Police Chief? Durham has a police chief?
http://www.newsobserver.com/138/story/440836.html
Race has a place in Duke case
How do I put this delicately? Victoria Peterson is an unusual woman.
She's a frequent, though uniformly unsuccessful, candidate for office in Durham -- someone who seeks the spotlight at public forums, especially if microphones or TV cameras are around.
During the recent rally of the New Black Panthers, one of my colleagues observed, the chairman of the group struggled to keep Peterson from monopolizing his megaphone. She was running for City Council at the time.
Peterson and I crossed paths back when she attended the murder trial of Mike Peterson (no relation), as one of his faithful supporters. She was running for City Council then, too.
But Peterson is nothing if not passionate. And on Monday, when she showed up at a news conference with defense attorney Joseph B. Cheshire V, she used her moment in the spotlight to good effect.
Cheshire, who has been the point man on the defense side of the Duke lacrosse case, was holding forth on the "false accusations" made by the "false accuser."
Peterson inserted herself into the event by asking about the racial epithets said to have been used by some of the lacrosse players on the night that three team members are accused of raping one of the dancers, who is African-American.
Cheshire responded by saying that in any group of 46 people, you could hear a racist or sexist statement of some sort. He said his client, team captain David Evans, and the other young men on the lacrosse team are victims.
He also said, "This case is not about race."
Cheshire may be right that his client and others have had their lives "chopped up" unfairly. They may in fact be innocent of every charge. But on the issue of race, he is wrong. This case is about a lot of things, and race is definitely one of them.
For once, Victoria Peterson was dead-on.
This case is about race because the slur-slinging -- alleged by both of the dancers -- is the one allegation that defense attorneys have not disputed.
Contrary to Cheshire's implication -- it doesn't matter how drunk you get, or how many drunken friends you're with, you won't sling racial epithets if they're not in your internal dictionary. I have been in lots of groups of 46, or more, and heard nary an insult.
The case is about race because of the nation's sorry history on race. Many African-Americans live with the memory of a time when white men raped black women with neither social sanction nor legal penalties.
It's about race because some people cannot believe nice boys from upper-crust homes could commit a crime against what talking heads such as Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson have dubbed the "ho" or "crypto-hooker." Believe me when I say that some of my mail has been far uglier, and more racially charged.
The question I wish Victoria Peterson had asked is: Would this story have been so huge if it had involved 46 members of the football team at St. Augustine's or Shaw? Perhaps.
But would so many people be rallying to the defense of those St. Aug's or Shaw players if the dancers from the escort service had been white?
On that, I'm not so sure.