Melvin L. Rogers, Author at Public Seminar

Democracy

“If You Wish to Know Who a Man Truly Is, Give Him Power”

By eroding the values of inclusivity and fairness, Trump’s rhetoric cultivates instead an exclusionary ethos, one deliberately designed to undermine the idea that all citizens possess equal moral worth and deserve equal opportunities to participate in public life

February 25, 2025 • by Melvin L. Rogers

Reflecting on Abraham Lincoln in 1894, the American orator and lawyer Robert Green Ingersoll observed that “nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, ...

“If You Wish to Know Who a Man Truly Is, Give Him Power”

Democracy

An Open Letter to Kamala Harris

When silence is not an option

February 13, 2025 • by Melvin L. Rogers

On the final night of the Democratic National Convention in August 2024, Vice President Harris delivered what was meant to be a defining speech of her career. Accepting her party’s nomination, she did more than make the case for her presidency—she sounded the alarm. “With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting ...

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White Identity and Terror in America

Thinking about the Events of Charlottesville

August 16, 2017 • by Melvin L. Rogers

This is a very dangerous moment. For so long, those on the left have been criticized by the right for talking and speaking in the language of identity. And yet identity talk has typically been deployed by the left to highlight those that have been excluded, marginalized, and dominated. It ...

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White Supremacy, Fear and the Crises of Legitimation

Reflections on the mistrial in the murder case of Walter Scott and the election of Donald Trump

January 1, 2017 • by Melvin L. Rogers

We are, however, likely to miss the importance of this decision if we do not connect it to another jarring day: November 9th. Many of us woke up (some of us never slept) to the announcement that Donald J. Trump would be the 45th president of the United States. Given ...

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On Diamond Reynolds after Dallas

July 8, 2016 • by Melvin L. Rogers

Dallas has happened. But I want us to think carefully about Diamond Reynolds, the girlfriend of Philando Castile. Castile was recently killed in Minnesota by a police officer during what should have otherwise been a routine stop. Reynolds live streamed the event on Facebook. I have repeatedly watched that video of ...