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Black fatigue: a call for accountability, not accusation

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Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Written by J. Antoine Miner, Sr.

In today’s America, the term Black fatigue has evolved far beyond its original context. Initially coined to describe the emotional weariness experienced by Black Americans in the face of systemic racism, the term has taken on a new and controversial dimension. Increasingly, Black fatigue is being used to describe a growing frustration among both white conservatives and conservative Black Americans—though for very different reasons.
White Americans, especially those with traditional values or conservative viewpoints, are voicing exhaustion from being labeled racist or bigoted for expressing dissent from liberal talking points. Whether it's opposition to critical race theory in schools, concerns over crime, or support for law enforcement, their views are often instantly dismissed as rooted in hate. They are fatigued not by race itself, but by the constant accusation of racism for daring to think differently.
But perhaps more notably—and more painfully—conservative Black Americans are experiencing their own version of Black fatigue. And theirs is not directed outward. It is inward.
Many conservative and traditional Black voices are tired of the narrative that portrays Black America as perpetually oppressed, helpless, and devoid of agency. They’re weary of the cultural silence when it comes to addressing the internal issues plaguing our communities—issues like absentee fathers, rising drug use, spiraling youth violence, and the devastating toll of Black-on-Black crime.
It is exhausting to watch videos of young Black teens ransacking stores or engaging in brutal fights, only to have the blame redirected at vague notions of systemic injustice without ever confronting the destructive choices being made. Black fatigue, for these individuals, stems from watching the same cycle repeat itself while being told that any effort to promote accountability or traditional values is “anti-Black” or “respectability politics.”
I’m tired of watching our culture get hijacked by ignorance. We blame the system, but we’re glorifying thug life in our music, disrespecting education, and shaming anyone who tries to rise above it.
There’s a difference between acknowledging history and being held hostage by it. Many conservative Black Americans understand that racism exists, but they also believe it cannot be the scapegoat for every social ill. At some point, there must be room for tough love—where we confront our own failings with the same intensity we direct toward systemic critique.
This isn’t about shaming the Black community—it’s about loving it enough to demand more. More accountability. More responsibility. More leadership.
As Fayetteville continues to face its own challenges with youth crime, educational disparities, and economic instability, the conversation around Black fatigue must include more than blame. It must include solutions. That starts with honesty—about where we are, how we got here, and what we must do differently.
Black fatigue isn’t just real. It’s a warning. One that says if we don’t start changing the narrative from victimhood to victory, from reaction to responsibility, we will continue to wear ourselves—and our community—into the ground.

North Carolinians still make lots of stuff

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Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Written by John Hood

You’ve heard it as often as I have: “we don’t make things here anymore.” It reflects the widespread belief that domestic manufacturing and other goods-producing industries have cratered since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the mid-1990s and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001.
It’s a myth. The output of American manufacturing is higher than ever, even after adjusting for inflation. In our state, manufacturing output in dollar terms is higher today than it was in the 1990s, though it remains a bit lower than it was before the Great Recession of 2007-09.
Why is the myth so prevalent? Because it’s readily apparent that some manufacturers have shrunk, or disappeared entirely, and that has sometimes been the result of competition from abroad. What’s not so readily apparent is that other manufacturers have grown or been birthed during the same period.
Moreover, there really has been a decline since the 1990s in manufacturing employment. In 1997, some 800,000 North Carolinians held manufacturing jobs. Today, that number is about 460,000. The primary story here isn’t foreign competition driving manufacturers out of business. It’s the use of automation and other technology to make our manufacturing more efficient — producing more goods per hour of labor.
We’ve been through this before with another goods-producing industry: agriculture. When my great-grandparents were born, they and most other North Carolinians were agricultural laborers, either running family farms or working for other enterprises that grew, harvested, or processed food and fiber. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as new machinery, seeds, fertilizers, and agriculture techniques proliferated, farmers came to produce vastly more output for each unit of input. Carolinians then migrated from farm labor to manufacturing, construction, retail, and other professions.
Last year, North Carolina’s agriculture and forestry sectors produced $7.4 billion in economic output. As far as I can determine, that’s higher than ever before. Of course, our state is much more populous and developed than it was a century ago. Agriculture makes up a smaller share of our gross domestic product — and a much smaller share of employment — not because it has atrophied but simply because other sectors and occupations have grown faster.
Manufacturing exhibits the same pattern. The sector produced $108 billion worth of goods in North Carolina last year. That’s 24% higher than in 1997, adjusted for inflation.
Now, the composition of the sector certainly changed. The dollar value of non-durable manufacturing is lower. But durable-goods manufacturing has more than made up the difference. In dollar value, North Carolinians produce far more machinery ($8.6 billion worth), computers and electronics ($7.4 billion), fabricated metal products ($5.2 billion), vehicles and auto parts ($3.4 billion), and other transportation equipment ($4.6 billion) than we do textiles and apparel ($2.6 billion).
North Carolina firms produced $2.4 billion worth of furniture and wood products in 2023. That’s down 34% since 1997. In the same year, 2023, North Carolina firms produced $28.9 billion worth of chemicals, plastics, and rubber products. These are vastly larger industries in our state, and have been either holding their own or growing over time.
More broadly, goods-producing sectors in North Carolina — agriculture, manufacturing, resource extraction, and construction — had a total output last year of $159 billion. That’s up 23% in real terms since 1997. Why might one think otherwise? Because the output of private services rose still faster, more than doubling to $548 billion (government services comprise the rest of GDP).
As our employment base shifted toward services, did we get poorer? Not at all. Personal income averaged $64,855 per North Carolinian in 2024, up 48% in inflation-adjusted terms since 1997.
I’m not saying everything is hunky-dory. Federal, state, and local regulations make it costlier than necessary to farm, manufacture, mine, and build. And too many North Carolinians lack the skills required to perform these tasks. That’s a telling fact, though: in goods-producing industries, our current challenge isn’t a labor surplus. It’s a labor shortage.

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Jordon rules: A UNC love story for the ages

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Tuesday, 20 May 2025

Written by Pitt Dickey

Right now you are probably asking yourself: “Self, what would Shakespeare think about our modern-day Romeo and Juliet story of Bill Belichick and his lady love Jordon Hudson?” Shakespeare might say.
“What is so rare as a Jordon in June?”
The biggest news this Spring was not the appointment of a new Pope, but the elevation of Bill Belichick’s girlfriend to be the face of the UNC football program. Friends, Tar Heels, Countrymen, lend me your ears while UNC raises the price of football tickets at Kenan Stadium.
Tar Heel football is providing bread and circuses instead of gridiron greatness on a scale reminiscent of the most decadent stages of the late, great Roman Empire. Today’s column is a Shakespearean salute to Jordon Hudson, who has proved that love conquers all.
In a mangled version of Marc Antony’s funeral oration at Caesar’s passing, I come to praise Jordon, not to bury her. She may have come in third at the Maine Miss USA pageant behind the winner, Miss Bangor, but she remains number one in the hearts of Tar Heel fans everywhere. She has single-handedly made the Tar Heel football program the number one sports story. How do we love her? Let us count the ways. Her rise to prominence began with her December/May romance with our very own Coach Belichick. Coach is 73, Jordon is 24. A mere 49-year difference in ages is no barrier to true love.
Coach Bill was engaged in a TV interview when some CBS smarty pants talking head had the nerve to ask Bill how he and Jordon met. Jordon, sitting off-screen, interrupted and sternly announced: “We’re not talking about that.”
Coach Bill clammed up per Jordon’s orders. As Marc Antony said: “The evil that men do lives after them/ The good is oft interred with their bones.” How Bill and Jordon met remains more secure classified information than a Pete Hegseth text about a military attack on Houthis and the Blowfish.
Cry-babies in the sports media and Saturday Night Live assumed the top-secret nature of how our love birds met meant something nefarious was going on. How wrong can they be? Their initial meeting was likely at an innocent church picnic where Bill was grilling burgers and Jordon was teaching the children cheers and baton twirling. It is beyond churlish to presume otherwise. As Mr. Antony said: “O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts/ And men have lost their reason.” The sports world’s repugnant fascination with the story of Jordon and Bill defies all reason.
The next tiny little event that was blown way out of proportion was the fake news report on ESPN that our heroine Jordon had been barred from entry onto the Carolina football stadium and related gridiron environs. To those who spread this scurrilous rumor, I say: “Fie on you, thou cream-faced loon. A pox on your throat. Degenerate and base art thou. There is no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune. You beetle-headed flap-ear’d knave,” stop slandering our beloved Jordon. We need her to lead the Heels to gridiron glory.
Shortly after the fake news that she had been banned from UNC’s football facilities, the University put out an official statement refuting Jordon’s alleged banishment, saying: “While Jordon is not an employee of the University or Carolina Athletics, she is welcome to the Carolina Football facilities. Jordon will continue to manage all activities related to Coach Belichick’s personal brand outside of his responsibilities for Carolina Football and the University.” If UNC says it, I believe it. And that settles it. Jordon Rules! Long may she reign. Fake Media take back your lies: “Away you starveling, you elf skin, you dried neats-tongue, bull’s pizzle, You Stock fish!”
You scurvy fellow travelers of the lying media. “Thou tongues outvenom all the worms of the Nile.” Your lies about Jordon are of the “rankest compound of villainous smell that ever-offended nostrils.”
Jordon is here to stay in command at UNC. Unless, of course, she enters the transfer portal and takes up with the Oracle of Omaha, the recently retired Warren Buffett. A 94-year-old multi-billionaire with an old heart might tempt any young lady with a desire for some real NIL money. Carolina football fans: Fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy night. Don’t put your faith in stewed prunes. Jordon will be with us unless she gets a better offer. As Andy Griffith would say: “What is was, was football.”

(Illustration by Pitt Dickey)

Moving Crown Event Center is missed opportunity

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Wednesday, 14 May 2025

Written by Jimmy Keefe

We’ve all heard the saying, “If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.” Unfortunately, it appears we have doubled down on the dig.
In 2013, during my tenure as Chairman of the Cumberland County Commissioners, I presented a bold vision: a new Performing Arts Center to anchor and energize our downtown, a vision rooted in the 1996 Marvin Plan for downtown revitalization. Over the past three decades, additional studies by professionals have consistently supported the need for a large entertainment complex in our city center. This project had the potential to be transformational — the largest public investment ever made downtown, yet here we are, once again watching politics derail a project that has broad support and proven economic potential.
One of the most misunderstood aspects of the Crown Event Center is how it’s funded. The facility would be financed using restricted revenues from the Food & Beverage Tax and a portion of the Local Occupancy Tax. These funds cannot be used for public safety, infrastructure, or social services. They are strictly designated for arts and entertainment projects and must be administered through the Crown Commission, which currently oversees the Crown Complex. Delays risk forfeiting access to these funds altogether, a long-term loss this community simply cannot afford.
Before the current Board of Commissioners initially paused the project, it was ahead of schedule and under budget. Over $40 million has already been spent — and that figure excludes future costs related to legal action, contractual penalties, repairs, and the damage done to our community’s image. To put this in perspective, the entire downtown baseball stadium project was budgeted at $35 million. Delaying or abandoning the Performing Arts Center now is akin to stopping the stadium mid-construction and surrendering that investment with nothing to show for it
When I was first elected commissioner in 2008, my daughter Emily was not yet a year old. She is now preparing for her senior year of high school. We have lost almost two decades of opportunity for her and other children in our community to grow up with access to a vibrant arts venue. While my family has enjoyed countless nights at the baseball stadium — thanks to the foresight and commitment of city leaders — those same benefits have been denied to families passionate about the arts. Our community has far too few spaces for young people interested in theater, music, and dance. In Wake County, a similar facility supports nearly 20 youth programs. Why can’t Cumberland County do the same?
The decision to build downtown was not made lightly. Over many years, there were countless stakeholder meetings, professional consultations, citizen surveys, and financial analyses. Of the multiple sites evaluated, the top three were all located downtown. The current Crown Theater site on Highway 301 consistently ranked at or near the bottom in every report. The original plan — when the new Crown Coliseum was built in the mid-90s — was to demolish the aging arena and theater, and for good reason. These buildings have long outlived their purpose and are no longer fit for modern, accessible, or revenue-generating events.
This new Crown Event Center is more than a cultural hub — it’s an engine for economic development. Currently, Cumberland is the only county in North Carolina with more than 250,000 residents that doesn’t have a facility like this. The proposed downtown location meets every reasonable criterion: it’s on public land, has planned parking, supports local and surrounding businesses, and allows for future growth. Experts believe the design and location could make the facility self-sustaining. Contrast this with the proposal to renovate the old site on Highway 301 — an area with a 60-year history of economic stagnation. That’s like halting the downtown baseball stadium after millions invested and deciding to renovate J.P. Riddle Stadium instead. Many believe it to be a short-sighted move that ignores everything we’ve learned.
Some commissioners cite concerns about parking downtown, but anyone who’s attended multiple events at the Crown Complex knows that parking logistics are already a challenge at the existing site. In fact, simultaneous events could result in longer walks to your seat than what you’d face downtown — not to mention downtown’s potential for shared-use garages, walkability, and business synergy.
There’s also been talk about a dispute over architectural fees. While I’m aware of the issue, halting a $145 million project over a disagreement representing less than 1% of the total cost does not seem logical. Imagine building a $200,000 home, getting a $2,000 overage bill, and choosing to abandon the house after investing $50,000. No reasonable person would make that decision — yet that seems to be the path we are on.
In conclusion, it appears there is concern from some members of the board on this downtown project that has been thoughtfully planned for over three decades — one that is fully funded, publicly vetted, and widely supported. There seems to be a push to replace it with an underwhelming alternative that lacks a plan, funding, vision, or economic upside. I respect their need to get up to speed, but the delays — now surpassing 60 days — are already generating millions in additional costs and potentially irreversible setbacks. This self-inflicted harm may ultimately be used to justify abandoning the downtown project, which would be a tragic mistake for our community.
Let’s be clear: this Crown Event Center is not just about bricks and mortar — it’s about who we are and who we want to be. A thriving, culturally rich, economically vibrant Cumberland County needs this facility. I can only hope elected leaders will act swiftly to continue with the plan for this downtown entertainment center.

(Photo: The proposed Crown Event Center in downtown Fayetteville is shown here in an artist's rendering from EwingCole.)