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

Ronda Holder and the Tale of the Embarassed Slacker Son: When keeping It Real Goes Right

“Solve the problem yourself, or accept a fate you may not like…from this perspective, the ethic of personal responsibility gains appeal.”

--Noel M. Tichy

So often do we read about how our children are failing in life (and all too little of how we, as parents, are complicit in that), it’s refreshing to actually stumble upon stories of parents actually being parents.

Take this story I read on AOL (“SmackDown:  Would You Publicly Punish Your Child?”, by Jessica Samakow and Mary Beth Sammons).  These women offer differing viewpoints of what one woman, Ronda Holder of Florida, did when she got tired of her son’s lack of effort and decided to get him back on track. 

You see, Holder’s son is 15 years old, and I assume he’s a high school sophomore.  He currently rocks a grade point average of 1.22.

You read that right.  1.22.

So, after trying in vain to get through to him that a (barely) D-average isn’t where you aspire to have in life, Ms. Holder took the remarkable step of forcing him to face his situation, by way of making him face the citizens of metro Tampa.

On a street corner.  Holding up a placard that reads, “My GPA is 1.22; honk if you think I need an education.”

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!

Now, one would think that parents like Ronda Holder would garner some semblance of praise from a nation already wary of black underachievement (and the connotations attached to it), or at the very least elicit some sympathy from the masses.  That would be incorrect. 

I also said in the beginning that the authors hold opposing views on the story:  Samakow sides with the parent, Sammons believes that Holder should be reported to Child Services. 

Personally, I don’t give a shit what these bitches think.  Here is the truth as I know it:

There are a lot of people in this country who go out of their way to bitch and moan about the state of our public education system, but do nothing about it, especially with their own kids.  We extol the virtues of personal responsibility and limited government interaction, and yet go out of our way to prosecute people when they actually try to do it by themselves.  We want to hold young people accountable, but somehow feel (erroneously) that we must somehow protect their feelings in the process.

For many people, this is simply a matter of education and work ethic.  For families like the Holders, it’s about life and death.  Literally.  And when it comes to ensuring that someone’s child grows to be a functioning, productive member of society, fuck little Jimmy and his feelings. 

Now I know that the concept of public shame went the way of Curtis Mathes TVs and Betamax VCRs a long time ago, but you know what?  It works.  It’s old-school.  It’s timeless.  And for the record, I’m not too big on the concept of “tough love” either:  most people don’t appreciate the meaning of the term, and hide behind it as a convenient excuse to inflict unnecessary trauma on other people.    But when used properly, shame can be an effective motivational tool.  Not because it’s an easy thing to endure, but when you have a 1.22 GPA, you SHOULD be fucking embarrassed!  You SHOULD be ashamed!  And I have no sympathy for anyone who suffers the consequences of such meager efforts.

But you can’t convince some people of that, unfortunately, because a lot of people, including Hillsborough County Children’s Board member Arlinda Amos, feel that what Holder did was cruel.  “It definitely would fall within the category of emotional abuse,” she says. 

Bullshit. 

What idiots like Amos fail to appreciate is that emotional abuse would apply if the Ronda Holders of the world didn’t exhaust all necessary avenues through the system to fix their problem.  Emotional abuse would be a valid argument if she wasn’t at her wit’s end.  I cannot completely render her blameless—after all, she IS the parent, and responsible to a large degree for her son’s education (and a 1.2 average doesn’t just come out of nowhere) --this clearly was a woman who understood what’s really at stake here, and she was going to do whatever it takes for her son not to grow into a statistic.  If he’s scarred by the experience, well, he put himself there.  It’s HIS grades that got him there.  Actions have consequences, and he has no one to blame for himself.  But sure, feel free to criticize why she never got involved so much before, if you must.  But also be grateful that she’s getting her point across NOW, instead of having the system (welfare, penal, whatever) do it for her.

And don’t give me that crap about how this boy may have some learning deficiency, or he’s retarded, or how this somehow solidifies the claims that black youth will always be a step behind their peers.  There’s not a damn thing wrong with this kid that a little wall-to-wall counseling (you didn’t read that) wouldn’t cure.  And how would you know whether or not there is a father or male figure in the home? And past a certain point, why is that supposedly the overriding factor?  Seriously, you have to demand things of people in order to get something out of them, and the fact that no one really is willing to do that (including his enablers) is the biggest contributor to his failure.  Excellence doesn’t come out of a vacuum.  It only comes from an environment of tough standards and tougher enforcement.  You will be given all the advantages and chances you are going to get in this world and no one will shed a tear on your behalf if you fail to make something of them.  That’s Life 101.  So stop giving the little fucker a pass because he’s black, or (you think) he’s poor, or because he’s a teen and you think he’ll grow out of it (he might not get the chance).  It’s those attitudes that make it easy for the true bigots out there to continue denying black people.  If he’s a lazy fuck, then call him on it.  Otherwise, you're no better than he is.

But some of you will still feel like Holder is wrong for what she did.  You may not agree with her methods, but to infer that she acted with malice could never be more mistaken.  Malice is letting your kid skate by with inferior grades and no work ethic.  What's cruel is shielding your kids from learning how the world really works (you don’t give, you don’t get).  Cruelty is allowing your kid to be further stigmatized by the reinforcing the stereotypes that continue to hold us down, to feed into the lie that good grades are a “white” thing, by taking a person already hobbled by the soft racism of low expectations and crippling him further by instilling a false sense of victimization.  Not developing a sense of personal value in your child by not defining for him what constitutes value (nor demanding of him the appreciation for such things), that shit is cruel.  Not giving any more of a damn about your kids than how much they bring in public assistance and EIC, that shit is cruel.  I agree with Samakow.  If anybody should be reported to Child Services, it’s the parents and others who enable them who allow this shit to begin with.

There is a difference between discipline and abuse.  Discipline means to teach.  Cruelty teaches as well, perhaps, but affirms nothing.  Ronda Holder stripped her son of some cheap, plastic tokens that can only buy him a trip to diaster, and in doing so gave him a better lesson in life than anything he could read in a textbook.  What this woman did wasn’t an act of maliciousness or unwarranted cruelty.  It was an act of love.

Listen, folks, not all medicine is supposed to taste good.  And too much of a good thing can kill just as easily as too much of the bad stuff.  In that regard, love cannot always gentle and kind.  It is sometimes harsh and abrupt.  It has to be, if you want to fix what’s broken or prevent what might happen with indifference.  As much as I love and treasure the relationships I have with my children, I would hold their asses up for public ridicule in a minute if it stops them from acting a fool.

I still remember growing up in a home where my dad threatened my older brother and me every year that if we didn’t make the grade at school, we’d be wearing the same clothes next year.  And as cheap as my daddy was (I’m sorry, STILL IS), we couldn’t bear the thought of wearing clothes already built to disintegrate in seven washes another year.  This wasn’t (only) because he was a tightwad; it was because he was trying to teach us that new clothes, like good educations, are luxuries that most people never see.  And with certain luxuries (and privileges) come expectations.  If you wanted things in life, you were expected to produce.  If you want to maintain what you have, you must take care of them.  If you do neither, you can do without.

Ronda Holder was teaching her son the same goddamn thing, that obedience is greater than sacrifice.  I say good for her, and all the better for her son.  And better that Holder's kid sacrifices a little pride today, than what little of his dignity is left by the time he’s 30.  At that point, he may still be holding up a sign on the street corner.  Only instead of telling people of his laziness, he’ll be begging them for spare change.   

I’d wager instead that in 15 years, he and society will thank this woman for what she did, and wish that many others loved their kids enough to do the same thing. 

Ms. Holder, I thank you now.

Black History Month: Mend It, Don’t End It

Hi folks, and welcome to another edition of TPL.  Happy Black History Month.

At least I'd like for you to enjoy it.

But if you're like me, you already know that February is going to be about four things: 
  1.  A whole lot of tired, patronizing ads from companies who see BHM as yet another vehicle to squeeze yet another dollar from your wallet.
  2.  A whole lot more idiots who will walk the earth believing that Mae Jemison was not the first black woman in space, but the mammy-cartoon character for a brand of pancake mix.
  3.  Even more idiots whose only tangible knowledge of the black history is slavery, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama.  Or that sufficient commentary on the black experience derives from rap music, BET, The Cosby Show, Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton/whatever hot mess is calling himself in charge of the local or regional NAACP, and, yes, Barack Obama.
  4.  And yet even more idiots who, in spite of all I've said above (and there's so much more we could each contribute), will still question the need for a Black History Month in the first place.

Black men, Black women, this is our fault.

You read that right.  We only have ourselves the blame.

Part of the reason BHM is so fucked up right now is that we aren't teaching it right.  Sometimes I truly wonder if we're teaching anything at all.  I know we're not learning much.
(I mean, I appreciate the "Little Known Black History Facts" on the TJMS as much as anyone, but how many of us have actually gone out and ordered a subscription to American Legacy magazine?  You know, the source for all those facts you hear on the radio everyday?  Exactly.)

And that's just part of what's wrong with BHM.  Perhaps the most egregious offense is that, inexplicably, we've allowed not just (racist, far-right, and culturally indifferent--it is a must that I qualify this) white people, but just about anyne who is diametrically opposed to our collective interests to co-opt vestiges of our history.  Every time I hear some tripe from the mouths of a Dennis Prager or an L. Brent Bozell, someone who will never be mistaken for a friend of black people, or even (black man) Larry Elder to invoke MLK as a means to support the notion of black pathology, I want to vomit.  But what makes me actually do it is the knowledge that no one ever stands up to these people.

Are we that ignorant of our history, so derelict of our responsibility, and so unappreciative of our legacy that we're just gonna let it go for a pittance?  How are we supposed to expect others to respect where we've come from when we ourselves won't do it?  Nobody is going to our backyards to mow our lawns; pulling the weeds and trimming the hedges is our job, and ours alone.

Ironically, it was Carter G. Woodson's ideal that the day would come when there would be no need for a black history week, let alone a month.  But at the rate we're going, Tom Joyner will commemorate a Black History DECADE before I'm an old man.  (And that is the paradox for all you BHM haters.  The less you get us, the more you will get all that we've done in February.  So there.  You wanna see the end of Black History Month?  Learn black history.)

Black History Month used to be special.  It was a time when we looked back and shared our collective experiences and touched the embroidery of the threads our people wove into the American fabric.  Now it's been cheapened and marginalized.  More people know Rosa Parks as a rap song than the woman who sat down on a hot day in Montgomery.  (How even fewer people know about Claudette Colvin, who actually preceded Parks in protesting Montgomery bus segregation, is beyond criminal.)  Fraternities and sorrorities are more likely to hold house parties than encourage intellectual discourse in black homes.  Our institutions can organize rallies and boycotts in support of the Jena (La.) 6 or the Scott sisters of Mississippi,  but no NAACP member has yet demanded that the town of Scottsboro, Alabama commemorate the legacy of nine teenage boys who actually were victims of an injust legal system.  We can protest a raggedy ass flag depicting the defeated army of a long-forgotten empire (save the neo-confederate apologist groups out there), but say nothing about all those Confederate memorials across the South that I believe cause more harm to our self-esteem than whatever diaper South Carolina wants to fly over its state capitol.

This is the shit we've got to fix, people.  When the people who laud Bill Clinton as our, ahem, first "black" president refuse to hold him to task for the way he threw Sister Soulja, Lani Guinier and Joycelyn Elders under the bus, that's a problem.  When we fall all over ourselves about how hip-hop denigrates our women, but fail to acknowledge how early R&B, rock and roll, jazz, and the blues featured artists whose lyrics and lifestyles would make Eazy-E blush, that's a problem.  When we hold up those same yellowed and fading portraits of MLK, Lincoln, and Kennedy, and yap about how someone else got beat up and sprayed with high pressure hoses somewhere else, but have no knowledge about any black person of historical significance to your own fucking neighborhood, that is a problem.

When we lament how our children don't seem to know anything, but we haven't learned the things they should be taught; and we say that our children lack any respect for authority when we haven't shown them the type of person who's worthy of respect, when our history and culture are defined by one particular network that black people no longer own, we have a problem.

But, thankfully, with every problem comes a solution.  Black History Month as we know it can be fixed.  And it starts by reclaiming our history and our legacy from the brink.  Let's start getting involved again; let's start reading, discussing, and engaging each other in the issues that matter to us.  Let's challenge those people who dispense lies and half-truths about our history for their own selfish reasons.  Let's actually go out and learn something about somebody who made an impact in our own communities.  I know that is a lot harder for someone living in Swamp Fox, SC than it is for a cat in Atlanta, but it should also be that much more rewarding. Let's appreciate that the luxury of having such a rich history and heritage comes with the responsibility to see that endures.  Because black history is American history.  We were here before the Mayflower, we shed the first drops of blood for democracy, we fought bravely and honorably in every conflict this nation has ever fought.  We created American music, and redefined American athletics.  We changed the game in our own way, and often on our own terms.  That's something to be celebrated, not ignored.

So with this, I start my observance of Black History Month 2011.  Not from the puropse of seeing it fade into indifference, but out of the hope of seeing our history securely intertwined within the links of all things American, for that is the only way that BHM truly becomes obsolete.

May the next 27 days be fruitful and prosperous to all.

ADMIN NOTES: Why I do this

Before I get started, an apology is in order.

I know it's been a couple of months almost since my last post (and to the two of you who actually read this thing, thanks), and for that I'm sorry.  I know I've missed out on discussing the holidays, insincere New Year's resolutions, The passing of Teena Marie, the tragedy in Tuscon, and so on.  I think I had a thousand ideas during my hiatus about what to write.  Given that it was mostly over the holidays and due to the nature of my profession, I guess it's kinda easy for me to sit back and make excuses for not churning out more product.

But if I did such a thing, this blog would be a complete waste of time to me, and absolutely worthless to you.

Blogs can be a refreshing, enlightening, and rewarding thing for the person putting them together.  They can also be maddening hard and unforgiving.  It's hard to consistently conjure up fresh perspectives on a variety of topics every single day.  Sometimes you're metaphysically in tune with the ghost of Edward R. Murrow, but the trains of thought don't venture past the confines of your whimsical mind.  Sometimes you get so caught up in resurrecting Shakespeare that your thoughts get lost in unnecessary verbiage.  Sometimes it's just that others had said it as you would , maybe much better, and your two cents add little value to the discussion.

Sometimes I'll see what I thought to be a worthy issue, only to find that no one really cares. 

Sometimes it's just plain old writer's block.

I guess what I'm trying to point out is, no matter the reason, I don't want to do this just to hear myself speak.  I want to engage you in a meaningful dialogue, and encourage you to call me out if you think my positions are bullshit.  so in the next few weeks, I'm going to challenge Susan Estrich's notion of school uniforms and put the haters of hip-hop on trial.  I'm going to bring to your attention the struggle between diversity and choice in the second largest school district in my state, and point out how Wake County's situation may ultimately affect your children's education.  I'll dredge up a few lines of what (little!) I've learned in my 35 years on planet Earth (yawn, I know), but I'm also dedicating most of February questioning why we continue to allow our history to become more and more irrelevant (perhaps because we're teaching it wrong, no?).

And ultimately, I'll be writing for and about you.  And me.  Us.  That's a privilege and a responsibility I do not take lightly.  So while there may be gaps here and there between posts, I respectfully ask that you bear with me. It's only because I want to put out the best writing possible, and if you are willing to take the time to participate in this blog, and maybe share with your friends what one black man has to say, the I owe you no less than my very best.

Even now, there's a lot of ground that I want to cover in a very short time.  But with your help, I'll get there.

Thank you for listening.

5 Random (Yet Well Thought Out) Observations About Randy Shannon's Firing

1.  Randy Shannon was the right coach at the right time.
All you people who are quick to play the affirmative action card (read:  unqualified minority) can eat shit right now.  Larry Coker, for all his success on the field, left the program in tatters.  More players were getting press for criminal activity than for what they did on the field.  Practically nobody graduated.  Miami football was a black eye to all of college sports, and an insult to black academic and social progress.

Enter Randy Shannon.  He grew up in Miami, won championships there as a player, and another as an assistant coach.  He knew the school.  He knew the lineage of Canes football.  And, most importantly, he knew the pools of talent in the area.  As Donna Shalala stated at his hiring, he is Miami.  Not only was he arguably the best qualified man for the job, he was definitely the most uniquely qualified candidate for the position as well.

Yet past performance doesn't equal future success.  And for that reason...

2.  Miami was absolutely correct to part ways with him.
Shannon is an absolutely fabulous leader.  He reestablished an air of discipline and accountability.  His players graduated.  By virtually all accounts, he did everything right as a coach.

Except win enough games.

Somewhere down the line, Shannon seemed to forget that he wasn't coaching  Boy's Town, but at the U.  Consistent 7-5 seasons, with losses to seemingly inferior schools in your own state, will eventually get you fired anywhere.  But at Miami, where the expectations are winning conference titles and competing for BCS championships, 7-5 is beyond substandard.  Even when you are fielding teams that students and alumni can be proud of, you can't get by with mediocre seasons when you're stocked with 11-1 talent.

But in no way should that make his tenure a racial issue.  Shannon's firing is not an indictment of his intelligence, his coaching acumen, and damn sure not his color.  ESPN's Mark May, defending Shannon shortly after the initial reports, said "[Shannon] was brought in to change the culture of the program.  He did that."  And I agree; most people do.  But most of us could also see that Coach Shannon took the program as far as he could take it.  It was time for a change. 

Shannon got the job because he deserved it.  He got a contract extension because he deserved it.  And he got fired because he deserved it.  It's not that hard to understand.  Shannon is a tremendous coach and he will get another head coaching opportunity much sooner than later.  But just as there should be no debate on his hiring, this is not another Tyrone Willingham situation, either (and besides,Shannon walks away with a better record).  Randy Shannon may not have been given all the chances in the world (I could never really say that about a black coach), but he certainly had enough.

So, if you must bring up affirmative action (though you shouldn't), acknowledge that its intent is to create equal opportunities, not equal results.  A black man was given a chance to display his talents; he succeeded in some respects (and be honest---for a first-time coach he really didn't do a bad job), but ultimately things didn't pan out.  That's perfectly OK with me.  And I bet it's just fine with him, too.

They could have let him coach the bowl game, though.  Just sayin'.

3.  Love him or hate him, Fox Sports' Jason Whitlock is right.
Funny, when I saw the final score of that Central Florida game, I thought that Shannon was going to be on the hottest seat in the country next season.  When I saw the news that he'd been fired, I thought immediately of what Whitlock said in 2008 about Turner Gill.

Gill, currently the head coach at Kansas, was the front runner (?) for the job at Auburn.  I remember all the hoopla and bellyaching that came about because he got passed over for a guy who was like 1-70 (exaggerating here) at Iowa State.  And to be honest, with Gill coming fresh off a MAC title at Buffalo, I didn't get it, either.

But then I read Whitlock's column, and I realized that you can't just jump at any job because someone else tells you that it's the best opportunity.  You should choose that job (or stay where you are) because at the time, it's the right one.  Gill ended up at a place where he had close ties to the conference (he starred at rival Nebraska), and where it seems like there's isn't as much pressure to win now as it is to be competitive.  Should he had been given the chance to coach Cam Newton?  Don't know.  But I am sure that Gill would get to grow at Kansas in ways they'd never let him at Auburn.

I'm not going to contradict myself and tell you that Shannon shouldn't have taken the Miami job; he should have.  I'm hoping that next time, he considers where his strengths and weaknesses are, bounces them off the expectations of the program, and chooses a place that can not only utilize his leadership and talents to their fullest, but also can better afford to take the time necessary to build a consistent winner.

Shannon, if given the time and the financial commitment from whoever hires him, can build a championship team in short order.  But black, white or purple, schools like the University of Miami are not the places to be for a young coach to get his teeth cut.  Better to go to a lower-tier Big 6 or an up-and-coming mid-major first.

4.  Randy Shannon's successor won't do that much better, anyway.
First of all, Miami is one of the lowest-paying jobs available for a program with such lofty expectations.  And I promise you, nobody in broadcasting is going to take less money tor all the hassles that come with coaching.  Especially at a school like Miami.  So dreaming about a big name coach like Jon Gruden gets you nowhere.  Ditto for Mike Leach, unless you want to see the program go back to the bad ol'days of the Coker era.  Butch Davis isn't leaving Chapel Hill, either.

So, that leaves room for some young coach or seasoned coordinator who, like Shannon, will have his first head coaching opportunity.  Good luck with that.  Maybe they could get some retread a la Rick Neuheisel, or perhaps Dan Hawkins can get another shot at glory.  If it were me, I'd shoot for the latter.

Miami can't get the big names because it doesn't have the money (Yeah, I know...all that cheddar from licensing and apparel?  Really?).   A young coach won't survive because there's too much pressure to win, and win now.  And even with the best possible coach locked up, the team still plays in a way-too-large arena too far away from campus, suffers from poor training facilities, and is at least a step behind its in-state rivals when it comes to recruiting blue-chip prospects.

Sounds like a recipe for mediocrity to me.  Which tells me...

5.  Miami fans had better prepare for the new reality.
Contrary to what Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt wants you to believe, that "better days are ahead for Miami," what the firing of Shannon signals is not the beginning of the end of rough times, but rather the end of the beginning. 

Miami is not an elite team, and they haven't been the entire decade.  They've lost games to schools like Carolina and Georgia Tech, and they're losing ground in recruiting to schools like UCF and South Florida.  These schools have solid coaches and have either built or are building better facilities.  These are programs on the rise, with bright futures ahead of them. 

Better days are ahead for programs like Connecticut, not Miami.

While it's way too premature to equate the Hurricanes to a has-been program like, say, Holy Cross, I do think it's more than fair to look at the U next year and see Notre Dame.

Yes, that Notre Dame, where first-year coach Brian Kelly brought the Irish a 7-5 record and a bowl game---and they're happy about it.

See, just like Miami this season, ND was another big-name school spoiled by their history of success, and their heads in the sand about the changing landscape of college football.  They thought the name itself would carry the team to 10-2 seasons and the Orange Bowl.  They were wrong.  They held their standards way too high; they felt entitled to outstanding seasons.  They ended up with running out three so-so coaches (Bob Davie, Willingham, and Charlie Weis), shelling out lots of cash, enduring monumental embarrassments, and nearly causing irreparable damage to their credibility (as a football team and an academic institution)before they came to their senses and realized that they are what their record says they are:  a good team but not a championship one. 

And this is a school that's got buckets of  money and first class facilities.

So, don't think that you're going to hire the next Jimbo Fisher and tear up the ACC Coastal next year, or the next five years, or be in any position to compete for a BCS slot before the end of the coming decade.  It's not gonna happen.  Florida will just reload next year with a bangin' recruiting class.  FSU and Virginia Tech will be the only two teams that matter in the ACC (again), with Carolina, Maryland, NC State, and Ga. Tech continuing to build and get better.  The other Florida schools are ascending to prominence fast.  It's only gonna get worse before it gets better.

Every team at some point goes through a nadir of sorts.  Nebraska seems to have come out of theirs.  Notre Dame probably have turned the corner, but they're nothing close to where they were with Lou Holtz.  Tennessee will be good again, and Georgia will be back as well.  But until the Miami athletic department fixes the other things that's wrong with their program, you can only rightfully expect more mediocre seasons for years to come.

Miami is, at best, a middle-of-the-pack-team in a middle-of-the-pack conference.  Get used to it.

Come Fly the Fairer Skies: The TSA, Strip Searches, and You

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND FLY.

That's the message I'd like to send to all the people out there who have a problem with the methods the TSA is employing when searching passengers.  Just shut the hell up.

A common theme you'll find in this blog is my disdain for people and institutions that bitch and moan about 'rights' that do not exist, have little practical value, or are agitated for without any acknowledgement of their corresponding responsibilities.

The people still bellyaching about being searched at an airport are full of shit.  Just because some jackwad is chilling in first class doesn't mean that he isn't strapped with more than enough C4 to take out all the po' folks in coach.  You are not exempt just because you are in a hurry.  You should have planned ahead and walked out of your house with clean underwear.

None of these whiners gave a damn about Fatima's civil rights when she was getting strip-searched and finger-fucked in the terminal, with her two year-old watching in horror.  But some dude feels the need to yank off his little boy's T-shirt to prove he's not a Jr. Unibomber, and all of a sudden there's (yet another) call to arms to defend individual liberty?  Am I missing something here?  If little Mohammed can have a pipe bomb in his diaper bag, then why not little Timmy?

Last I checked, as with most things in America, the ability to use commercial aircraft to travel is a PRIVILEGE and not a right; it is an entity regulated by and at the discretion of the government.  When you buy an airline ticket, when you walk inside that terminal, you agree to their rules.  If you have a problem with any of those rules, then you are free to utilize any other form of transportation that suits your comfort.  Hell, you can motherfucking walk for all I care.  You don't have to fly.  But when you do, you have to play by the same rules as Fatima, Tyrone, El-Habib (hock, spit) Shabazz and everybody else you find suspect. 

Equal justice under the law.  What a concept.

You should know that it also pisses me off to see people misuse the Constitution in order to prop up their arguments.  Thus, for all you wannabe constitutional scholars out there, this is NOT a Fourth Amendment issue.  First, the amendment protects individuals against unreasonable search and seizures; that is correct.  However, in this day and age, it is not unreasonable anymore to assume that anybody can walk onboard a plane and light a fuse in his Florsheims. 

Second, the point of the amendment was that government can't stop you in the middle of the street and search you without cause (like in Arizona, if you look Hispanic enough), nor can they do so at your house.  But when you are in a public setting, where the safety of the majority outweighs the convenience of the few, probable cause is already inherent by precedent, so the provisions of the 4th don't apply.  It may apply if you were flying your own plane or driving your own car.  But when you're going Greyhound, not so much. 

And third, nothing in the Constitution precludes the government's prerogative to curtail the provisions of its amendments as it sees fit.  If you step inside a federal building, you can be searched.  Before you enter a military installation (without the proper credentials), you WILL be searched.  And they let you know from the jump that they couldn't care less about what you think your rights are (note those locked and loaded M-16 riles in your face) because, most likely, you don't have to be there.  And the people who aren't required to be there shouldn't feel entitled to less scrutiny than those who are.

Same thing with the airports.  National security trumps individual liberty every time.

So the way I see it, the people who cry the most about what the TSA is doing are the ones who think they're too good to be searched in the first place.  It's cool when someone who 'fits the description' goes through the ringer, but if an examiner 'touches my junk,' then there's hell to pay.  Boo fucking hoo, motherfucker.  Everybody who flies today and for the foreseeable future is a potential hijacker, terrorist, or assassin, and like it or not, we all fit the description.  You're not mad because your liberties are being trampled on; you're just pissed that you have to be lumped in with everybody else.   Grow up.  Better to endure a few moments of indignity than to have your family be told on the news that you got blown apart because someone missed that blue-haired grandma sitting next to you, as she took you and 200 others out by adjusting her pacemaker.

All the brouhaha about TSA searches is just another case of people calling some rule unfair simply because they don't like it.  Too bad.  Most of us are going to be inconvenienced at some point, and nobody wants to feel violated in any sense of the word.  But for the time being, we all have to live with these rules; not because the majority thinks they're fair, but because the people ultimately responsible for our collective safety believe those rules are RIGHT.  And if you're going to be among the thousands of people flying commercial aircraft everyday, then it stands to reason that at some point, you're gonna get poked and prodded. And be pissed off just like everyone else. 

And besides, it's only fair.