Photo by Chad Brady.
Danielle K. Brown is an associate professor in the School of Journalism at Michigan State University and holds the 1855 Community and Urban Journalism Professorship. She is also the director of the LIFT Project, a collaborative effort that centers reparative narrative change for communities and in journalism. Before joining us for the program “When Does Protest Make a Difference?,” Brown chatted with us in the green room about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, her grandmother, and Juneteenth.
What’s the best food to have this time of the year?
At all times of the year, it’s tacos. I’m from Texas originally—and so I’m taco-deprived [living in Michigan]. Every time I’m somewhere like L.A., it’s tacos.
What was the last thing that inspired you?
My daughter. She’s a freshman in high school and just passed an AP test that I bombed in high school. She and my students have shown me regularly that we have hope for our future.
If you could time travel to any time, past or future, where would you go?
I’d love to meet my grandmother before dementia started taking over. I would love to know what young her looked like and felt like and what she experienced. My work is so connected to my history and my ancestors. My dad was one of the youngest children—she had 13—and so she was older when I was born. I would love to have known her and had more time with her.
Who was your childhood hero?
I really liked Raphael [of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]. He was the best because he was the rebel turtle. He pushed boundaries. Outside of fictional characters, when I was young, I learned about Nelson Mandela and kind of obsessed over his work. It probably was my first introduction to understanding social movements and what challenging norms were about.
What surprises you most about your life right now?
I live somewhere where it snows regularly in the winter. I’m from the south of the South and moved to the Midwest. I haven’t died yet—that’s actually the surprising part. Me and snow, we don’t get along. I don’t get along with ice either, and so the fact that I’m still alive and have experienced almost eight winters in the Midwest is incredible.
If you were a plant, what kind of plant would you be?
I know what I wouldn’t be. I wouldn’t be an orchid. People keep buying me orchids, and I keep killing them. So I wouldn’t be that. I’d probably be some kind of succulent that’s really hard to kill, like the Chinese Money Plant.
Can you recall what was the first protest you ever saw on the news?
When I was very young, I lived right on the border of Texas when the Oklahoma City Bombing happened. There were protests that followed [about] both the bombing and the trial with Timothy McVeigh. My dad was a civil servant, and so I was always terrified that my dad was going to hop in the fire truck and go where I saw so much turmoil on the news. Because that’s really how protests have been portrayed in the past and in the present: They are regularly portrayed as disruptive and violent. I was scared of them for a long time.
Do you have a favorite family tradition?
Juneteenth is my favorite holiday to celebrate with my family. My dad is a smoker of barbecue. So, we have brisket and barbecue galore. And then the next day, of course, is all the leftover barbecue we make into tacos. It’s like the double whammy of holiday food. So, my favorite family tradition is the low-key family bonding that Juneteenth has always been for us in Texas.
With summer ending, do you have one last summer plan?
After I leave here, I’m going straight to a faculty retreat. If you know retreats in academia, they are very long meetings with no pools and no margaritas. So, I may spend the weekend pretending; I’ll just blow up a pool at my house, maybe make my own beverage, so that I can finish up the summer in style.