Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

So I'm driving to work this morning, listening to NPR. I've always considered NPR as a more or less neutral news medium.

The Duke Lacrosse rape scandal comes up. Two sentences later, the city of Durham is full of "racial tension" and the alleged rape is being touted as a "race related crime". No one being interviewed is saying this, though. The NPR reporter doing the story is saying it.

I was mesmerized.... close to amazed.... as I sat there in my car on my 20 minute commute and listened to this journalist. He was pulling statements out of the air concerning racism and reporting it like that was the gospel truth.... the flat-out way things were at Duke and in Durham.... and didn't provide a single backup opinion from anyone to support the claims.

Though I still consider NPR to be neutral on issues of Dem vs. Rep (I've never been given a reason to believe otherwise, aside from a few raving zealots from both sides), I am now forced to consider the possibility that NPR is not the bastion of fairness that I once thought it was.

Thoughts? About the Lacrosse issue or about NPR?

--------------------

Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Even if you assume that the woman's rape allegations are true, that doesn't mean that the lacrosse players raped her because she's black. But that doesn't mean race (or class) isn't an issue, either, when rich white men do something to poor black women. At this point, it's about race because people have made it about race. And that's still relevant--how can you take a Southern school that has traditionally been a bastion of white privilege, examine a crime like this, and not see race somewhere in the players' sense of entitlement?

More than anything, though, I think this is about gender. Gender is really what places women in a position where they have to join the sex trade to make a decent living; it's what tells men that strippers (and prostitutes) aren't really people; it's what tells public perception that this crime isn't really that bad and that these women aren't really that believable.

But, still...what if the claimant were a white sorority girl? Do you think her history of shoplifting would raise skepticism about the truthfulness of her story? Even a white stripper might get more sympathy. I don't think race fully explains what's going on here (compare the Kobe Bryant scandal, where the white woman who accused him of rape became the recipient of personality attacks and death threats), but it's part of the mix.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., of the Miami Herald wrote a column about this incident. He's far from being unbiased, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

--------------------

Veni, vidi, dormivi.

I heard something virtually identical on NPR last week, so I really can't comment on what you heard today because I don't know if it's the same reporting or not and I wasn't listening this morning, I missed most of Morning Edition. Why don't you find the story on NPR.org and link it here so we can all listen to it?

But really, I think this should either be about that case or NPR, not either/or/whatever. Might focus the discussion a bit more.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN? Or perhaps buying a really good looking shirt?

Good point, Josh. I'd rather the discussion steer towards the case itself I suppose.... though I'm still amazed at the reporting NPR did on it.

I do not believe personally that race had anything at all to do with this. I do agree with Kara that gender was a main culprit, though.

In my opinion, if the stripper had been white, it would not have changed anything, rape or not.

--------------------

Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Well, I definitely wouldn't say race had nothing to do with it. Maybe not the rape itself (if the allegations are in fact true), but there were reports of numerous N-words and other derogatory names flying around. The controversy that now surrounds it is almost solely based on race and class.



--------------------

The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

What about the racial epithets allegedly used against the woman? Or the email one of the accused players sent to his buddy after it happened that makes liberal use of the N-word? I do think it's quite possible the spoiled-rich culture on the Duke Lacrosse team is more sexist than racist (although my impression is that it's both,) and it's quite possible the alleged rape would have taken place either way, but the impression I've got from the whole thing is that these guys would have had a little more inherent respect, stripper or not, for a woman of their own race.

The scary part to me is the contrast between the Duke campus and the surrounding area. The one time I went to Durham it was impossible not to be taken aback by the abrubtness of the scenery change. I noticed that within literally a block it went from dilapidated buildings and liquor stores to pristine, Ivy League-like campus. I imagine the racial tension already built up in that town has got to be enormous, and wouldn't take too much to set off.

--------------------

Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

Something about this whole situation doesn't sound right.

Since when does Lacross players have any interest in women?

--------------------

My second daughter, if we have girls, will be named Rikku. I'm not kidding.

Quote (BlazeMacLeod of the clan MacLeod @ 28th April 2006 06:41)

Since when does Lacross players have any interest in women?

We can get women. And we're damn good at getting them.

Anyway, as a lacrosse fan, I've been closely following this scandal. I don't know if race was a motive for the crime itself, but I do know slurs were made. So I'm sure racism was a factor after the crime began, but not a motive. It's still wrong, though.

The irony is that I know four of the players on the Duke Lacrosse team, including Ryan McFadyen, the kid who sent the email. We actually played for rival high schools, and we were worst of enemies. We actually got into a fight at the girls' county final because our county final (we always play each other) was in a few days, and he threatened to ruin our undefeated season. The kid is also a big cheater. He wears 1.75" cleats, when the maximum is 1.5". His hits are very cheap, and he never gets called for slashing or crosse checking. Actually all four of those kids went to Delbarton high school (I went to Mountain Lakes). Reade Seligmann was another of the kids suspected. My best friend Joe Cinosky, who plays for Maryland, always would get into tussles with him.

I've never been a Duke fan, and when I first heard about this I laughed for hours, because nothing gives me more satisfaction than bad rep for Duke. Of course, my deepest sympathies go out to the victim.

Also, I read on some blog that Fox News was supporting the rapists, heh. More proof the rapists are bad people. -CSM

--------------------

The NEW Final Fantasy Wiki!

Join us!

Quote (Crazyswordsman @ 28th April 2006 22:05)

Also, I read on some blog that Fox News was supporting the rapists, heh.  More proof the rapists are bad people. -CSM

heh so what does that make you heh

who are you to deign use the word "rapist" like you know exactly what happened at that lacrosse house that night? let's consider a few facts in the case: the accuser has made allegations of rape and sexual assault in the past, she "identified" her alleged assailants in a powerpoint of ONLY DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS, no dna was found on the accuser that matched any member of the team, and finally, it seems both of the teammates charged has produced an alibi.

i won't pretend to know whether they're innocent or not. it's possible that they raped her -- although there seems to be plenty of situational evidence pointing directly in the opposite direction -- but NOBODY can make the call at this point except for the kids charged and the accuser. you haven't got the right to call anybody a rapist if they haven't been anywhere near a guilty verdict.

edit:

also, i would like to suggest that once again this is simply another convenient white/black confrontation that the race opportunists are taking advantage of for every penny. the da, michael nifong, is up for election this year -- he's using his agressive presecution of the case to "reach out" to black voters in durham. jesse jackson is getting in people's business again, loudly suggesting that the alleged victim is most certainly telling the truth.

i don't think it ever was a racial issue in any effect until the media got ahold of it. it's been reported that some of the teammates screamed racial epithets at the parting stripper, but it's also been reported that those epithets were in response to the stripper's "insulting their manhood." surely she was saying things not at all nice or appropriate. while it makes no excuse of the vile racial language used by the teammates, it was surely just a quick and dirty way for them to insult her back.

there are two take-home morals to this story: 1) inviting women you don't know over to your house to take of her clothes in front of you and a bunch of other guys can increase the chance of being falsely accused of rape and 2) going over to some party to take of your clothes in front of a bunch of guys you don't know can increase the chance of being raped.

This post has been edited by gozaru~ on 29th April 2006 18:08

Quote

1) inviting women you don't know over to your house to take of her clothes in front of you and a bunch of other guys can increase the chance of being falsely accused of rape and 2) going over to some party to take of your clothes in front of a bunch of guys you don't know can increase the chance of being raped.

True and true.

Quote

i don't think it ever was a racial issue in any effect until the media got ahold of it. it's been reported that some of the teammates screamed racial epithets at the parting stripper, but it's also been reported that those epithets were in response to the stripper's "insulting their manhood." surely she was saying things not at all nice or appropriate. while it makes no excuse of the vile racial language used by the teammates, it was surely just a quick and dirty way for them to insult her back.

Tyler's words, coming out of my mouth. Excellent point here.



--------------------

Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978