When you expect someone to be incompetent and ultra-biased then it is nearly impossible for that person’s views or actions to cause a surprise. Therefore, when you consider that the N&O’s resident racist (Barry Saunders) found a way to reach new levels of incompetence and bias today then you wonder what is next out there.
For a little back drop, you need to be aware that the News & Observer’s Barry Saunders took the time to criticize NC State’s administration for not wanting to interview minorities during the Wolfpack’s search for a basketball coach back in April.
Then, NC State became the first athletics program in the Triangle to hire a minority to lead one of its primary sports and Saunders curiously disappeared without a peep after being so interested in the topic just days before. All you need to do is click here for 60 seconds to see the situation summarized for you.
Lest we wait no more, Wolfpackers!!! We finally have acknowledgement from brother Saunders that Sidney Lowe is black!!! And this is a good thing!!!
The crazy part about what you are about to read is that Saunders’ comments about Sidney Lowe come in the middle of an article complimenting UNC-CH for hiring a white guy named Butch after conducting a football search where no minorities were interviewed or considered for the job!
You think that this is too ridiculous to be true? Read for yourself how wonderful Carolina is for hiring a guy named Butch is 12.5% Cherokee Indian!!
This is not a joke. Evidently being 100% black isn’t as good for the race police as being 12.5% Native American. Who knew!? I learn something every day.
As a poster on a message board accurately summarized this craziness as follows:
Saunders blasts State for not interviewing minorities. State hires a minority (the 1st BBall or FBall at a triangle university). Saunders doesn’t make a big deal over State doing what he said we wouldn’t do. Carolina has a coaching search and doesn’t interview a minority but no word from Saunders. Carolina hires a white guy and Saunders writes an article that it is great that Carolina hires someone has relatives that were minority and finally mentions in passing that State hired a minority.
SFN could care less if Carolina tcontinues block access to minorities for the University’s leadership positions. But it was Barry Saunders that chose to make this issue a hot-buttom when he prematurely criticized NC State’s basketball search in April. So, it should come as no surprise that (in Barry Saunders’ world) it makes great sense to therefore praise UNC-CH for such a gutsy move with their 1/16th Native American. Don’t you get it?
I don’t either. Neither does this fantastic piece focusing on the same topic. Blog on, brother Sanders. (Not to be confused with ‘Saunders’)
Post-Script: Two follow-up comments from our readers that needed to be elevated here:
(1)
Lots of funny stuff here in addition to the hypocrisy:“Davis, after his introduction, told me that his great-grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee and his grandfather was half-Cherokee.â€
Butch’s ciphering abilities are going to fit right in at the flagship.
“Actually, Butch is Native American,†Baddour said. “He’s got a card in his wallet that identifies him.â€
UNC is now the only school in the country that has a documented minority hire for a head coaching postion.
For those that don’t know, Saunders son is a highly recruited tight end out of Durham Riverside. He remains uncommitted but everyone knows he is going to UNC and would have even if they had hired David Duke.
(2)
By the way, the infamous ‘roll’ Davis refers to was originally based on brief interviews conducted by government-appointed agents at the turn of the century. The primary criteria was how Native American each person looked to a white guy sitting at a little folding table in a tent in the middle of a field in Oklahoma. Recent DNA results have shown that the average person walking down the street in New York City has as much Native American blood as anyone on the rolls. In fact, plans to settle once and for all Cherokee ancestry questions with DNA testing have been shelved and are the source of court proceedings for this very reason.None of this is to imply that Davis should not be rightly proud of his heritage. It is only to state that Barry Saunders, along with much of what passes for ‘academia’ over in Chapel Hill, are as out of touch and clueless as we could hope them to be.
