The Carolina Tribe, with fresh painted faces, are pounding their chests, banging their drums and lighting fires on Franklin Street to celebrate another run for the NCAA basketball championship. Fun times. Meanwhile I’m reading about our favorite Business 101 professor who offers a great math replacement class at UNC. Is his class legit? Sure. Has he been on our curricular soft spot list for years? Sure. We ‘used’ Professor Skender whenever we needed a substitute for Math (lots of athletes received exemptions from the regular math requirement), and he could be counted on to pass everybody. Who cares? Clearly not the NCAA, UNC Admin. or the lovers of the game. They continue to ignore what’s right in front of their face - the truth, my friends, is in the transcripts. More importantly, the athletes continue to get ripped off by coaches, athletic directors and old white guys in Indy making millions off of their backs. You’ll be able to see all of them (and most likely the Provost and Vice Provost for Admissions) tonight in the stands.
The comment section of Mr. Powell’s piece in the Saturday NY Times are all too familiar. Some continue to deny with venom what will eventually be transparent - ALL of the transcripts (de-identified of course). With our continued silence, we remain complicit - parents, coaches, school leaders, politicians and the students themselves. The athletes should have a sit in on the hardwood floor before the game today and demand to be heard. Imagine the impact!
We together need to make intentional decisions to fix the problems that we face as a nation. I believe that it’s as easy as telling the truth. Let’s see what’s in front of our faces. And let’s call it what it is. Are they really students? Watch tonight and realize that they’ve been out of school for close to a month as the semester is winding down. They’ve missed several weeks of a fifteen week semester. It’s the adults who are failing the students. Our collective racism perpetuates one more system - college sport - that keeps black males out of our economy. The contagion has clearly spread to the B-School (shame on them) where curricular soft spots are popping up like the air bubbles on Domino’s pizza crust. Let championship game day begin. The tribe is hungry to hang…..a new banner in the rafters.
Go Heels!
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