About six weeks or so ago, WCHL 97.9FM in Chapel Hill aired a lengthy interview with Dr Deborah Stroman – Chairperson of The UNC Black Faculty & Staff Caucus. The subject was The Great Unpleasantness. Dr Stroman was insistent that the scandal was “racist” and being driven by deep-seated racial discrimination towards AfAm students-athletes and faculty. I listened to her comments with sincere interest.
Deborah Stroman is “an AfAm hammer” who sees pretty much everything as “a racist nail”. There’s A LOT of that sorta thinking goin’ round these days.
That said. I agreed with certain aspects of her argument. I questioned her conclusions on other aspects. I was curious to know more. I invited Dr Deborah Stroman via email to “just have lunch” (my treat) to further discuss. Alas. “Just lunch” never happened. ….. sigh, sob, sniff.
Dr Deborah Stroman was a basketball player of some renown at UVa. She is now a professor in the UNC Sports Sciences Dept. She has Ph.D and a CLU. I don’t know what “a CLU” is unless it is one of those Insurance underwriter things. I’m not too sure what “Sports Sciences” is/are either. She has a wheelbarrow full of other impressive academic fallderall. She is current Chair of the UNC Black Faculty & Staff Caucus. That Caucus is “a box of AfAm hammers who see…… ”
I introduced myself and revealed my credentials as “an Internet Legend”. I provided personal references with several key officials at UNC to assuage any hesitations that I was “just some crazy board monkey”. I didn’t list “call me Dickie”; but I did use BubbaTheRealAD, former Chanc Thorp, and several other luminaries I felt she might trust.
I further offered to not only buy her lunch but several of her colleagues’ if their presence would amp up the comfort factor. I suggested well-known Franklin St eatery – 411. Whether or not Tessio or Clemenceau could pre-tape a revolver behind the toilet was never a consideration. (It’s a Godfather reference, Albert. Look it up.)
At that point I actually “thought it would happen”. I had no motive other than to better understand Dr. Stroman’s point-of-view. She is a former AfAm student-athlete and has a CLU (?). She obviously has a different perspective than I do. Different perspectives can be a solid foundation for correct conclusions.
The first four emails went unanswered but #5 finally got a response. She realized I was persistent and blowing me off was the only way I was going to go away. She was correct.
Dr. Stroman formally declined my offer to buy her and her colleagues lunch to discuss her perspective on The Great Unpleasantness. Because, in her own words:
“….. I have many priorities in front of me, in particular, my students.”
I was both crestfallen and dismayed. I had never set a specific date. I was intrigued that the priorities she was facing were preventing her from having daily lunches. Her students were / are fortunate to have such a dedicated professor.
I thanked her for her polite reply and accepted my fate. No Lunch but “a Killer Column”!
Several days later I mentioned my ill-fated quest to a prominent UNC staffer. Staffer just grinned. “BL, how much do you know about Deborah Stroman?”
I recounted what I described above. UVa Basketballer of note….. UNC Faculty Black Caucus…. et al…. and the passion in her radio interview.
Staffer kept grinning. “BobLee, she’s a major “itch” with a “B”. No way in Hell she would EVER meet with YOU.”
OUCH & OUCH some more. Moi?
Perplexed. I decided to check with several other UNC faculty / staff / Franklin Street habitués of long-standing. Sho’ nuff. Dr Debbie Stroman has carved out quite a “rep” for herself ‘round Chapel Hill, unbeknownst to me. Not exactly Mary Poppins or Miss Manners if you get my drift. A for-real “razor-totin’ woooman”. Whoa!
I, your humble cyber scribe, had been given The Honky Shuffle. I knew about The Honky Shuffle of course, but had been so excited about comparing notes on The Great Unpleasantness with Dr Deborah Stroman that I never saw it coming.
The Honky Shuffle is a media management tactic often employed by AfAm race-baiters and pointy-teethed AfAm activists. They only make themselves available to members of Reparational Journalists R Us and/or “Cau
c” media they know they can intimidate. Such as WCHL, McClatchy and Jim Goodmon’s bunch at WRAL for example. His Imminence BullyBarber is a Certified Grand Master of the technique.
I don’t hold credentials with any of those, so I was not going to get to chat with Dr. Deborah Stroman no way – no how. Phooey and Gosh Darn.
I really DO agree with much of her “it’s racist” screed. My interest would have been how so many college-age AfAm athletes can get high school diplomas with deficient skills in the basics of education. At what level of public education does this wholesale “social promotion for AfAm jocks” begin? Can the cycle be corrected? How?
And…. that old favorite question that so many of us “honkys” have. What da heck does one do with a degree in AfAm Studies?
I’ve decided that one is like “why do gals always go to the powder room in pairs?” You gotta be “one of’em” to know the answer.
There’s one more question I always ask anyone I converse with that I perceive is a sincere advocate for resolving the ever-widening racial divide in America.
Accepting that the racial strife in America is intensifying especially over the past five years….. going back to the implementing of the Civil Rights Act in the late 60s…. WHAT might we, as a nation, black & white, have done differently to have not come to where we find ourselves now?
I’ve asked three hard-core black activists that question and received the same blank stares in reply. I guess I’ll never know how Dr Deborah “Don’t Do Lunch” Stroman – Chair of The UNC Black Faculty & Staff Caucus might have responded.
Really Dr. Deborah, it was “just lunch”. Sigh, sob, sniff.
PS: What do I think about the most recent Mary Willingham vs The Experts Wrestle-Mania? I don’t have an opinion, since I know NADA about such testing procedures. If you do know about’em your opinion is more valuable than mine.
If you simply believe or don’t believe based on your pre-determined guilt or innocence of the “Perp” aka UNC; then the needle really hasn’t moved, has it? And likely isn’t ever going to.
