The Anthony Reeves Experience

Me working for the state of Florida in 1994 The danger of ‘assumptions’ is those assumptions may result in assuming realities which do not exist.    In 1995, I was a 25 year old state worker who had been working for the state for almost 3 years.  It was my first job out of college and there were a few times during my time at this job that I was not always the happiest employee.   In 1994, I gained a co-worker (for privacy purposes, I will call him ‘John’) who was an older gentleman.   John had worked in the private sector in Human Resources and he immediately took me under his wing.  We worked on different projects.  John gave me suggestions about making presentations.  I truly felt I was learning a lot under his tutelage and I was excited about working for the state. A few months after John was hired, a young man (for privacy purposes, I will call him ‘Will’) was hired and he also received guidance from John.  Will was a few years ...

  Being born in 1969, I often refer to my generation (or Generation X or MTV Generation) as the ‘Children of the Civil Rights Movement’.   If you are in my generation, most of our parents not only grew up and lived through Jim Crow but they also experienced all aspects of the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ from the Nation of Islam and Black Panthers to Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.   For the Baby Boomers, their worldview would change right before their very eyes.  As such, their world would change from an oppressive segregationist culture to a more inclusive culture.  This experience was truly an exercise of seeing the world change in ‘real time’.    However, what I realized early on in my early years was that I had no idea of what my loved ones had faced.  I had seen documentaries like “Eyes on the Prize” and TV series like “Roots”.  I had access to publications like ‘Jet’ and ‘Ebony’....

  Look at where you are in your life and ask yourself this question:   “Did you get to there in the way you thought you would get there?”   Ask yourself another question:   “Did you expect to be where you are in the first place?”   We are meant for great things and we are constantly striving to try and get to the next level of our lives.  However, we often have, in our minds, this imaginary path we believe we have to travel in order to get there.   What’s even worse is we will either 1) beat ourselves up or 2) feel sad if we think we didn’t get to where we are meant to be in the path we THINK we should take.   I am often asked, ‘when you used to work for the State of Florida as a State Employee, did you ever think, in the future, you would be a Naval Officer, an attorney, business owner, college professor, or a judge’ and I say ‘No’.   People are often surprised when I tell them that I never thought I would be in any ...

  When I was growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas during the 1970s, I literally had no clue of the legacy I was living through.   In my world, an integrated society was the norm but there were remnants of Jim Crow that were still in existence that I had no idea was even there. For instance, in 1981, I attended Southeast Middle School.  At the time, it was for 7th graders only and all of the kids who attended a variety of different elementary schools in Pine Bluff attended this school before being split to two 8th/9th grade schools (Belair and Dial).  As a kid, I was excited about attending middle school and meeting all of these new and different kids. I was aware that Southeast Middle School used to be an ALL BLACK High School.  However, it wasn’t until roughly 28 years later that I appreciated the significance of the school.   According to my mother (Who attended Southeast in the 60s), Pine Bluff had a population surge of African American students....

Back in the mid 1990s, one of my best friends started his own production label.  During that time, he had a female artist he was developing named Crystal.  At the time he was promoting her, he had this great opportunity to enter her into a talent contest.   In an effort to create a ‘look’ for her, he decided she would need some back up dancers.  He knew that I was a ‘stepmaster’ for my fraternity so he asked me to get 4 of my brothers in order to perform as her back up dancers.    Now, in my mind, I had stepped HUNDREDS of times in front of audiences big and small.  I had led shows.  I had taught shows. I had created shows.   I truly felt being a ‘stepmaster’ was natural for me.  However, the idea of being a choreographer for backup dancers for an artist trying to get a record deal was terrifying.  I did it because I wanted to help support my ‘brother from another mother’ in his pursuit.  However, I will admit that I wante...

Have you ever played a card game with a group of people who are ruthless? That was my first experience when I was in my fraternity back in college. I had the opportunity to play cards with my frat brothers and these brothers did not care. They were ruthless. They would shred you psychologically and verbally and did not care about the consequences. But it wasn’t just limited to your opponents. Your partners were also equally ruthless because they expected you not to make any mistakes. And this was my introduction to the thickening of my skin. I’m always amazed by people who keep making references to people who have thin skin because my first thought is that they could never be a part of my organization. But then as I went through and interacted with other friends and other organizations, i.e. other fraternities and sororities, I realized that this was not an uncommon situation. They all experience the same level of brutality and their organizations. And then I started realizing that a l...

Easy but NOT so Easy: Transitioning from business owner to employee 08/16 by The Honorable Anthony Reeves | Work : If you are used to running your own business, going back to being an employee again can be traumatic. In this post, I talk about the trials and tribulations of transitioning back into the workforce. https://theanthonyreevesexperience.blogspot.com/2021/08/dont-abandon-your-brand.html