April 6, 2006

From Bad to Worse at Duke

In a sign of how bad things have become for Duke University’s lacrosse team, a lawyer for a majority of the players on Wednesday cited the extreme offensiveness of an e-mail message from one of them as evidence that they weren’t trying to cover up a rape.

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The e-mail message from a player to other players came shortly after a party at which a woman — hired to appear at the party as a dancer — says she was raped by three lacrosse players. In the e-mail message, the player said he would hire strippers for another party at which he planned “on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off while cumming in my duke issue spandex.” (Text is verbatim from the e-mail.)

The e-mail message became public Wednesday when a state court unsealed a warrant related to gathering evidence in the case. Duke has faced a growing scandal since the March 13 party. The accusations have set off nationwide discussions over the role of athletics, gender and race — the woman who filed the complaint is black and the lacrosse team whose party she was hired to perform at is almost entirely white. The case has created tensions at Duke, where some have said that the administration has moved too slowly against the team, while others have stressed the importance of due process.

The university acted swiftly Wednesday after the warrant was released. President Richard H. Brodhead announced that he was canceling the lacrosse season — which had previously been suspended, pending the outcome of legal inquiries. He also announced that Mike Pressler, the lacrosse coach and a highly successful one at that, was resigning.

In his previous statements about the situation, Brodhead had noted the importance of the principle of assuming innocence until someone is proven guilty. Wednesday’s statement, in contrast, did not contain such references. It called the contents of the warrant “sickening and repulsive” and noted that the university is able to impose an interim suspension on students in some cases. The university did not indicate whether anyone had been suspended.

Later Wednesday, Brodhead released a letter to Duke students and faculty members in which he outlined a series of steps Duke would be taking:

An investigation of “reports of persistent problems involving the men’s lacrosse team, including racist language and a pattern of alcohol abuse and disorderly behavior.”
An investigation by non-Duke officials of the way Duke’s administration responded to the scandal.
An examination of the judicial system for students at Duke.
A study to suggest ways to improve “campus culture” at Duke.
The creation of a special panel to advise the Duke president.

Lawyers for the lacrosse players — and the athletes themselves — have repeatedly denied that any sexual assault took place. And they have noted repeatedly that no charges have been filed. But the warrant provided more evidence backing the claims of the woman who brought the complaint — a woman who is a student at North Carolina Central University. The warrant said, for example, that the woman was examined at a Duke emergency room after the incident by a physician and by a forensic sexual assault nurse and that the medical records indicated “signs, symptoms, and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted vaginally and anally.”

The idea that the students might have planned another party infuriated many at Duke. But a lawyer representing a majority of the team members issued a statement saying that the e-mail message showed that the students committed no crime.

“While the language in the e-mail is vile, the e-mail itself is perfectly consistent with the boys’ unequivocal assertion that no sexual assault took place that evening,” said the statement from Robert Ekstrand. He noted that the e-mail was sent shortly after the party took place and shows that “its writer is completely unaware that any act or event remotely similar to what has been alleged ever occurred.”

Whatever occurred there can be little doubt about the toll that the events are taking at Duke. But one sign of that toll can be seen in an exchange of letters — before Wednesday’s developments — between Houston A. Baker Jr., who holds an endowed chair in English and is one of Duke’s most prominent black faculty members, and Peter Lange, the provost.

In a scathing letter, Baker said that the administration’s response to the incident had been based on “tepid and pious legalism” that ignored the fear and anger the incident created among many on the campus.

“There can be no confidence in an administration that believes suspending a lacrosse season and removing pictures of Duke lacrosse players from a Web page is a dutifully moral response to abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence, and drunken white male privilege loosed amongst us,” Baker wrote.

He added: “How many more people of color must fall victim to violent, white, male, athletic privilege before coaches who make Chevrolet and American Express commercials, athletic directors who engage in Miss Ophelia-styled ‘perfectly horrible’ rhetoric, higher administrators who are salaried at least in part to keep us safe, and publicists who are supposed not to praise Caesar but to damn the unconscionable ... how many? Before they demonstrate that they don’t just write books, pay lip service, or boast of safe citizenship ... but actually do step up morally, intellectually, and bravely to assume responsibilities of leadership for such citizenship. How many?”

In his response, Lange said he was “disappointed, saddened and appalled” by Baker’s letter.

Lange noted that the complete facts of what took place that night remain unknown and said that the university’s leaders needed to focus on doing the right thing, even if that took time.

“That our pace will still disappoint some is undoubted, but we will not rush to judgment nor will we take precipitous actions which, symbolically satisfying as they may be, assuage passions but do little to remedy the deeper problems,” Lange wrote. “These problems will certainly be easier, but not easy, to understand than they will be to repair. The latter will take less rhetoric and more hard work, less quick judgment and more reasoned intervention, less playing to the crowd, than entering the hearts and lives of those whose education we are charged to promote and who we must treat as an integral part of the community we wish to restore and heal.”

— Scott Jaschik

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Comments

Dear all Duke haters,

Have you ever gone to school here? Do you know what Duke students are like? I bet there are some of you who have, or do, but the majority of you HAVE NO REAL FACTS. You used I Am Charlotte Simmons as a credible source, for God’s sake. Are you serious?

You probably don’t know how much community service Duke students engage in with Durham. That the Center for Race Relations puts on two acclaimed retreats a year that discuss issues of race, gender, and sexuality. That neighboring NC State had a huge controversy over starting an LGBT Center, while Duke’s LGBT Center is wildly successful. You don’t know that DukeEngage is a program where the university pays for ALL expenses for students to go ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD to do service, and the demand has been outrageously high. No, you don’t know any of these things, because you don’t do your research. If you wrote this in a paper, my professors would eviscerate your sources and evidence. You have only rumors and the transgressions of a ridiculously small but visible portion of our university to make your claims. I’m not embarrassed to be from Duke; I’m embarrassed to be part of such a culture that makes judgment claims on an entire campus without bothering to properly investigate. Your misplaced accusations and reductions have made a small smear on the reputation of Duke. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it.

I wish I could be really graceful about this, but I seriously want to punch people in the face when they say that everyone at Duke is racist, or that we have a widespread problem of misogyny. I’m not saying we’re perfect, but go to other campuses, for God’s sake. Tell me THEN that we’re not among the best of them.

Duke 2010, What do you have to say NOW? at Duke University, at 4:30 pm EDT on September 26, 2007

Tom Wolfe must be furiously taking notes for his next book. This series of events at Duke seems to star all of the types, including political and media demagogues and those victimized and exploited by them, that were present in his last three novels. The most disturbing thing about this entire incident is the unwillingness of so many people (including, apparently, the local legal authorities) to permit the legal process to take its course. The allegations in this case are serious and inflammatory. They deserve a careful and thorough investigation, not premature disposition in the court of public opinion and the media.

Mommy, at 8:05 am EDT on April 6, 2006

Culture of White Privilege

As Professor Houston Baker points out, the culture of white male privilege now runs amuck on our campuses, protected by mostly white male administrators who look the other way as they rake in alumni donations, outrageous tuititon payments, and lucrative atheletic fees. No one can plead ignorance when Tom Wolfe’s books are in every store and the statistics on alochoholism, date rape, and racism on college campuses so well-known. (See also Koren Zailckas’s horrifying memoir of her life of alchohol abuse at Syracuse University). It’s a straight line from here to the corruption we seen in Congress, at Enron, etc., when white male money so abuses its privileges that eventually it brings itself down in an orgy of criminality. Campuses need to crackdown, including banning fraternities, as a start. And then we need to listen seriously to people like Professor Baker on what the racial climate of our colleges is like today. The Duke Lacrosse scandal reveals the same structures of class and race oppression we saw on TV during Katrina.

Gregory Jay, God Bless Houston Baker at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, at 10:07 am EDT on April 6, 2006

T. Wolf to replace Nostradamus

Perhaps all the other things in the book about, ahem, Dupont really are true? Wolf’s publishers couldn’t have imagined better advertising campaign.I expect better from a school like Duke.

Charlotte Simmons, at 10:07 am EDT on April 6, 2006

Dukies Chicanery

The days of chivalry are over.

What is the mission of educational institute? Hmmm….lets figure that one out!

1. Purchase a house and give it to students, convert it alcohol consumption den 2. Allow the students to do whatever pleases them, unsupervised 3. Medical and scientific evidence; says rape 4. Dukies do not detain a women against their will 5. Dukies were loaned women belongings 6. Dukies were conducting a scientific search of women reproductive organs 7. Dukies emails are a class act 8. Dukies are always right 9. Dukies are above the law10. Dukies will payoff concerned officials

Dukies will honor its lacrosse team members; who will graduate with highest honor and distinguishable characters.

Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr; would say that’s the Dukies way.

David Robertson, Professor at SUNY, at 10:07 am EDT on April 6, 2006

“its writer is completely unaware that any act or event remotely similar to what has been alleged ever occurred.”

No, its writer was so arrogant that he believed nobody would care and that he could brag about it.

Utopian, at 11:10 am EDT on April 6, 2006

Mommy Knows Best

In fact, Tom Wolfe ALREADY HAS written that book; to wit, “I Am Charlotte Simmons.” It would seem that the similarities between the Duke University academic culture and the “fictional” academic culture of Wolfe’s Dupont University are even more apparent than one might imagine.

Today, The New York Times reported that Duke’s president Richard H. Brodhead sent a five-page letter to the Duke community stating that “... the matter had grown beyond an issue involving just a few students into one involving the whole university. [I am] appointing four study commissions and a presidential council that will critique the policies of [my] office and the university.”

Perhaps he should start the process by presenting copies of Wolfe’s book to the entire faculty and student body of the University.

RWH, at 11:10 am EDT on April 6, 2006

Who Let the Dogs Out?

The perpetrators are innocent until proven guilty. Campus zealots and behavior modification hustlers must be reminded of that emphatically and often.

If any lacrosse players are found guilty as charged then they must be punished accordingly.

Let blowhards like Houston Baker pontificate and cast racist claims. Pay him no mind. The same applies to that paragon of exquisite racist sensitivity and racist obsession, Cynthia McKinney.

A pox on them all.

How much longer must we wait until Duke professor John Hope Franklin totters to the microphone to piously opine that race relations in Durham, N.C. in 2006 are exactly the same as they were in south Alabama or northern Mississippi 75 years ago when the KKK was all about?

Due process, preponderance of the evidence, punishment to suit the crime........ I sure hope that Duke’s leaders hammer home those reminders over and over and over again.....and do not succumb to the furious bombast of the campus crusaders........

Chuck, at 11:10 am EDT on April 6, 2006

Duke’s Lacrosse scandal

This whole situation is very sad. The same sort of incident occurred with the LaSalle men’s basketball team, except that the races were reversed. Black athletes were accused of raping a white women. Odd that the LaSalle scandal never made national news on anywhere near the same level as this Duke scandal has. Selective outrage?

The plain truth of the matter is that this sort of incident has happened so often now that one wonders what goes on in the minds of successful males athletes of all races. That, I think is a very real issue that must be examined and fixed. The idolatry that America showers on her sports heroes is a big factor in the nasty unfeeling sexual behavior of many male athletes. That certainly is not an excuse, but it is a reality.

Mysogyny still runs rampant in our culture, from rap music to MTV and Howard Stern. Sadly, many women contribute to this by treating their own bodies as commodities. The coarseness of our culture is shocking. Our youth are encountering sexuality at younger and younger ages. America is suffering form the commercialization and commodification of sex, plain and simple and until that changes, disgusting incidents such as what occurred at Duke and LaSalle will continue.

feudi pandola, at 11:55 am EDT on April 6, 2006

I feel sick

Does anyone else have to wonder what dark forces are at work when someone who would appear the typical undergrad causually tosses off messages about deriving sexual gratification through acts of extreme violence? I mean, there is clearly something very sick about at least that one young man, even if the rape didn’t occur. Of course, if it did, that is even more alarming. I feel sick. We’re looking into the Heart of Darkness on this one.

Cicero, at 12:30 pm EDT on April 6, 2006

Forensics

1) Ignore all the shouting and blathering from no-nothings like Baker and focus on the forensic evidence. The little that has been released so far suggests that a rape occurred. (a) The alleged victim told the police that her artificial fingernails came off in the struggle against her attackers; they were found on the floor of the bathroom by the police. (b) The alleged victim went to the hospital where she had bruises on her face and vaginal and other bruises consistent with rape. The DNA evidence, when it comes in, may establish who had sex with her (if the boys weren’t using condoms) but it won’t prove one way or the other whether that sex was consensual. However, if the alleged attackers’ defense is that the victim consented and then fabricated evidence of rape, well, that’s going to be a tough story to sell to the jury in light of her physical injuries. But, all the facts are not yet in and the burden is on the prosecution to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

2) If a rape occurred, only a few of the boys committed it. I can understand why they are taking the 5th and not talking to the police, but it’s shameful that the rest of the team is not cooperating with the police in this investigation. If there is one thing for which I would criticize Coach Pressler, it’s this: he should have told the boys that they had to cooperate with the police.

3) I don’t buy any of the crap about how racist Duke is or how the culture there is so oppressive. The only oppression at Duke is of the few conservatives who dare confront the Marxists who dominate the humanities faculty.

4) It is generally true that athletes are coddled throughout our society. That coddling included the University’s blind eye to the drinking parties held at the lacrosse team’s house. But I don’t see any evidence that the police or the Univesity are coddling the alleged attackers here. These are very serious charges that can lead to very long prison terms and so they must be investigated carefully. If the DA drops everything and says “never mind,” then you can come talk to me about injustice, and not until.

5) Last, a prediction: you will see a version of the events at Duke on a new episode of “Law and Order: SVU” within the next couple of months.

DL, at 2:50 pm EDT on April 6, 2006

a few corrections

DL, Congratulations on turning an issue of constitutional criminal procedure into a rant about how “conservative” academics (whatever that means) are being oppressed by “Marxist” academics. This is truly remarkable, and for that I salute you.

I should note that just because someone has fantasias about violent sex does not mean that he has committed a crime, or is even likely to have committed a particular crime. Many people enjoy violence films, but they do not murder.

Mr. Pandola, I know Howard Stern personally, and he has hardly a mysoginist. He is a comedian who makes fun of stupid people who often happen to be women. I don’t think rappers are misogynist, either. They express their views about how women act towards them, but I haven’t seen any actually hate women. And I listen to a lot of rap for a white guy.

I will also note that if all the statutes were enforced here, the 1) victims (that is – the black girls) would probably be doing time for exposing themselves; 2) the kids that engaged in underage kids would be doing hard time in the pokey for drinking; and perhaps 3) any rapists would be doing time.

Larry, at 4:15 pm EDT on April 6, 2006

Amazing..........

Mr. Houston Baker and all you that agree with his comments are racist pigs! Do you think he would have lifted a finger if the girl had been Mexican? How about if she were Turkish? Surely if she were Indian, Chinese or Japanese? What if she were Polish? Or, how about if she were Columbian or Brazilian? No, the only people making this a black and white issue are those like Baker. I love how this became such a battle-cry for black Americans before any facts had been confirmed. Jump on the political bandwagon and ride it as far as you can. Mr. Baker doesn’t care about that girl, he only wants to loft himself up with some political rhetoric. If it turns out to be true and the athletes are guilty, call it what is, an assault by athletes at one college on a student from another college. Race is irrelevant. I know you aren’t suggesting that it would be any less of a crime were the student another race.

Befuddled, at 11:00 am EDT on April 7, 2006

Racial nonsense

I wonder how this is a racial issue. The civil rights workers spent decades proving that, contrary to the rather nonsensical assertions of some white racists, that black men who raped white women were not representatives of the “race” in general. Yet, now that there is a chance to stick it to white people, rapists now somehow do represent their entire race or skin color in their minds.

No caucus of white people ever approved or condoned this (or any other) rape, assuming a rape happened at all. No vote was taken, nor is there evidence that speaks on behalf of all white people calling this permissable if it happened.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 3:10 pm EDT on April 7, 2006

Why is it racial?

Let me help you out Kevin: “racism” doesn’t require a consensus, it only requires hateful attitudes and actions directed at someone on the basis of their race or ethnicity or skin-color. And it requires at atmosphere in which that behavior is tolerated and encouraged (i.e. you don’t have to be the racist to be complicit in the racism). In this case, a bunch of privileged white male morons decided that it was “okay” to hire a poor black woman to strip for them, hurled racial insults at her, and then raped her because they thought they could get away with it (and why not? they had no supervision and apparently no moral upbrining). If that isn’t racism and misogyny then nothing is. I realized that it would be much more comfortable for other white males if race had nothing to do with it—but do you honestly believe that they’d be using their white girlfriends and little sisters in a similar manner? Actually, let’s just pray that these cretins don’t have little sisters...

If there were a single young “man” among them with a shred of dignity (or shame), he’d be down at the precinct right now spilling his guts about everything that he saw or heard at that party. The fact that they, and their coach, have refused to do so tells us all we need to know about their collective “character.” Don’t want people to generalize? Then don’t act like a pack of rabid dogs and then agree to keep quiet about it.

Oh wait, they didn’t all keep quiet did they? Instead, within a week of the incident they all go out to a bar, get drunk, and chant “Duke Lacrosse! Duke Lacrosse!,” as if that’s something to be proud of. And one “brother” decides to fire off a e-mail about skinning and murdering some more strippers! Skinning! Could the KKK have come up with a better image of what’s in their hearts?

huntly, at 12:35 pm EDT on April 8, 2006

Huntly

Huntly, I doubt that if the strippers had been white it would have changed the outcome if what has been said is true. Every race has probably at one point or another had individuals within it that gangraped a member of every other race. I doubt it would be difficult to find similar instances to this one where a white stripper was raped by a group of black men, or for that matter, any other combination of races.

The idea that these people rape because they are white (and this is still assuming that a rape occured at all) is possibly the most racist thought that ever made it past the moderators on this discussion board.

Kevin, Undergraduate, at 9:55 pm EDT on April 8, 2006

I am a member of the HUMAN race, period. I am saddened by the fact that a young girl feels the need to sell her body for profit and sickened that any young man would feel he has the right to violate her in such inhumane ways. Until we stop looking outside and arguing who is being discriminated against and start looking inside ourselves and our families atrocities of all types will continue. Parents invest in your children. Raise them to respect themselves and others and fill them with the desire to make a positive difference in our world!

nmk, at 2:15 pm EDT on April 10, 2006

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