After your description of the piece, I choose not to read it.
I was hesitant to post this in the Elizabeth King Forum because I can see the discussion turning heated rather quickly.
How this guy draws a corellary between Duke fans and students being excited about getting the #2 PG in the nation and annointing him "The Great Black Hope" for Duke Basketball is beyond me and the fact that he is the ONLY person I've seen take this viewpoint yet closes the article with "One can only hope the media doesn't continue to cover this" is beyond me.
I didn't want to link it because I don't want to give this type of story any web traffic, but in order to facilitate discussion here it is:
http://dukechronicle.com/article/you-me-and-kyrie
After your description of the piece, I choose not to read it.
I read it. It's loaded with all sorts of mean spirited stereotyping of Durham and the people of the region, stereotyping which has been hanging around for years. The insular attitude demonstrated in judging others from the distance of never knowing any of those judged reminds me of two letters to the editor during my time at Duke. One appeared while I was an undergrad; the other some years later while I was a graduate student. Each expressed surprise that we have four distinct seasons in Durham, just as they had at home.
It's poorly written, weakly argued, and at best tangentially relevant. I'm a former Chronicle columnist (I've written some on race, not much about sports), so to me this looks like an effort that was rushed to print from the early outline stages. It lacks cohesion.
Also, while I'm not in Durham, I don't feel like the columnist is gauging the current temperature on/off campus in any meaningful way. It's as if he tried to hard to find some new and negative spin for the sake of doing so. Maybe the locals will confirm that his sentiment, whatever it is, seems to come out of nowhere.
If I were to guess, the sigh of relief from Duke fans comes not from Mr. Irving's race, but his high profile as a recruit and the position he plays. Closely related to that is Duke's string of almost-misses in recruiting other high school point guards in recent years, specifically John Wall. That the columnist fails to mention any of this rings particularly false.
I did and wished I had not wasted my time doing so.
uhhh...this article makes no sense.
I've seen high school work that was better organized and more persuassive than this essay. His statement that "black citizens of Durham who work for the university often work as Subway chef's and bus drivers" shows his own stereotypes and not the reality (particularly withn Duke Health services).
That was painful to read. Who has the over/under on unwarranted assumptions?
What a moron. There aren't enough obscenities to fully describe the kind of moron that he is.
banal.
I'd say poorly edited except that it seems unlikely that anyone edited it at all.
Last edited by johnb; 10-27-2009 at 03:26 PM. Reason: .
I made it this far...
Then stopped...Bird’s popularity really only resonated in Massachusetts and Indiana...
You know what the worst part about this terrible article was? It made me mad enough to actually mentally defend Tyler Hansdork! This was a real piece of you know what! I think we all could care less the color of Kyrie's skin what we do care about is he is a baller.
I read the article....as a student here I'm appaled that someone can think the things he does. using a numerous number of metrics, it is inherently clear that race means nothing in terms of the basketball team...we recruit good players, we cheer for good players....I pointed this out on the chronicles board also, but this year the loudest cheers are for kyle and jon..last year it was G, the year before it was d-mark...they only thing they had in common was being phenomenal players....not race, not religion....nothing
That is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in that rambling, incoherent article was there even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this forum is now dumber for having read it. I award the author no points, and may God have mercy on his soul.
I don't understand his point. Really.
Did he get drunk and write this at Shooter's? I'm confused.
Facts:
- Larry Bird is white
- Kobe, LeBron and Isiah are not
- Larry Bird won the 87 MVP
- All are iconic basketball figures
- The only one that comes close to being loved by the masses is LeBron (my opinion)
- Kyrie Irving, like Kobe, LeBron and Isiah, is African American
- Duke is in Durham
That covers what can be gleaned from this article. Otherwise the arguments made lack any sort of cohesiveness, and I'm 99% sure that the youngster has ventured no further than East Campus or Main St. in his time here in Durham.
Oh wait... I did forget one other fact from the article... Kyrie Irving cares nothing about what was written in this "piece". You shouldn't either.
WWJDD?
One time I was changing light fixture in a house I was remodeling. I thought I had thrown the circuit breaker, but I had thrown the wrong one. I got a strong dose of 110 current - I didn't just brush against the wires, I full on grabbed them (thinking the breaker had been thrown). That was worse than this article, but not by very much.
The thing that really upsets me is the fact that all of the hurtful things said about Duke and its student body (portrayed to be a group of rich, pampered white racists) during the lacrosse case are only reinforced by this article. I wish I had a chance to inform all who read this that this in no way reflects the feelings of the Duke community and student body. Why it was allowed to be punlished is beyond me.
On edit: I'm all for freedom of speech, but I do think something should be done to discipline this student in some way, or at the very least, discourage him from writing such tasteless articles in the future.
i encourage all of you to make your thoughts known on the comments section of this article on the chronicle website