How to race-bait with plausible deniability, the Barry Saunders way

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:40 AM

Ever since Sidney Lowe was named head basketball coach at N.C. State University, scores of gloating Wolfpack fans have written or called me, touting the university's open-mindedness. ...

Simply because I wrote recently wondering why State standout Dereck Whittenburg didn't get a whiff of an interview for the coaching job, some less-than-discerning readers took that to mean that I was saying Lee Fowler was a racist who'd never hire a black coach. ...

I never wrote such tripe ... Fowler has been an honorable fellow -- a gentleman, even -- each time we've spoken. I've never seen anything from him that would make someone say race colors his decision-making.

Merciful heavens, whatever would cause people to make such mean accusations against the poor ole beleaguered columnist? Perhaps it was this previous column:

When I called him this week to find out whether Whittenburg was in the running, Fowler said, "All I will say is that he is on a long, huge list, but I won't discuss anything having to do with the process."

Now that two more BrylCreemed, Armani-clad coaches have rejected the Pack, that "long, huge list" is being whittled down. Whittenburg might soon be the only coach who hasn't been offered the job. ...

Decades ago, when the Republican Party was trying to show how racially progressive it was, just about every presidential candidate declared that Sen. Edward W. Brooke was on his short list for a running mate.

Only problem was, Brooke laughed years later, the list never got that short.

Brooke, the first black U.S. senator since Reconstruction, knew that he had about as much chance of being asked to run for vice president as I do now and that his name was being floated merely to make the GOP appear more inclusive.

He wasn't offered the job because they knew he might've accepted it. That is precisely the reason Fowler isn't offering the Pack job to Whittenburg.

No, no, Wolfpack fans. Barry Saunders didn't say Fowler was a racist who would never hire a black man. He implied that Fowler was like the GOP decades ago, but you readers have to be the ones who infer racism on the part of the GOP to infer racism on the part of Fowler. It's a way to have fun with enthymemes and liberal white guilt. Plus who else gets to bash Republicans during a college basketball coach search, really?

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