Okay, I’ve gotten some interesting notes from readers after this Carolina piece (see last update). So, it seems on time to let you peep a few of these, and maybe a couple from the past. My computer ate some of yesteryear’s classics, but these should still be fun.

Most of the joints I received were really nice and almost humbling. Even the State fans were okay with my reference to them, which was a bit mean, I must say. But most people appreciated the attempt to humanize these cats, and I’m glad folks recognized that was the goal. Andy from Chapel Hill says…
Mr. Jones,
I’m a Chapel Hill native and live just off of Franklin St. This was an incredible weekend. The Final Four, the big win, the celebration, the seniors, Roy, etc… Our town just had it’s biggest party ever, a very surreal moment really. This is why I loved your article so much. You present a truly down to earth, real, and refreshing perspective to all of this. It’s nice that you see (by “you see” I mean my opinion of what I think you see) these players for what they are. People.
Cheers
Andy
(Also, “cheers” is the salutation of choice ’round these parts. My attempts to start the “be easy” revolution have been thwarted.)
Toby got more of an education of his future than he bargained for when he logged on to ESPN.
Hey,
Great article on Espn about the scene at UNC… I’m starting as a PhD
student there in the fall. Is it really that bad (i.e. “miserable…
prison”)?
i’m simultaneously encouraged and scared by your article… but i’m
ecstatic to join the legions of Heels fans. And good to see that even
as a Ph.D. student, you’ve got enough time to write and check out
games. Is that right? Any advice for an incoming grad student? Now,
to start learning to hate Duke.
Thanks
Toby
Welcome to the Terrordome, Toby. I wish I could warn him, but there is nothing you can say to an incoming grad student to let him know what’s about to go down. Think God could have let Noah how bad the weather was really gonna be?
Two guys let me know that there was another time when students were down near the floor at the Dean Dome. This is from Alan, and I thank him for letting know I was off without being an asshole about it.
I read your article on ESPN.com and really appreciated it. Thank you. By the way, there was one other time when student got lower level seats in recent memory. the “snow game” of 27 Jan 2000:
“And then there was the memorable “snow game,” as the Heels hosted the Terps on Jan. 27, 2000, behind a raucous student-led crowd. Snow and ice blanketed the Triangle on that evening, and when the lower levels were sparsely populated several minutes into the game, ushers allowed the crowd to begin to fill in the unused seats. The outcome? Carolina captured a 75-63 victory, stopping a four-game losing streak and capturing a key Atlantic Coast Conference win.”
I can only imagine.
We’ve also got Anthony, who I think read an unauthorized remix of my joint. Gotta find out what he was reading…
Bomani,
I just read your article and it made me wonder what your motivation for writing it. What was your purpose? It sounds like a put down, a diss to Manual and Noel or better yet any big time college athlete who may not go to the next level. In all honestly, you sound a little jealous of the status of the athletes. It’s almost like your glad to see them go to normal lives after college instead of “lottery pick” status. Everyone can’t be the “Big Man” on campus. Everyone can’t obtain a PhD at Carolina. Everyone has a role. Not everyone defines success as playing in the NBA or NFL after college. Most athletes move on to pretty decent professional careers and our on “big stages” in there own right. I’m sure what Jackie had to endure during his years at Carolina doesn’t compare to your struggle to receive your PhD, but I think it’s something that should be celebrated given the fact that they stuck together and received the ultimate prize at the end.
Whatever makes you feel good, pimpin. I asked him to read the piece over again. He’s yet to respond.
But the winner and undisputed championn is my man Ted Fort Gordon in Georgia. There is no lead-in.
Thanks for the article,
I eat, sleep and breathe Carolina Blue. I know it has made my daughter sick. She made the mistake of rooting for Duke and I put her out of the house until she realized that I was serious and that since my mom started cheering for Carolina in 1972 that’s all my family have known, she’s in BLUE heaven looking down smiling right now. I’m a soldier and I’d rather go back to Baghdad, Iraq than to watch Duke win a game. If they went winless, that’s still not good enough. There’s nothing like rooting for GOD’s team.
Ted
The only way to follow that one is by breaking out a year-old e-mail from a gentleman who read my piece on Marcus Dixon and really took it kinda hard. Once again, there’s no way I can prepare you for what’s coming. Just know that this e-mail was titled, “Racism is a two way street, brotha.”
OJ rewrote history when he not only banged, but cut
the head off a white bitch and a white dude AND GOT
AWAY WITH IT. Don’t give me that black guy can’t bang
a white girl garbage, because, as I saw it, black guys
can bang and kill white girls and it’s legal now.
I, as a whiteboy, did get my house shot up for banging
a black girl. Brandon Washington, a black guy from my
area, fired three shots at my bedroom window because
he didn’t like the fact that my white ass was having
relations with a hottie little black princess named
Heather.
My point: Quit it. We’ve ALL been discriminated
against and it’s never right. Don’t quit bringing up
issues of discrimination and trying to find
sympathizers (I probably misspelled that…). Don’t
quit asking for people to accept racial equality. We
should all want those things.
Just quit:
A) trying to make all whites feel guilty. Fuck you,
sir for this. It hurts and we’re sick of it. We
aren’t like our grandaddy’s, asshole.
and quit
B) acting like it’s not possible for a white man to
be hurt based on the color of his skin. Again, sir,
fuck you for your shortsighted bullshit pain
inflicting editorial.
Nothing against you personally, I really enjoyed the
article and you’re probably a good guy, but you are
the straw that has broken my back. I have a white
friend who still can’t breathe out of one nostril
based on a beating he took at the hands of about 30
black gentlemen. Why? Because we were at the wrong
party, flirting with black chicks. Kill the whiteboys
was the pharse of the moment. I ran like a bitch
because I was 16 and terrified. he did too, but they
caught him. He’s lucky to be alive. Fortunately some
really cool, really outstanding balck kids risked
their own asses to save him. Racism is ugly and it
applies even to us evil honkey devil motherfuckers
that spent their teenage years just trying to get
along with everyone.
I’m from North St. Louis county but I live in
whiteyville now (Far west of St. Louis where all the
white people go to feel safe). My brothers and
sisters in the hood didn’t want me anymore. They hurt
me until I ran away. So again, fuck you for your
shortsighted painful bullshit commentary.
Peace,
Matt
But just so you don’t think everyone that sends me something is a total wacko, I bring you this interesting one from Tom. Tom sent this after the Dixon piece, and I found this worthy of sharing. One of the amazing things about this job is how live through and identify with my words. They don’t know me, but they find something in these musings that they can hold on to, appreciate, and understand. The range of what those things are amazes me. Anyway, Matt picked up on something on some other shit. Tom picked up on something that really made me re-evaluate a little bit of how I see the world.
I’ll tell you about me. I’m a white male, my girlfriend is black.
Being in the North, my parents refuse to meet her or even accept her, but
I still pray that one day, maybe they will accept her.
Problem with my parents, they were raised in a diffrent era. They
tried to tell me that we were raised to be seperate, not to date someone of
another race because we’re different. The more they explained it, the
more bad they looked.
My sister and friends have been supportive.
My parents did use the “taboo” thing as well.
So you’ll get no hate mail from me over this.
And there are more in the archives…I’ll break some of those out on another day.
***
Column tomorrow, but I’m not too sure what it’s on. I’ll let you know, though.