America Hates Duke Because… ????

BobLee
March16/ 2013

Silly me. I thought America hated Duke because ….. (1) Coach K cusses…. or (2) the New Jersey “thing”….. or (3) because Dick Vitale loves them….. or (4) just because. None of the above according to a much circulated article this week – America “hates Duke” because they are too successful….. and…. THEY ARE TOO WHITE !! Holy Christian – Redick – Collins – Giminski – Bilas – WoJo – Hurley – Scheyer – Singler – Plumlee, …… WHOA!

BobLee will kick over a outhouse as with his recent “Is Dean Going To Hell?” column; but often assigns me “a hot potato”. Ergo Duke’s “too whiteness” ended up in my In Box.

Two of my growin’ up chums – Coby and Leo – matriculated at Duke as did Raleigh’s #1 Limo Liberal aka “the eeeevil Jim Goodmon”. I can’t speak for Jimmy G but I know Coby and Leo came from an environment waaaay different than the mean streets of Newark or the gated estates of Upper Saddle River. Neither drove a BMW nor did either live off any “trust fund”. Both were Methodists, not Jewish, but I don’t think Duke’s former nickname of “Methodist Flats” had anything to do with their choice of a college. Maybe my stereotypes of “a Dookie” were skewed by Coby and Leo.

This week’s column from some guy – Mark Lynch (a Duke alum) discussed all the convenient Duke stereotypes and added a few new looloos. Unfortunately Lynch’s column is on a subscriber-only website – so I can’t link you to it.

To stereotypes….. BobLee is a UNC alum yet he is a crazy right-wing fanatic and quite heterosexual. Most (but not all) of his UNC pals are too. Of his many NC State friends, none drive tractors nor (admit to) have sex with domesticated farm animals. His Wake Forest pals all dance. But….. we are to believe that the multi-layered Duke stereotypes are authentic ???

This Mark Lynch’s treatise says America’s universal hatred of Duke is akin to why the 3rd world hates America…… America is perceived as (1) Too successful…. (2) Too arrogant about its success and….. (3) Too White.

I’m confused as to who is this America that hates Duke. ….. Are Duke-haters like fanatical Islam or genocidal Sudanese or Dennis Rodman’s pals in North Korea? Isn’t being hated by those factions “a good thing”?

I’m a white American who seeks and applauds success. I’m white and live my life in a white-centric world. I am on record as disapproving of arrogance particularly if it is unwarranted (as in based on some faux-contrived “Way” !!).

Would an analysis of Duke’s basketball success over the past 50 years reveal that a higher % of their premier players have been of the Caucasian persuasion? A higher % than the national average. Are such records kept?

I listed a roster of Caucasian Blue Devils above that are familiar to any college basketball fan. Of Duke’s non-Caucasian players, several were “light-skinned” which might add to a visual perception of “whiteness” – Grant Hill, Trajan Langdon, Jason Capel, Johnny Dawkins, Shane Battier, Seth Curry.

Do Duke critics think Coach K uses a PMS wheel to measure a recruit’s epidermal suitability to “be a Dookie”? Like a Cary HOA inspector approving mailbox colors ??? Jalen Rose suggested such a year or so ago despite Duke aggressively recruiting his Fab Five teammate Chris Webber.

Would Duke be less hated if their roster contained more Mandingo Warriors? Do American Duke haters have a decided preference for Mandingo Warriors?

If Duke does have a recruiting quota system how does that equate with their supposed connection with Dick Vitale who has been the #1 cheerleader for “urban basketballers” for the past 25 years?

Beyond basketball, Duke’s overall student body has morphed over the past 15-20 years into an Epcot-esque rainbow campus. I’d wager Duke has more undergraduates students enrolled today from Mumbai than it does from Raleigh. My pals Coby & Leo would be decidedly in the minority on the West Derm campus in 2013. When the camera pans the Cameron Crazies I expect to hear “It’s A Small World After All”.

“Rich white boys” have a unique place in Duke history as chronicled by BobLee’s coverage of the Duke Lacrosse Case. Did those Gang of 88 Duke faculty potbangers hate Duke for “being too white”? I got the impression those goggle-eyed ideological nutjobs simply hated humanity in general including themselves.

Was Duke’s Too Whiteness burned into the American psyche when they dueled UNLV in the early 90s? Laettner, Hurley and the beige Grant Hill versus Tark’s MandingoGang.

Is it all embodied in Christian Laettner stomping Kentucky then doing a “crazy white boy dance” when he hit that famous buzzer-beater. The same “ain’t got no rhythm” that Tyler Hansbrough revealed after one of his buzzer-beaters? Some white boys can dunk…. but apparently very few can do an impromptu victory dance.

Attend any ACC game… heck, attend any SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, Pac 12…. attend ANY “big time” college basketball game in America and the arena will be decidedly Caucasian. If you removed the cadre of player parents behind the benches…. NCAA arenas are as white as a Yale Skull & Bones reunion…… Is THIS the America that hates Duke for being “too white”?

How much Duke-hate is from 25+ years of Duke being in so many big games on big stages and the admittedly intense ferret-face of Mike Krzyzewski being so prominent. Other than his infamous sideline language what in this man’s career resume merits his being so reviled? If Mike Krzyzewski was your coach with his record of success would you overlook his South Chicago vocabulary?

I get why rivalry emotions are so intense at Ground Zero of Tobacco Road. But for it to apparently be prominent across the country is “interesting”. I thought God invented Stanford so West Coasters would have “their own Duke” to hate?

If I were a Dookie I think I would simply laugh and say “bring it on”. ……. Which may be the REAL REASON for the “hate”.

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