. You've been able to reconnect with your mother after several years apart.
[00:27:42] Ronnie: Yeah. I thought so too. And it was really good for my kids too. Yeah. It's just so important for them to know that side of their family and we're looking to make it an annual thing.
So we hope that that continues to be part of our life. You asked about hobbies and really having two kids. It's like, yes. That's pretty much it .
[00:27:59] Marie: Yes, exactly. How old are your kids?
[00:28:01] Ronnie: Zady is 10 and Malik just turned seven
[00:28:03] Marie: Well, it's just been an honor hearing your story. Ronnie, you're really an inspiration with what you've done with your life.
Congratulations.
Ronnie: Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you for your time.
Marie: Have a great day. Thank you. You too.
Ronnie’s story of triumph blew me away. He’s one of the lucky and tenacious ones who was able to get past a criminal justice system that is designed to hurt Black men repeatedly.
You can see photos and learn more about Ronnie at www.fertilegroundcommunications.com; look for the Finding Fertile Ground podcast tab.
Listeners, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know what you think about this episode by dropping me a line at marie@fertilegroundcommunications.com.
Thanks for listening to the Finding Fertile Ground podcast. If you liked today’s episode, please share, subscribe, and leave a review.