Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Forget Imus. Let's talk about Essence Carson

And the rest of the Lady Scarlet Knights basketball team, who conducted themselves with dignity, poise and grace under pressure at today's press conference.
None more so than the captain Essence Carson, who showed why she's the captain.

In a blog post last year at Double A-Zone, she wrote:

"At Rutgers, academic excellence is understood to be a part of the norm. As road trips entail physical exhaustion and a mind that is so bogged down with the academic pressures of a professor, you fight to make it through each day. Will you settle for less - what we like to call mere crumbs - or will you strive to be atop the mountain? Every scholar-athlete understands the necessary time management skills that are needed to balance out the life of the scholar and of the athlete. So essentially, at the end of the day, our minds have endured a workout much more strenuous than that of any professional athlete. We are the nation’s 'professional scholars.'

I'm guessing that hundreds of thousands more people watched today's press conference than watched these women play basketball last Tuesday night. Maybe that and the lack of women and women of color coaching in Division I should become the real story here. Not to excuse Imus' remarks, but enough is enough already. Let's talk about the real story. Let's give these girls' the spotlight they should have had on their own.

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