Dr. Rodney D. Smith, the Author
Dr. Smith writes at the intersection of race, racism, identity, and cultural understanding, using narrative to challenge the false stories that have long defined communities of color. His work blends personal history with social insight, offering readers a deeper lens into how racism operates and how cultural truth-telling can restore dignity and foster belonging. Through his storytelling, he pushes audiences toward a more honest, equitable understanding of who we are and who we can become. He describes his writing genre as Literary Resistance.
Books and Publications
Below are books and publications that Dr. Smith has authored or has been a contributing author.
A Man Made of Steel
In A Man Made of Steel, Dr. Smith invites readers into a personal and powerful journey through his life as a son, a father, and a witness to the quiet, unwavering strength of Black men who have shaped generations. Anchored in the legacy of his own father - a retired steelworker whose love forged not only a family but an entire village - this book blends memoir, cultural reflection, and lived experience to redefine what fatherhood looks like beyond the limits of stereotypes. Dr. Smith reveals a truth too often overlooked; the presence of a father is not just seen in where he stands, but in what he builds, protects, and passes on.
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Are We Really Crabs in a Barrel?
Are We Really Crabs in a Barrel challenges a long-held belief that has permeated the African American community for decades that suggests that Blacks, generally, are not supportive of each other. Dr. Smith tenaciously confronts the age-old myth that African Americans stand in the way, and even thwart the progress of other African Americans, similar to what has been viewed as analogous behavior in crabs--the marine life form.
The gaze of Black America is the central target of the book as it aims to get the Black community, collectively, to see itself differently. Smith astutely asserts that "we Blacks] often compare ourselves to crabs without giving full consideration to either life form, humans or crabs." He states further that "we must consider that crabs are not intended to live in barrels, and neither are humans." Throughout the book, Smith implores the reader to see the proverbial barrel as one and the same with the dire conditions many African Americans find themselves in today. America's racialized history of degradation, marginalization and discrimination is understood as, not only the backdrop to contemporary setbacks, but is recognized as the key determinant for many of today's barriers and obstacles.
The Trayvon Martin in US
The events surrounding the Trayvon Martin murder, trial and acquittal bring to public and private discourse the violent, brutal murders of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. King, while bringing back to memory the racially provoked murders of Black American and Black immigrant men such as Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant and more recently, Michael Brown in Ferguson and Eric Garner in New York. The name of Trayvon Martin has become trope in the 21st century, which crystallizes US racial politics regarding Blackness, specifically the Black male: a metaphoric symbol of this history of America’s regard for Black bodies, as well as a metonym, a name that has become a contemporary substitute for terrorist attacks targeting Black bodies. The works included here imply that Trayvon Martin, as trope, reverberates in the most conscientious of ‘US’; and this epic tragedy is one that has plagued ‘US’ since Africans and people of African descent first arrived in the Americas. The essays range from the profoundly personal to the thoroughly investigated, and conclude with the statement from President Barack H. Obama in the epilogue. The Trayvon Martin in US is essential reading for anyone who is involved in race relations or teaches the topic.
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