[Neverforget01]

I am not taking sides in the Duke/Durham debate--just noting the friction is obviously there, and I'm beginning to understand how this case got through a Grand Jury with so little evidence. Folks in Durham would hang a Duke kid for jaywalking.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

I was born in Greensboro 49 years ago and have lived in NC for 38 of those years.

Durham is the Newark, NJ of NC. Poor, violent and lacking a real business center downtown, especially considering its population.

When Duke University was founded through the purchase of Trinity College, the Duke family positioned the University in the middle of the multi-thousand acre Duke Forest that abuts Durham. It was done that way to provide a buffer from the tobacco factory employees that worked for American Tobacco, Duke's company.

There has ALWAYS been a feeling among the Durhamites that they worked on a big plantation with Duke University representing the Tara manor home.

When tobacco cratered in the 70's and 80's, the hope was for the Research Triangle Park to provide jobs. Unfortunately, these jobs (IBM, Cisco, Glaxo Smith Klein, etc.) went to degreed professionals and not unskilled factory workers.

Duke University then began a growth phase based on cheap labor to expand its hospital and support services. The VA hospital next door to Duke expanded as well. The displaced tobacco workers got low level jobs at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC), which is now the #1 employer in Durham.

From the Durhamites point of view, Duke University and DUMC are still the manor houses of the plantation.

The property values at the county line tell all -- a new house in Chapel Hill will sell quickly at 30% more than an identical Durham house next door, which may take 1-2 years to sell.

[Jezebelle]

But that's because of their own prejudice that is inculcated in them from the cradle, and nothing we have done for blacks, including $6 TRILLION in welfare, has satisfied them and it never will. When you've got a great, big white cow to milk from here to eternity, why would you ever agree that enough was enough and take responsibility for yourself when your culture trains you not to?

There is nothing the boys can do except commit suicide and never draw breath again that would satisfy the thinking of these people. Ditto for their parents and you and me, for that matter - just give them our money and then go die or get out of their sight so we don't serve as a reminder as to how badly they have it because we haven't given them enough, and it'll NEVER be enough.

The sooner people quit making excuses for them and "understanding" why this is, the better off we will be.

The time to stop the insanity has arrived.