Thank you, Lorenzo

I was seven years old.

I have no idea how my dad let me stay up so late on a school night, much less alone to myself in the living room.  But there I was, and because of it, I had one the greatest experiences of my life.

I saw a man dunk.

Granted, as my father watched Atlanta Hawks games religiously back then, it wasn't the first time I saw a man jam an orange ball through a hoop.  It was what that dunk represented that did something to me.  That dunk gave me the experience of victory.

Even though I'm a Carolina alumnus and my heart bleeds Chapel Hill, those who know me well also know of a time when my soul ran with packs of red wolves.  Wolves that carried not-so-household names like Valvano and Whittenburg, Lowe and Gannon.  People who had no business being on the same court with guys with names like Olajuwan and Drexler.  Grown men who walked with a swagger strong enough to carry the exotic-sounding moniker of Phi Slama Jama.

They weren't supposed to win.  One man's dunk made believers out a whole nation.

It was Lorenzo Charles made it.

He snatched Derrick Whittenburg's shot out of the sky and dunked it.  He took the seemingly idle dream of an afterthought in its own conference, and made them champions.

I learned to believe in the impossible that night.  I've lived to fight for the also-rans ever since.

It was because of them that I believe in the powers of perseverance and faith. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't root for the Baylors of the world, or the Valparaisos or the Bucknells or the Santa Claras. But because of what I saw that night, every time I see a small-ball school win big, I think of the Cardiac Pack.  When I see people overcome outrageous odds to earn victories beyond anyone's imagination, my heart warms, and my faith in humanity is renewed.  Jim Valvano, Kelsey Weems, Sidney Lowe and Charles, they taught me a lot.  Their example is what I try to pay forward every chance I get.

Because of them, I learned to see past one's shortcomings and see the beauty within.  When I put that extra effort in bringing along those young Soldiers others left to rot, kids who eventually grow to become better crew chiefs than I ever was, it's because of them.  Every so often, I still dream of taking that big shot, coming back from a big deficit, taking a team to that ultimate victory.  How ironic could it be that, as I try to reinvent myself to attain a higher plane of consciousness, I'm reminded of the standard that inspired my dreams to be in the first place?

People may never remember that April 4, 1983 as the day the Space Shuttle Columbia made its maiden voyage into space.  Even though it was my mother's birthday, I couldn't even tell you what we did for her that day.

Everybody will remember what North Carolina State did in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It's funny, because when I speak about the influences of my life, I always speak of my father first, and then maybe my grandmother and a few other great men and women (this blog will have a tribute to one in the near future, I promise you that).  And yet, there were some five or six kids--giants to me at the time--and a runny-nosed coach playing out of Raleigh, North Carolina that, in some ways more than they had, made me they man that I am today.

One of them has left us this week.  Lorenzo Charles, the guy who made the dunk.  He was driving a bus that crashed near the university that loved him and his teammates so dearly. 

Lorenzo Charles may have been by himself that afternoon, but he didn't die alone.

Our love and appreciation for his life on and off the court went with him, and hopefully guided him on his way home, as they seek to comfort the family he left behind.

His body may be gone, but the impact of what he accomplished lives in all of us. 

And for you losers out there, I don't give a rat's ass that he only played one season in the NBA, or was riding the pine in the CBA, or spent his last days driving a bus.  When you leave this earth, what will you be remembered for?  What mountains would you have climbed?

Whose children will you have inspired to believe?

Like his coach almost 20 years before him, Charles will always live in the memories of so many fans and alumni, cheers for him will forever rattle the old bleachers of Reynolds Coliseum.

And he will always be in the heart of one seven year-old boy who learned just why we believe in underdogs.

Lorenzo Charles was part of a special group of men who defined my childhood.
And for that, no words can express how grateful I am...


Lorenzo Charles, 1964-2011

An Open Letter to Colby Bohannon

[Author's note:  Colby Bohannan is the president of the Former Majority Association for Equality, a Texas-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing financial aid to white males, whom they consider to me a minority in today's America.  The following is a letter I am sending to Mr. Bohannon about my opinions of their premise and the organization that supports it.]

Dear Mr. Bohannan:

                Let me start this from where we do agree:  private groups endowing whatever they want to whomever they wish, however they feel the need, don't necessarily take away from everyone else not applicable to that entity or the group it comes from.  Hopefully, everyone who comes across your organization and seeks to contrast it to the Boy Scouts, the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, or any other charitable organizations that primarily benefit women, Asians, and the physically impaired will see that regardless of if it's based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or political special interest, none of these groups are inherently discriminatory towards anyone who is outside that particular spectrum, and shouldn't be seen as such. In that vein, I feel that if it's perfectly acceptable to have such groups further their own interests, than the same can be said for the Daughters of the Confederacy (more on them later) and the National Council of La Raza as well; so as an African American male, I take no umbrage with the premise and mission of your organization. 

               

The problem I do have is that, in promoting the advancement of educational opportunities for white males, I believe you grossly overstate your point.

                See, here's the thing:  you say that white males are now the minority in America, and that somehow is reflective in America’s colleges and universities.  You say that other groups have benefitted from financial aid programs that cumulate in white males finding themselves at some sort of competitive disadvantage.  What you fail to realize, however, is that the racial pendulum shifts both ways.

                Former North Carolina Governor Mike Easley is an alumnus of NC Central University's law school, and the late Christa McAuliffe (space shuttle Challenger) earned a master's from Bowie State in Maryland.   Fayetteville (NC) State University enjoys a large white population for a black college, and Bluefield State University in W. Virginia is now predominately white.  So are the baseball and golf teams at HBCUs like Bethune-Cookman, Texas Southern, and South Carolina State, and the NCAA-champion women’s bowling team at Maryland-Eastern Shore.  Yet in the face of these and other examples too many to mention, your organization and its supporters still believe that you’re not getting your fair share, or that somehow you are being denied a chance to flourish.  Yet HBCUs have long boasted white scholars, athletes, etc.; Hampton University had a white pageant winner a not too long ago, and Morehouse had a white valedictorian. Yeah, I’m certain more than a few people complained about it, but so what? They earned it fair and square.

This leads me to assert that The Former Majority Association for Equality makes for a fine premise, but bad execution. Let me state again that I have absolutely no problem with its existence or its mission. Like the Southern Baptist Convention, GLAAD, the Council of Conservative Citizens or the KKK, they are a private group, and as such can give their money to whomever they want. It's no skin off my nose. Where you will always go wrong, however, is your insinuation that white males are the minority in this country. Bullshit. Perception aside, Whites still dominate the population in nearly every state. And even when they become a numerical minority in about 50 years, there's more than enough empirical and anecdotal evidence to assume that they will remain the political and economic majority well into the century.   The benefits of white skin privilege are alive and well; and even as an obsolete notion, the aforementioned examples illustrate that when opportunities are given, whites, and particularly white males, thrive. 

You are not a minority in any sense of the word. 

But to be fair, and to stay on topic, as far as college funding is concerned, many states (including mine) offer minority presence grants to aid people from underrepresented groups (i.e. Hispanic students get it if they attend any state school, blacks would get it at majority-white colleges, whites would get it at HBCUs--and they take it in spades!).  Southern schools (Clemson, West Virginia, Sewanee) routinely give preferential treatment to rural and Appalachian applicants in both admissions and scholarships.  Groups like 4-H also grant aid, and the majority of the recipients (just happen to be--not saying it's racist, it's just that way) are white.  So if you look hard enough and with some diligence, there's no reason that whites can't get race-based aid.

BTW, as an OIF veteran, which qualifies you for the GI Bill (the very thing that built the modern—and largely white--middle class), doesn’t that mean YOU WERE GIVEN FINANCIAL AID?   And since many schools offer increased benefits to certain military personnel (guardsmen and reservists, ROTC scholarship winners, disabled veterans), should taking advantage of any of them (if you so choose) not put you far ahead of many of his peers to begin with?  And, for good measure, aren’t the majority of enlisted Servicemen who take free college courses via tuition assistance, and their officers also predominately white?    So although I truly believe that you mean well, doesn’t your premise sort of fly in the face of reality?  Can you not see how your organization’s worldview weds itself to intellectual dishonesty?   

I understand that these are trying times for some, but it's really that way for all. Increased competition for diminished resources will do that to anyone.  It's all a natural part of having a free society, and you can't expect to skate by anymore just because you are (or once were) a member of the privileged class.

(And here's what kills me: whenever we have a talk about why there exists a ‘this or that,’ it's always in the context of BLACK PEOPLE.   Why? How is it that everybody has something to say about BET--not TV ONE, but just BLACK Entertainment Television; everybody gets in a snit over a Black Enterprise or a Miss Black Swashbuckling Grapecrusher Pageant, but you will say little to nothing about any other group's entities? Jewish youth centers? Cool.  Telemundo and Univision?  Muy bueno.  Hispanic Business Journal?  OK by me.  Asian Heritage Magazine?  How cute.  Indian casinos? Show me the money. But American Legacy magazine?  Separatist all day long. WTF, people?  How come it's gravy that everybody else can do their own thing but we can’t?)

                Told you I feel your pain.  But I digress.

So as I appreciate how your perceptions may have come to shape the FMAFE, I question whether that appreciation is mutual.  I would hope that this is part is unnecessary and superfluous, but the reason why you have your ______ history month, your Miss____ America Pageants, and your (insert ethnically-themed media here) is that without them, those interests would never be known beyond the periphery. You also have to account that for years upon years, people who were not WASPs were locked out of those avenues (and FYI, many if not most of America's HBCUs were founded by WHITES), so the only way they could be see was for them to do it themselves. And be honest: ABC, CBS, NBC, Forbes, Money, Newsweek...if you wanted a White__________, there you go. That's not saying that any of them are inherently racist; it's a reflection that white America's collective dominance is understood.

Ask a person of color about his or her supposed collective dominance, and expect to be laughed at, if not your feelings hurt. 

I don't understand the mindset that something that's rooted in a certain group translates into "For them only." If I want to get a better understanding of the socioeconomic progress of Native Americans in the southeast, I'm not going to Vanderbilt before I look at historically indigenous UNC-Pembroke first.  That doesn’t mean they only care about Indian affairs.  It’s just saying that the school might be a better resource than Vandy.  Again, I digress; if a white group wants to create a Miss White _____ pageant, or create an all-white basketball league (the ‘All-American’ Basketball Alliance), then as a private organization it's their right. However, I would say again that they--and you--overstate your point. This nation is saturated in white culture. What is considered 'Southern Heritage" OMITS the contributions of blacks, Cubans, Mexicans, and Native Americans.  Whites themselves divide themselves ethnically, whether they claim Scots-Irish, German, Nordic, or Italian heritage, and so on. Quite a few I know lived white their whole lives until it came time to apply for minority scholarships, when that one drop of Guatemalan blood came in handy. Even when whites become a numerical minority, they will still command the majority of options and opportunities that are still kept at arm's length to other people. When you have banned women of color from fully participating in America’s bounty for a century, it's kinda hard to feel left out of a Miss Vietnamese America pageant that only existed for some 20 years. You almost never hear about the issues and interests of Laotian women, Appalachian children, or Hmong men, and if not for the media and organizations that focuses them, groups like black and Hispanic small businessmen, or concern themselves with the plight of disabled veterans, few would know and appreciate that such people exist.  White males have never had that problem, and for the foreseeable future likely never will.   

So while you may feel inclined to consider yourselves endangered species, I have submitted to you my reasons for believing that the competitive dominance of white males is still a factor in all of our lives, and will never completely go away. Personally, I don't get caught up in what other people have, because life to me isn't a zero-sum equation. Their gain doesn't mean my loss. So, I vehemently disagree with your assumption that white males outside of rural America need some sort of handout (and if that’s the case, perhaps we should take a closer look at the white working poor, and stop putting a brown face on the welfare state!).  I think to support financial aid based on assumptions of racial disparity in favor of nonwhites is rather unfair, because it reinforces the premise that 'white is right,' which automatically invalidates the contributions, aspirations, and concerns of everyone else. It’s as if you are afraid that every dark person in the world is going to foist some sort of racial payback for all the crap their people had endured. Using South Africa as an example, I find that stance laughable.

I don't know what fair is, and I won't pretend to claim that everything in the world is. But I’m not above going against the grain to put my money where my beliefs are.  So here’s twenty dollars in the hopes that the guy who benefits from my money never has to carry the stigma of having to account for his entire race and gender, or to be seen as ‘white’ first before anything else; that he will never endure Benjamin E Mays’ ‘soft bigotry of lowered expectations;’ will never have to be work twice as hard to be seen as just as good; will never know what it means to be labeled an affirmative action hire;  and, God forbid, never be looked at as someone who prospered off the backs of other people—those ‘other people’ being those who do not look like him.  Hopefully you’ll post what your graduates are doing for the country after they graduate.  I’d be quite interested to see.

                                                                Respectfully,

                                                                Therren J. Dunham