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Sutton Sports Performance Center Catches Fire At Wake Forest University

Letter to editor in today’s W-SJ.


I write in support of Wake Forest University Dean Martha Allman (“Wake dean apologizes for photo,” Feb. 23) and her positive history with Winston-Salem’s African-American community.

I teach high school English I and II at Paisley IB Magnet School, which was built more than 60 years ago as a segregated black high school. Paisley today remains a majority-minority Title I school.

Thirteen years ago, when Paisley’s high school was threatened with closure because of low enrollment, Dean Allman demonstrated her faith in our students and the IB Middle Years Programme by guiding our early marketing efforts. Her action was more than lip service. She opened Wake facilities for IB symposiums and encouraged Wake faculty and students to engage actively with Paisley students. Both of her daughters attended Paisley.

Paisley grew and continues to grow as a result of her faith in the promise and quality of its IB program. Wake’s Project Launch is active as is assistance from Wake’s drama department, Z. Smith Reynolds Library, and other Wake faculty. Supported by Dean Allman, Paisley and Wake staff members are considering how we can be more than a “neighborhood” school. We are exploring ways Paisley can become a change agent in the Boston-Thurmond area of Winston-Salem.

Martha Allman’s record belies an unfortunate picture in a 36-year-old yearbook. The hideous flag notwithstanding, the loss of her presence in WFU’s leadership would be truly regrettable for Winston-Salem’s African-American community.

Marshall Marvelli
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i think we can all agree that john wayne has no place in our admissions office?
 
From today’s W-SJ, another letter to the editor.


We were sorry to see the Feb. 23 Journal make a front-page story out of a 36-year-old yearbook photo of Wake Forest University Dean of Admissions Martha Blevins Allman standing in front of a fraternity house that displayed a Confederate battle flag (“Wake dean apologizes for photo,” Feb. 23). Your report quoted her accusers and her boss, University President Nathan Hatch, without any indication that you ever talked to Allman.

Her accusers want to paint her as racist, and with this article the Journal made itself complicit. A little digging would have shown that Allman for years has regularly attended Green Street United Methodist Church, a mixed-race congregation with an anti-racism team.

The Journal could have mentioned that the Unbroken Circle concert she has organized for eight years is a principal fundraiser for The Shalom Project. This is a charity benefiting Winston-Salem’s poor, many of whom are people of color. She also served on the board.

The Journal could have researched her written apology’s claim to have worked for inclusion and diversity at Wake Forest and discovered the progressive impact of her career. We worked at Wake Forest for many years and we know Allman is a thoroughly good and decent person.

Clarice Roth and Johnne Armentrout

Winston-Salem
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For any interested, here’s the website of the church the above letter says Allman has regularly attended for years.

https://www.greenstreetumc.org/

They do have a reputation for being intentionally and openly inclusive and highly socially conscious.
 
So has she talked about her journey? How she went from a KA sweetheart to being part of open and inclusive communities working for diversity and inclusion at her alma mater. It could be helpful to people.
 
all these non-racist receipts make the cut-and-paste apology all the more annoying
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
all these non-racist receipts make the cut-and-paste apology all the more annoying
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Indeed. Probably could have stemmed calls for resignation and much of the outrage if there was an ounce of non-PR bullshit.
 
And that seems the risk of offering some fuller explanation.

It would possibly, if not probably, be just as quickly dismissed and denigrated as the perfectly appropriate apology already offered. By the same people.
 
Sorry, what?

We can't know the content of her heart, but we're certainly no closer to getting there with something straight of the can. A straightforward attempt to bury a story isn't a reconciliatory way forward for the university or for her. Just a big missed opportunity for someone who somewhat clearly has grown. She doesn't owe anything to an alumnus like me, but she does to other kinds of Wake students.
 
I'm not sure expecting someone who's entire life has basically been outside of the public eye to all of a sudden jump in with a pitch-perfect apology that includes a summary of all the ways she is not racist should be expected.

If somebody was offended by something I had done in my teens and early twenties, I don't think I would automatically start describing all my positive actions since that time to somehow justify what took place. Seems a little too much like the Mark Meadows "I have a black friend" defense.
 
DeaconSig said:
I'm not sure expecting someone who's entire life has basically been outside of the public eye to all of a sudden jump in with a pitch-perfect apology that includes a summary of all the ways she is not racist should be expected.

If somebody was offended by something I had done in my teens and early twenties, I don't think I would automatically start describing all my positive actions since that time to somehow justify what took place. Seems a little too much like the Mark Meadows "I have a black friend" defense.
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this is correct, but not reactionary enough
 
Is it the Journal's job to justify her keeping her job?

Wake completely fucked this up
 
Probably still need to check her browser history though.
 
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