Changing the Apple: A Lesson from Dr. Harris-Perry

After seven years of membership with the National Black Graduate Student Association, serving as the Assistant Director and Acting Director of the Bruce D. Nesbitt African Cultural Center for seven years, and traveling all across the country to academic and professional conference, this weekend I heard the most phenomenal speaker I had ever heard in my entire life. I have been blessed to sit in the audience, ask questions, and shake the hand of Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, Dr. Cornell West, Spike Lee, Afena Shakur, Sapphire, and many more. Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry gave me the greatest gift on Thursday, March 10th, 2011. She stood in front of a crowd of over 200 African American faculty, recruiters, undergraduate, and graduate students and challenged us to use the information that she was sharing to think beyond that which we might have been able to imagine. Dr. Harris-Perry is a teacher in every sense of the word.



After the first five minutes of Dr. Harris-Perry’s talk, people began to scramble for a pen and paper. With the advancements of technology, I no longer had to scramble as I pulled out my IPhone4 to jot down interesting points using my notes application. The only thing I regret about using the notes application instead of the camera was my desire to go back and hear again the thoughts that she shared with us. Dr. Harris-Perry has a brilliant mind that a budding scholar aspires to touch, hear, and see with their own eyes. As I listened to her speak, I thought about Maya Angelou’s ability to make ordering coffee sound poetic, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson’s ability to articulate the hip hop moment in a way that makes white conservatives refer to it as art, Bernard Stanley Hoyes’ ability to paint a canvas with the most vibrant and vivid colors found on a palette, and Sister Harriet Tubman’s ability to think beyond her own freedom as she continued to return to free hundreds of slaves. Dr. Harris-Perry is a scholar as I define; S equals Scholarship, C equals Class, H equals Honesty, O equals Omnipresent, L equals Learned, A equals Accomplished, and R equals Respect.



My aim is to become a sport studies scholar, and most often I hear the media, academics, and friends unable to relate to my desire to begin the world looking differently at the African American male athlete. Dr. Harris-Perry had me at hello and mesmerized me when she began to insert sport analogies into her talk. Challenging the audience members to consider the connection of Michael Vick’s relationship with dog fighting to the use of dogs upon Black American’s during the Civil Right Movement. Not using our historical connection to dogs as an excuse for his actions, Dr. Harris-Perry simply offers a perspective on how African American people have a “different” relationship with dogs. She also presents the audience with a look at the statistical possibilities of career choices for African American male athletes. Only, she does not argue against their pursuit of a professional athletic career, she offers that the delusional thought that our children should aspire to be the President of the United States over professional athletics is statically inaccurate. These two analogies created a new research spark in my brain, and I suspect that I will be quoting Dr. Harris-Perry as I drawn on her two critical inquiries.



I have felt cheated throughout my academic career. It is my opinion, that teachers, instructors, and professors have become lackadaisical in the area of educating. My educational process has consisted of the teacher/instructor standing in front of the class reading directly from PowerPoint slides, while offering no additional thought provoking information during the lecture. This process does not consist of any intellectual dialogue and mired with the expectation that we educate ourselves without any further knowledge of where this information is located. Dr. Harris-Perry reminded me that there are instructors who still believe in “teaching” young people to think critically beyond the information that she has within herself. Her willingness to share the knowledge and expose her intellectual thinking processes was something I have not encountered in some time. She reminded me that teaching is about sharing the knowledge and information that you have and empowering those who will listen to engage in that knowledge to expand their horizons. These two examples from her talk are only a peep at the information she shared with us, so I hope that you might do more research on her as I plan to gain more from her teachings.



In a nutshell, I am Dr. Harris-Perry’s new BIGGEST Fan! I want to transfer to Tulane to take her course. I want to search the internet for any glimpse of information that she has shared. I want to make a daily check of her website hoping that she has bestowed new and refreshing information about the world that we live. I immediately downloaded her book Barbershops, Bibles, and BET onto my IPad and began reading the text upon the close of the conference day. Thank you, Dr. Harris-Perry, for restoring and renewing my dedication to my personal education and the work that I declare to produce in the future.

Betting the Odds: The REAL Michael Oher Story

Thanks to my IPad and Amazon, my pre-ordered book "I Beat the Odds" arrived as promised on Tuesday, February 8th.  After viewing the film The Blind Side and reading Michael Lewis' The Blind Side, I was anxious to finally hear Michael Oher's side of this amazing story.  I harbor deep feelings about sport films, so it was not uncommon for me to do further research on the accuracy of the story that was told on the movie screen. It is critically important that we begin to become more interested in the complete story when supporting movies that protray real stories. 




I have to disagree with Joy Behar, as she stated on the The View that "The movie was pretty accurate".  I argue that as surface level as movies come, this movie was only accurate in accordance with that form.  If you were inspired or even simply found the story compelling, you MUST read I Beat the Odds to obtain the full accuracy of Michael Oher's story.  It is clear, from his own words, that the movie painted the picture of the "Great White Hope" storyline that is so common in films sharing the success stories of African American men, especially athletes.  If I was not a Sandra Bullock fan, I probably would have bypassed this movie as I suspected that the African Americans in the film would be painted as "The bad guys".  Unfortunately, I was correct with the exception of the single tender moment that was shared between the movie portral of Leanne and Michael's mother. 

As I am in the process of writing a book review that compares the 3 difference versions of Michael Oher's story, I will not use this space to share those thoughts.  I did want use this vehicle to encourage those who watched the film, plan to watch the film, or simply find this an interesting story to take the time to read the Michael Oher version. 

Eagles Players Pledge to Protect Young Boy

With all of the attention surrounding social networking and recruiting, I thought this story was a refreshing break from all the drama of life in sports.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to watch the segment of The View, where 3 Philadelphia Eagles players stepped up to acknowledge the awful ordeal that Nadine has endured and show their support for him in the future. It is clear that Nadine has a supportive family (Father, Mother, and Sister), but it never hurts to feel the amount of love that was shown to him by the Eagles players. They showed up today, in a big way, for this young man and this is why I LOVE ATHLETIC STARDOM!! People can say what they want to about athletes, but most of them take the time to use their celebrity for good and not evil!

As reported by The View hosts, these players rearranged their personal schedules in order to be present for this young man today. I imagine that the relationship that was developed today on the show is something that he will never forget. As he watched the players walk into the room, it was clearly a dream that was so unimaginable to him it brought tears to his eyes. On top of the emotion that his reaction brought to everyone in the room, even stone faced Whoopi, DeSean Jackson goes above and beyond consistantly putting his arms around the young man to assure he was ok! They declared on national television that they consider this young man apart of their family, and made it official when DeSean took the jersey off his back and signed it for Nadine. Topping off this generous act, the players declared to the young man that if he ever found himself in trouble again that they would be there to support him! I hope no one is crazy enough to mess with him again, because The View women even weighed in on this, and who wants to hear their mouths when it hits the fan!

This story has inspired me to keep a database of "Athletes Caught Being Good"! When I was in middle school, we had "Caught Being Good" awards from our teachers at the end of the week. Our C.B.G. awards were so impactful in my life that I am glad to use this to honor Edison Middle School for noticing that being good is a choice! It is easy for us to focus on the bad things, where the good things seem to just pass us by. I will be sure to upload any stories that I find. If you know of any please share them with me also!

In the words of the acclaimed Whoopi Goldberg and sometimes Barbara Walters.... "Take a little time to enjoy The View"!