Mega Diversities – Web Magazine


A PORTRAIT OF THE TYCOON JOHN ROGERS

 

 

 

 

 

John Rogers' parents were prominent people.  His father, John W. Rogers Sr. was a judge for the Juvenile Court bench in the U.S.  His mother, Jewel Lafontant could have been the first African-American female judge in the U.S. Supreme Court.  She became the first female deputy solicitor general in America.  Rogers' passion for investing began at age 12, when his father began buying him stocks as Christmas and birthday gifts. His interest in equities grew at Princeton University, where he majored in economics, and over the two-plus years he worked as a stockbroker for William Blair & Company, LLC. In 1983, John Rogers founded Ariel Investments to employ a patient, value strategy in small and medium-size companies. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
INVISIBLE INK :  A BOOK REVIEW

 
 
 
 



“It has always been a struggle for the relatively few African-Americans in corporate America who do exist, and it is made all the more difficult because we tend to operate in isolation. We are nearly always alone, with no one to fall back on... as we deal daily with an unending stream of slights real and imagined.

Even those who do care don't really understand. This is all played out in an environment where we are subjected to a debilitating undercurrent of bias that too many, on both sides of the divide, pretend does not exist...

The point of this book is not that the world is an awful place where things never go right but that institutional racism is a virus that is alive and well and needs to be eradicated if fundamental fairness is to be achieved. Black lives matter, and we must take issue and demand change, whether these lives are literally snuffed out in the blink of an eye or figuratively snuffed out in the polite confines of corporate America.”

-- Excerpted from the Prologue (page xiii) and Epilogue (page 199)

 

 
 
 
 
 

BLACK PAIN :  A BOOK REVIEW
 
 
 
 

 

"How much does suffering from and living with addiction, incarceration, dirty neighborhoods, HIV, hypertension, violence, racism, and class discrimination make us vulnerable to depression in the Black community? How many of us are suffering from it and not able or willing to acknowledge it? Who is talking about it? What is our response? The silence is deafening.

Depression is a fact of Black life, but it doesn't have to be a curse. And we don't have to be ashamed to admit it. This book will speak openly about my own depression and share the experiences of other people, from celebrities to regular working folk, so that we can think in different ways about this condition and about our options as Black people for dealing with it. More than anything, I want to open a dialogue. I want to give a voice to our pain and name it so we can make a space for our healing."

--Excerpted from the Introduction (pages xxvi-xxvii)