At the beginning of the Duke lacrosse case, a number of professors from Duke placed an ad in the local paper decrying the racism. The ad, linked here, continues the usual liberal dribble about racism and sexism so very rampant on the campus. Of course, the implication is that these white team members are oh so typical of the oppression of minorities (if women still qualify) on the Duke campus. The boys’ names are revealed, the accuser’s is not. The boys and the lacrosse program are condemned by the university. All of this before the facts are known based on the statements of the stripper. As the investigation has proceeded, the accuser’s statements have changed multiple times, the prosecutor has asked to be dismissed (after some very questionable behavior) and the case is on the verge of dismissal. If I were one of the professors that signed the ad, I’d lay low for now. But Professor Cathy N. Davidson just cannot keep her mouth shut.
We are in the midst of a social disaster where 18 percent of the American population lives below the poverty line and a disproportionate number of those are African-American. We live in the midst of a social disaster where 30 percent of our students do not graduate from high school (making the U.S. No. 17 in the world). We live in the midst of a social disaster where women’s salaries for similar jobs are substantially less than men’s (and, as of this year, starting to go down again, not up). We live in the midst of a social disaster where we do not have national health care or affordable childcare. And we live in a situation where a group of white athletes at a prominent university can get drunk and call out for a stripper the way they would a pizza.
Who is that exotic dancer? A single mother who takes off her clothes for hire partly to pay for tuition at a distinguished historically black college. Of course the lacrosse story makes Americans of conscience cringe.
There is also a different kind of social disaster in this incident, one that we didn’t know about in April. I refer to a prosecutor who may well have acted unprofessionally, irresponsibly and unethically, possibly from the most cynical political motives. If it turns out that Mike Nifong has no evidence (as he insisted he did back in the spring), he will have betrayed the trust of an entire community and caused torment to these young men and their families. He will have added greater skepticism at every imaginable level to an already shaky legal system.
Nor is it only the lacrosse players who will be marked forever by this case. Will future rape victims dare to step forward after such a spectacle? Will African-Americans with legitimate grievances be willing to demand justice in the wake of this public debacle? On every level, this has been a social disaster.
That is why I signed the ad. It is an educator’s job to bring the lessons of history to bear as we try to understand the full and on-going social implications of what happened long before March 13, 2006, and will continue long after. Studying this social disaster must be on the lesson plan for our future, no matter what happens next in this miserable incident.
You see, for the professor, the white players are but props in her liberal drama of “racism and sexism” on the campus. The lesson is not that one should hold judgement until the facts are known. The lesson according to the professor is that even though this young “lady” lied and destroyed the lives of several young men, non the less, we should know that racism and sexism are alive and well on campus. Indeed, we should be most concerned that blacks and women may not now come forth with “real” cases of racism and sexism.
Notice that the accuser, who has lied (perhaps criminally) and virtually destroyed the lives of the white men in this story is sympathetically characterized as “ a single mother who takes off her clothes for hire partly to pay for tuition at a distinguished historically black college.” No mention of the semen of multiple other men (none of whom play on the Duke lacrosse team; must be another team) or the intoxicated state of this businesswoman. Just an innocent girl trying to make ends meet. No such sympathy for the young men is required. They belong to the oppressive majority.
The professor believes that “lessons of history” should be told by educators, yet the judgement and condemnation of the players proceeded long before the history was clear. I would suggest that the professor, like most liberals, would prefer to distort and use rather then convey history.
I propose that the professor and her like minded liberal friends are the real “social disasters” in this case.
