Saunders—who performs the same role for the liberal-white-guilt-ridden News & Observer that hair shirts did for Catholic monks: inducing severe mortification for the sake of penance—is incredulous, this time about UNC-Chapel Hill’s apparently not knowing that new football coach was part Cherokee before they hired him. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. famously dreamed of a time when people would be judged not by race but by the content of their character, but Saunders would have none of that.

Here are some excerpts from Saunder’s latest silly cilicium; wait till you get to the praise of NC State:

UNC athletics director Dick Baddour said he didn’t even know that Butch Davis, the man officially introduced Monday as the new head football coach, was part American Indian “until we were well into the process” of interviewing him for the job.

Because Baddour was unaware of it, you know he was unaware that the hiring occurred in the same month that the university is celebrating American Indian Heritage Month. …

Davis’ hiring is momentous because it comes just months after N.C. State University hired Sidney Lowe as its head basketball coach [who is] an African-American …

Fans and alumni of both schools won’t care if Davis and Lowe are descended from the King of Siam if they don’t win. That’s as it should be.

Both of those men would probably be the first to say that nobody should get hired because of race or ethnicity, but neither should anyone be denied a chance because of those factors, either.

When Lee Fowler placed the call to Lowe, he undoubtedly knew of Lowe’s heritage.

Let’s not forget what Saunders wrote about Lee Fowler when he didn’t offer the job to named Derek Whittenburg, whose race was known to Saunders and Fowler and therefore, in Saunders’ mind, was decisive:

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.

In sum:

• When NC State doesn’t hire a black man: Why, that’s racism!

• When NC State does hire a black man: Hey, I never said race ought to influence the decision! Lee Fowler good man!

• When UNC-CH hires a good coach who’s part Cherokee: I can’t believe they didn’t have him check the little racial box before making the decision! What’s wrong with them?