About me… I am, “Dr. Billy G”, Wilbert Anthony Gordon Jr., Ph.D., UMBAA President, 2008, (U of M LS&A, Class of 1997, drbillyg@umich.edu, etc.) Briefly, I grew up in a tarpaper shack without indoor plumbing in Dowagiac (between Kalamazoo and South Bend). I was a high school jock, student body president, homecoming king, etc.,etc., type–any given incoming freshman guy in any house, in Bursley, Mojo, Markley, or Quad–East, West or South.
Except–I did not come directly to Michigan from high school. Instead, I joined a Roman Catholic monastery immediately after high school, then, came to the University of Michigan immediately after being asked to leave the monastery. (The monks said I definitely had a calling, but it definitely wasn’t religious, although there were a lot more people screaming, “Jesus Christ! Oh my God!” in my room than in the chapel per se, but I digress.)
I came to U of M in January 1973. I joined the Gay Liberation Front, the Rainbow People’s Party, and was on the steering Committee for the second Black Action Movement (BAM II). It was the 70’s–what can I say? The last thing I remember was somebody stepping on my writing hand when I was walking home from the Hash Bash and Dog Orgy of 76, or was it 77? Anyway, the next thing I knew, I was in Beverly Hills (California—not the one by Detroit) at the Polo Lounge, with Eggs Benedict on my breath, and some rich, Black Republican on my left.
That led to a brief career as a male model and actor, which led to an extensive career as a female model, actress, author, and screen writer—you have all seen “the old me” on TV (no pun intended), in movies, or certainly in print.
Moving on, my great nephew was brutally gunned down over a $200.00 drug debt–not in Harlem, not in South Central LA, not in East Detroit, but in Dowagiac–my little town, on the very street where I learned to ride a bicycle. In her tears and grief, his mother said to me, “don’t you dare cry–you television writers glamorize crime, drugs, and depravity and it is killing black kids across the nation. Did you really think that it was not going to come home to our family?”
As I told her at the time, I really had not thought about it. So, I did think about it. I decided to turn my rage and grief into something proactive. I left my career as a television writer, actress, model, etc., etc., etc., to get a Ph.D. in neuroscience, so I could speak to my colleagues in television and film, with authority about the neurobiological implications of broadcast media on the neuroplasticity (brain development) and interoceptive awareness (how we feel what we feel) of African Americans.
At the time, one of my agents at William Morris, (who was a little distraught because I refused to renew my contract with a German Tobacco Company as “the West Cigarette Girl” to pursue this goal) said, “Well we’ll have a funeral for your career, let us know how this stealth-nerd thing turns out for you.”
Well this is how it turned out. I traded in my weave and acrylic nails, finished my degree at Michigan in 1997. Subsequently, I completed an interdisciplinary Masters in Psychology and Sociology then completed my doctorate in Integrative Behavioral Neuroscience in 3 ½ years. (When you are all partied out, these things don’t take as long.)
Currently, I professionally reside at UCLA. I am a post-doctoral scholar at the UCLA Center for Research, Education, Training, and Strategic Communication of Minority Health Disparities. I am also a member of Dr. Mark S. Cohen’s Lab in the Center for the Cognitive Neurosciences Semel Biobehavioral Institute at the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA, and serve as Chair of the Advocacy Committee on Collective Concerns in Medicine at the DGSOM-UCLA.
I use functional neuroimaging technologies (fMRI) to do human brain research, investigating the biological substrates of human behavior. Generally speaking my research focuses on the neuroanatomy of emotion and in particular the pathophysiology of racism and its connectivity to negative physical health outcomes in African Americans.
I remain active in the WGA-west. I am part of Western Sandblast, a collective of film and television practitioners (WGA and DGA writers, directors, whose members credits include movies like Manchurian Candidate, Sum of All Fears, Any Given Sunday, and television shows such as House, etc.)
Aside from being President of the UMBAA, my other University of Michigan alumni affiliations are: African American Alumni Council, Alumni Cheerleaders, UM Club-LA, Alumni Council, U of M Southern California Alumni Club, U of M Entertainment Alliance, and the UMAAC-Los Angeles Village. I am involved in student recruitment and I am proud to say that my God son, who was Captain of Princeton Basketball Team, will begin his first year of Medical School at Michigan in the fall.
At this point, some of you, perhaps, like some of my colleagues in medicine, think that I am “very strange”. I admit at times life has taken me to extreme places, but only because I was trying to fulfill essential human needs and satisfy basic emotions that we all have. So in essence, can there be that much difference between you and I? I have laughed and cried, been courageous and cowardly, loved and lusted. I have known extreme joy and utter sorrow, been praised, admonished, and misunderstood. I have been confident, uncertain, lonely, decent, and wretched. I have been extremely sober and exceptionally drunk. As humans go, how strange is that? I believe there are no victims, only volunteers. I work hard, I do not surrender, and I will not quit. I come to win, not to play the game. So in terms of Michigan alumni, is there any question that the blood is maize and blue in my veins.
About this Blog: Being that I am running this Blog, and you have now read the sordid tale. You know who I am, or can at least, you can somewhat imagine. So, this Blog, like the 70’s, is a place to express and explore. (Unlike the 70’s, there will be no drugs, disco or orgies, but I digress.) This is a place to share, learn, and grow. It a place to vent, to re-boot, revitalize, and get in the game—it’s the part of Ann Arbor and the Michigan experience that should never end. So, this is a place for Michigan alums, like you and me—to escape the loneliness in this life, because loneliness is an absence of kind not a lack of company. And the greater a purpose here is to share ideas worth spreading, because after all, humans are a social species, and ultimately, the caliber of the interaction between any two humans is at that place and time the state of human society. So, what is this Blog about? You and time, will tell me, although I do not necessarily believe in linear time, I am prepared to believe in you.
