Duke Lacrosse
I am a graduate of Duke's graduate school and a huge Duke basketball fan. I am also a lacrosse fan since my days in college, where I had a number of good friends on the Princeton lacrosse team. So the Duke lacrosse scandal over the past few weeks would obviously have captured my interest.
Nevertheless, I haven't blogged on it. Why? Well, because it seems to me that there is literally nothing useful to say about a criminal case at this stage until we know a lot more facts.
We now know, for instance, that there were no DNA matches between the 46 white lacrosse players tested and any DNA found on the black exotic dancer who accused them of rape. There also were some discrepancies in the time line in the accuser's story. All of this could lead to a conclusion that she made up at least some of her story.
On the other hand, we also know that a nurse at an emergency room using a rape kit concluded that the woman had, in fact, been raped. We do not, however, have access to those results, and, to my knowledge, the nurse has not spoken in public. (She probably would be precluded from doing so by privacy laws.) But the results of that test tend to suggest that something happened.
But what? We do not know. A plausible story might be the following:
1. The lacrosse team hired a stripper for a party over the phone. Very possibly, they expected a young white girl.
2. The stripper they hired, however, shows up at the party, and is older (27) and black. The potential for at least some of the boys feeling disappointed and short-changed is high.
3. Meanwhile, from her perspective she sees a large group of white boys. She doesn't like white boys much. She particularly doesn't like rich white boys. And she most particularly doesn't like Dukes (she's from a much much poorer college in Durham, N.C. Central). The potential for her feeling on edge, intimidated, even hostile in that situation is high.
4. So she wants to get her business done with as quick as possible. She gets paid up front -- that would be normal (I assume) -- but then when she dances she does so only in a perfunctory manner and begins to leave.
5. The boys who set the thing up are humiliated and mad, and they ask for their money back. An argument ensues.
6. At his point, a nuclear bomb goes off.
7. By "nuclear bomb" I mean that one of the boys, who undoubtedly has been indoctrinated in "diversity" and "multiculturalism" at Duke, and because of that training on some level understands paradoxically that racist humor is highly transgressive and perhaps could even be viewed as "cool" (I'd bet a hundred dollars that most of those players have watched episodes of the Dave Chappelle show on Comedy Central), and who also undoubtedly is (a) drunk and (b) emboldened by the presence of his teammates (see Canetti's Crowds and Power) now utters what he thinks is funny, edgy, hip -- a racially-tinged insult/joke.
8. The black woman, who herself is already mad as hell and likely somewhat scared in this house of white boys, doesn't think it's funny.
9. Race, in fact, has become such a taboo, that she views this white boy's attempt at humor as a high crime, punishable by.... by what?
10. So she concocts a gang-rape story to get back at them, to ruin their lives, to get them arrested, etc., etc.
That's a possible story. But we just don't know yet. What we do know, however, is that no one in this sordid story comes out smelling too good, not the players who, after all, were spoiled rich kids hiring a stripper for kicks; not the stripper who, after all, was willing to accept $400 for taking her clothes off in front of strangers; not Duke, which has handled the whole thing badly; not the D.A., who is running for reelection and needs black votes, so he can't drop the case; not the academic left community, which as usual jumped to conclusions about race/class/gender relations that forgot the facts that real people often act in ways that don't fit all of the easy categories of their ideology.
Why couldn't it have happened at UNC?
Nevertheless, I haven't blogged on it. Why? Well, because it seems to me that there is literally nothing useful to say about a criminal case at this stage until we know a lot more facts.
We now know, for instance, that there were no DNA matches between the 46 white lacrosse players tested and any DNA found on the black exotic dancer who accused them of rape. There also were some discrepancies in the time line in the accuser's story. All of this could lead to a conclusion that she made up at least some of her story.
On the other hand, we also know that a nurse at an emergency room using a rape kit concluded that the woman had, in fact, been raped. We do not, however, have access to those results, and, to my knowledge, the nurse has not spoken in public. (She probably would be precluded from doing so by privacy laws.) But the results of that test tend to suggest that something happened.
But what? We do not know. A plausible story might be the following:
1. The lacrosse team hired a stripper for a party over the phone. Very possibly, they expected a young white girl.
2. The stripper they hired, however, shows up at the party, and is older (27) and black. The potential for at least some of the boys feeling disappointed and short-changed is high.
3. Meanwhile, from her perspective she sees a large group of white boys. She doesn't like white boys much. She particularly doesn't like rich white boys. And she most particularly doesn't like Dukes (she's from a much much poorer college in Durham, N.C. Central). The potential for her feeling on edge, intimidated, even hostile in that situation is high.
4. So she wants to get her business done with as quick as possible. She gets paid up front -- that would be normal (I assume) -- but then when she dances she does so only in a perfunctory manner and begins to leave.
5. The boys who set the thing up are humiliated and mad, and they ask for their money back. An argument ensues.
6. At his point, a nuclear bomb goes off.
7. By "nuclear bomb" I mean that one of the boys, who undoubtedly has been indoctrinated in "diversity" and "multiculturalism" at Duke, and because of that training on some level understands paradoxically that racist humor is highly transgressive and perhaps could even be viewed as "cool" (I'd bet a hundred dollars that most of those players have watched episodes of the Dave Chappelle show on Comedy Central), and who also undoubtedly is (a) drunk and (b) emboldened by the presence of his teammates (see Canetti's Crowds and Power) now utters what he thinks is funny, edgy, hip -- a racially-tinged insult/joke.
8. The black woman, who herself is already mad as hell and likely somewhat scared in this house of white boys, doesn't think it's funny.
9. Race, in fact, has become such a taboo, that she views this white boy's attempt at humor as a high crime, punishable by.... by what?
10. So she concocts a gang-rape story to get back at them, to ruin their lives, to get them arrested, etc., etc.
That's a possible story. But we just don't know yet. What we do know, however, is that no one in this sordid story comes out smelling too good, not the players who, after all, were spoiled rich kids hiring a stripper for kicks; not the stripper who, after all, was willing to accept $400 for taking her clothes off in front of strangers; not Duke, which has handled the whole thing badly; not the D.A., who is running for reelection and needs black votes, so he can't drop the case; not the academic left community, which as usual jumped to conclusions about race/class/gender relations that forgot the facts that real people often act in ways that don't fit all of the easy categories of their ideology.
Why couldn't it have happened at UNC?
posted by PDB at 7:43 AM
2 Comments:
Proving once again that you can't try to talk about race in America without someone calling you a racist.
I'm impressed with your site, very nice graphics!
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