Dog owner or not, you’re familiar with “Invisible Fences.” Gizmos planted around the perimeter of a yard activate another gizmo on a dog’s collar, zapping him if he should attempt to leave the yard. Dogs aren’t the only ones restricted by Invisible Fences…

The two primary adversaries in The Great Unpleasantness – UNCCH and The N&O – both wear gizmos. Both restricted by an ideological Invisible Fence. Institutional scandals make for strange bedfellows.

The Siege of The Old Well enters its fifth year. Where were you when Marvin hit SEND? New ingredients are continually added to this embarrassing “stew.” A WWE Battle RAW-O-mania where the combatants keep changing… except for Ma & Pa Kane’s son Dan.

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LITERARY ASIDE: The floundering N&O is in terminal “de-staffing” mode. Is Dan Kane like Ulysses’ wife – Penelope – in Homer’s Odyssey?

Waiting for hubby Ulysses to return from the Trojan War, Penelope fended off her suitors via a clever ruse involving her weaving a tapestry. Agreeing to choose a new husband “when I finish this tapestry,” Penelope would weave by day and un-weave by night, stalling thusly until Ulysses finally came home.

Is Dan Kane forestalling his inevitable N&O fate by continuing to reveal new aspects of UNC’s felonious flim-flamming… until he can find a job with an actual future? It’s a theory. Back to Invisible Fences.

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With all the multi-layers of this gooey mess, one aspect has been glaringly constant: the Invisible Fence that UNC and the N&O’s ideological hard-wiring won’t permit either to cross.

Neither UNC nor The N&O have the courage to mention that:

(1) All the athletes of questionable academic acumen are “black”;
and
(2) The center of academic shenanigans is AfAm Studies, headed by a black professor.

It’s like meeting Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA). All you see are his flaring nostrils. You, and Henry, know you’re staring at his nose; but you don’t dare mention it. The Invisible Fence.

UNC and N&O charge and counter charge, file injunctions, quote FOIA and FIRPA, deny and accuse, obfuscate and denigrate, and harrumph “everybody does it” til the cows come home… BUT better not bring up the “R” word – RACE.

UNC and N&O have both taken blood oaths to observe The Kunte Kinte Rule, also known as Reparation Academics and Reparation Journalism.

We can’t talk about THAT because… we just can’t. Seriously, we can’t. Because? We simply can’t (won’t) talk about THAT! is an enormous insult to Black America and a roadblock to educating young black student-athletes.

Suppose UNC’s scandal was, let’s say, a point-shaving accusation involving Tyler Hansbrough or Bryn Renner and the Faculty co-conspirator was, lets say, Dr Gerald Unks of the English Dept. …Is Dr Unks still on staff or still alive? He was very close to Carolina Basketball “back in the day.” Dr Unks is/was quite white.

How would a UNC Athletics Scandal be viewed and reviewed if it was “whitewashed”? All the perps of a Caucasian persuasion.

Before you fit me for a KKK robe… I’m NOT implying that black kids are (1) predisposed to bad behavior and/or (2) simply not all that smart. Those are absurd. Nor am I implying that AfAm Studies as an academic curriculum is as bogus as a four dollar bill… Or that Julius Nyang’oro is a graduate of the Al Sharpton School of Scam Whitey Because We Can.

There is an old joke about the NBA – Q: Why is 90% of bad behavior in the NBA committed by black players? A: Because 90% of players in the NBA are black.

It is impossible to discuss any “issues” with big time college football and/or men’s basketball without relevance to the FACT that 80-90% of the active scholarship participants are black… on campuses where “blacks” represent less than 8% of the undergraduate student population. A recent Daily Tar Heel investigative report confirmed that.

I have written of the ever-widening ethnic/cultural chasm between Gladiators and Spectators in college athletics… not just at UNC, but all across the “power conferences.” Two cultures with decidedly different characteristics.

Cultures are not “good” or “bad.” They are “different.” Cultural differences directly relate to frame of mind and how one sees oneself in one’s social environment. Hairstyles, clothing, body art, language, tastes in music, literature, movies… it’s all cultural choices.

Sit on a bench in UNC’s Big Fraternity Court. How many heads of “dreads” do you see walk out of frat houses on a Tuesday morning?

90% of the FB and BkB players are “black” and 95% of the faces in the stands, especially a certain Lower Level, are obviously not black…There are not enough “blacks” in The DDome’s Lower Level for Gladys Knight to recruit a back-up foursome of “Pips.”

Recall Roy’s NCAA Champions team of 2005. Every time Rashad McCants flashed his “diamond sign,” two dozen Lower Level matrons got a case of the vapors.

Liberal and Conservative alike should be curious why the vast majority of FB and BkB athletes being recruited by power conference schools are AfAm and have been for the past two decades, by an overwhelming %. The issue of lacking the academic wherewithal to do college level classwork has escalated along with that overwhelming trend.

Malcolm Gladwell has a theory in his best-seller Outliers.

Q1: Why are young AfAm athletes NOT receiving adequate academic preparation in “the basics” in American public education?????

Q2: When/Why do young black males cease being “little boys in school” and become marketable commodities culled from the herd and groomed for purposes other than being educated for a productive life in mainstream society?.. like Japanese Geishas or thoroughbred horses???

A: As soon as their athletic prowess is noted!!!

High school teachers pressured by coaches and administrators to be sure Billy BlueChip can play Friday night. Any coach that tells you his #1 priority is anything other than ”winning games” will lie to you about other things too. He may have other more altruistic objectives too, but “winning” is #1.

Does anyone really care that young black athletes “can’t read,” so long as they can dunk?

Eligibility Majors were around long before anyone had heard of Jennifer Wiley or Deborah Crowder.

Exploited for their entertainment value by a Bread & Circus-obsessed culture through high school, a year or so in college, maybe 3-4 years in the pros for a very select few. One marketable skill with a very limited shelf life. Discard ‘em when they break or wear out. Illiterate, concussed and limping… on the other side of The Invisible Fence.

Wouldn’t THAT investigation sell papers for the reader-starved N&O?

Wouldn’t a “world-class” academic research institution find THAT worth “researching”?

The N&O and UNC both boast about how “diversity-conscious” they are… BUT: Now, in the national spotlight, with an ideal opportunity to lead real reform, both UNC and The N&O lack the courage to cross The Invisible Fence.

Can we say UNC and The N&O both practice Limo-Diversity??

The N&O won’t even identify crime perpetrators by skin color or ethnicity, leading to the ridiculous the suspect was wearing a do-rag rule.

Until this issue is resolved, nothing is going to change at UNC.

Until society embraces this issue on a national level, nothing will change in big time college athletics.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

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