Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Writers Group
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
That's the basic scenario, and it's impossible to avoid thinking of all the black women who were violated by drunken white men in the American South over the centuries. The master-slave relationship, the tradition of droit du seigneur, the use of sexual possession as an instrument of domination -- all this ugliness floods the mind, and refuses to leave.
Then there's the fact that the incident happened at Duke, which has never been able to shake its aura of preppy privilege, its reputation as a place where students are downright arrogant in their sense of superiority.
A couple of basic questions tend to get overlooked. What's the deal with any group of college students thinking it's a perfectly normal thing to hire strippers for a party? What do their parents say when they see that charge on the credit-card bill? For that matter, what's the deal with a college student, whatever financial pressure she might be under, thinking that working at night as an outcall stripper is a perfectly acceptable -- and safe -- way to support herself? It's not blaming the victim to ask if she couldn't have made better choices.
Those questions have to wait, however, while we pore over DNA test results, witness statements and dueling accounts of the evening's events from prosecutors and defense lawyers.
Not much attention has been paid to the fact that Duke has done much better than most of the nation's elite universities in promoting diversity in its student body. Around 30 percent of Duke students are minorities, including more than 11 percent who are African American -- approximately the percentage of blacks in the general population.
Yet Duke is still a place where the lacrosse team, which has but one black player, hires two black strippers for an alcohol-fueled house party. Was this just another night in Durham?
That's the basic scenario, and it's impossible to avoid thinking of all the black women who were violated by drunken white men in the American South over the centuries. The master-slave relationship, the tradition of droit du seigneur, the use of sexual possession as an instrument of domination -- all this ugliness floods the mind, and refuses to leave.
AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Eugene Robinson: http://www.postwritersgroup.com/mugshots/bigrobinson.jpg
"It's quite possible we'll never have a truly satisfactory answer."
It's true that Robinson and those who support the false accuser may not be satisfied with the answer that the evidence reveals. I think I will find the truth very satisfactory.
