Social Impact Authors: How & Why Troy Mosley of Citizens Against Intolerance Is Helping To Change Our World
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
My book is to set the table for a thoughtful conversion on equality that moves the nation forward and unifies communities behind the ideal of equality of opportunity.
As part of my series about “authors who are making an important social impact”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Troy Mosley.
Troy Mosley is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel and is the founder and CEO of Citizens Against Intolerance. He served as the Executive Officer for the 212th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, as well as the Administrative Director, Department of Surgery, Walter Reed Army Community Hospital before being selected to be the Army Surgeon General’s Executive Assistant. Troy served as COO for Weed Army Community Hospital (WACH) in 2009 where he led the Hospital to the best Joint Commission (TJC) Accreditation score in the Army that year. His new book, The Armed Forces and American Social Change: An Unwritten Truce is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?
I was born in 1967 that makes me 54 years old; just old enough to have been born into a deeply segregated American society, and just old enough to have experienced some of that old school deep-seated racism. I was self-aware enough to understand my experiences regarding race and racism were mild compared to that of my parents and grandparents. I was curious enough to learn what the Black experience in America was like prior to the Civil Rights Legislation of the 1960s. I learned that my story of upward-mobility from a family of tenant farming in the deep south to living in a gated, upper-middle-class community in Northern Florida was only made possible through my mother and father’s education, my father’s commissioned military service and the Civil Rights Legislation of the 1960s. In this regard, my story is a largely untold story of millions of descendants of the formerly enslaved Africans, a story that hadn’t been told.
When you were younger, was there a book that you read that inspired you to take action or changed your life? Can you share a story about that?
My mother was a 5th Grade English Teacher. She likes to play word games and encouraged reading in our household. I was a very active child that would read through fiction books rather quickly. My parents bought a set of encyclopedias when I was eight, they opened up a whole new world of non-fiction reading. I would start reading an article on horses and would end up reading about horse-mounted cavalry, which would lead to reading about World War I then World War II, and so on and so on. I found that I could look up just about any subject that I saw on television or read about in school or a newspaper. I became completely engrossed with history, science, and nonfiction.
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that occurred to you in the course of your career? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
I was attempting to complete a decision support dashboard for a graduate management project-part of the degree requirements for my Master’s Thesis. I discovered that my ambition was greater than the time I had to devote to the project and wound up backpedaling furiously to descope the scale of my project so that I could graduate. The lesson I took away was that often just answering the mail is sufficient.
Can you describe how you aim to make a significant social impact with your book?
My book is to set the table for a thoughtful conversion on equality that moves the nation forward and unifies communities behind the ideal of equality of opportunity.
Can you share with us the most interesting story that you shared in your book?
Chapter 1, page 13, I introduce the concept of what I call the “Awakening Moment”- The realization that some people view you differently because of your race or other physical or ideological characteristics, and your potential may be limited because of others bias.
What was the “aha moment” or series of events that made you decide to bring your message to the greater world? Can you share a story about that?
As I stated, I was “woke” from an early age. I always was very aware of the limitations placed on my ambitions simply due to my race. I grew up in a predominantly White neighborhood from the time of 10 years old and I remember not getting invited to birthday parties and sleepovers when I was a preteen. I grew up in a wonderful loving community, but I could definitely feel the pressure not to challenge societal norms such as interracial dating. As a shy polite preteen, I was very deferential to the sensibilities of those in my community who were afraid I might develop a crush on their daughter, or their daughter might develop a crush on me. From the time I was 12 until I graduated high school, the only people I hung out with from my neighborhood were the 1 or 2 guys with whom I played high school football and basketball with. When my own 4-year-old daughter asked me why she was born black, I could see history repeating itself and I knew I had to tell my story and create a means for Americans to have a meaningful dialogue about racism and marginalization that has the power to move our nation forward.
Without sharing specific names, can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
In 2015 following the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church Mass Shooting, I started Citizens Against Intolerance to shed light on institutions that support America’s unspecified belief in White Supremacy. I started a petition to rename the 12 US military bases still carrying the names of Confederates, and that movement grew until Congress overcame a Presidential Veto to rename all real property named for Confederates. In hindsight, it seems sill that this was even a thing, but the law didn’t pass until January of 2021 following the Civil Unrest of the racial reckoning of the Summer of 2020. For as far as our nation has come regarding racial equality, we still have work to do on this accord, and I am about the business of getting this work done.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
1. Listen to people who have a different perspective with compassion, empathy and understanding.
2. Ask probing follow on questions to ensure you understand the differing perspective.
3. Do the difficult introspect to question why you may feel a certain way about a particular historically underrepresented group.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is like art, difficult to define, but everyone knows it when they see it. Leadership begins with compassion; a good leader cannot lead unless he or she truly cares for the people they are trying to lead. The best leaders have a good moral compass, and they challenge their followers to be the greatest expressions of themselves within the construct of a group with shared values.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- In order to achieve success, your work ethic must be aligned with your expectations.
- Nothing worth achieving is easy.
- Pursue your passion, don’t chase dollars.
- Never change who you are no matter how much adversity you encounter.
- Learn to laugh at yourself, and never lose faith in the goodness of mankind.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“There is nothing magical in the very flow of time that will bring about change. Change does not roll in on wheels of inevitability. Time is neither positive nor negative; time is neutral. I am beginning to think the people of ill will have used time more effectively than people of goodwill. Change is brought about by good men and women willing to ally with God and do the hard work required to bring about change. Without this time, itself becomes an ally of those which to preserve stagnation.”- Martin Luther King Jr. (Letter from a Birmingham Jail) This is relevant to me because it says means everyone who considers themselves of good won’t have the luxury of being “apolitical” or sitting on the sideline when there is so much work to be done to save or planet, and to end hatred.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-).
Bill Clinton. I would like to ask him if he foresaw the deep polarization that our nation is entrenched in and is there anything that he thinks he could have done in retrospect to prevent our current political polarization.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
They can follow my Facebook page “Unwritten Truce.”
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Social Impact Authors: How & Why Troy Mosley of Citizens Against Intolerance Is Helping To Change… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.