Ray Christian: A Resilient Storyteller By Karen Rieley
“You can’t deny a person’s individual story. Their perception is absolutely true. Factual stuff you can debate. But we’re not going to debate what you feel.”
Christian performs his storytelling on the Moth Main Stage in New York (2019).
D
r. Ray Christian didn’t grow up in the High Country; in fact, he spent the first third of his life in Richmond, VA, living in a ghetto with his illiterate mother, who he credits with driving his thirst for education, his two older sisters and an “emotionally inaccessible stepfather,” as he describes it. Then, there were 20 years in the U.S. Army as an infantryman and paratrooper awarded The Bronze Star and Combat Infantryman’s Badge. He learned a lot about life while he was in the service where he was forced to grow up fast. He also credits that experience for convincing him that he needed a college education. He wanted options after his 20 years of service ended, and education was a steppingstone. It’s these last 20 years in education in the Appalachian Mountains, however, that have defined Christian and given him a spotlight in the world. With a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Excelsior College, a master’s degree in public history from N.C. State University, and an Education Specialist (EdS) degree from Liberty University, he became an adjunct professor at Appalachian State University after moving to Boone, NC, when his wife was hired by the university.
80 — Autumn 2021 CAROLINA MOUNTAIN LIFE
Ray Christian holds a doctorate in education leadership (EdD) from Liberty University.
“I taught at Appalachian State for about 15 years, but I’ve taken a little pause right now to take care of my health and focus on reaching a broader audience with my storytelling,” said Christian. “Education is a great equalizer in terms of giving you more options. But people have to believe they can work around whatever disadvantages may exist in their life to achieve education. Often people who have come up hard have the least amount of empathy. They think that if they succeeded in getting an education, everyone else ought to be able to as well.” He wrote his dissertation on research that has been done on risk and resilience in African American children, exploring why some children do well in spite of their environmental and social disadvantages. He talks about risks as factors that create negative social outcomes and low academic achievement, such as limited education opportunities, racial discrimination and parental conflict. He also referred to research that describes resilience as those factors that contribute to children’s academic success, such as parental involvement, parental education, and religious exposure.
“A lot of people don’t have the factors that let them get over that last hump. One day may be the last straw. ‘I failed one more class. One more person told me I’m a bad person, and there’s no way I can do this.’ You can never have enough people tell you that you can do it.” Christian sees the achievement gap as wider for Blacks in Appalachia than for Blacks living in urban areas, with the number one reason being the lack of community. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Watauga County’s Black population is less than two percent, with other counties in the High Country being no more than five percent “The absence of a Black community is magnified in rural areas where family and church mean a lot,” Christian said. “Small, tight-knit groups form and are very exclusive.” Christian notes that Boone Mennonite Brethren Church, the largest Mennonite congregation in North Carolina, is the only church in Watauga County with Black origins. In 1911, Rev. Tschetter started Mennonite services in Watauga County in what became known as the Junaluska community of Boone. In 1918,
