Posted on 06/18/2007 4:15:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
We know about Mike Nifong, and it looks like he's going to get his comeuppance. Yet the question remains: Why would a seasoned prosecutor like Nifong flout the rules in so many ways in the Duke case? Why would he publicly describe the Duke lacrosse players as "rapists" before that had been established in a court of law? Why would he suppress DNA evidence that the defense was entitled to see? Why, in short, did he go so far before the facts were in?
One of Nifong's public comments provides a clue. He says he wanted to protect the town of Durham from the reputation of being a place featuring "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl." From this we see that Nifong suffers from delusions of grandeur. He sees himself as the Custodian of Durham's Reputation. He views his job as the White Protector of the Black Race. If he simply saw himself as a prosecutor doing his job in a difficult situation--with competing claims and counterclaims--he wouldn't have made such an ass of himself.
Nifong seems to be suffering from Recovering Southerner Syndrome. This is the ailment, first named on this blog, in which Southerners feel so guilty about slavery and segregation that they perform undignified backward somersaults to prove that they are "not really Southern." When they encounter something Southern--like white Southern frat boys at a party--their mind immediately conjures up images of segregated water fountains and they draw their swords and go into Crusader Against Racism mode. Viewed in this way, Nifong saw himself as a kind of white knight slaying the dragons of Southern bigotry. Nifong was not alone in this: dozens of Duke professors reacted to the incident in exactly the same way.
The only problem was that the facts didn't bear them out. The Duke players apparently weren't planning a rape or a lynching; they were merely misbehaving in the manner of "boys gone wild." That’s not how gentlemen are supposed to behave, but it isn’t discriminatory and it isn’t illegal. So the presumption of white bigotry was entirely wrong in this case. The world is different now and the old civil rights models don't necessarily apply. I suspect that MIke Nifong is not the only fellow who is going to learn this lesson the hard way.
So Nifong is going to resign, and maybe get his license taken away too. Now what about the mau-mau artists at Duke, influential figures on the faculty, who whipped the campus up into a racial hysteria? What happens to the people who helped to create a mob mentality against students, rendering their lives miserable for more than a year, when their guilt was never established, never even probable, and now they have been shown to be innocent?
From the time the first reports of sexual assault at Duke University surfaced, these intellectual vigilantes went to work. Houston Baker, a professor of English and Afro-American Studies, issued a public letter condemning the "abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence and drunken white male privilege loosed among us." He seems to have simply presumed the students guilty.
Shortly after that, 88 members of the Duke arts and science faculty--the so-called Gang of 88--signed a public statement praising campus demonstrators who had distributed a "WANTED" poster that branded the lacrosse players as "rapists." The Gang of 88 didn't use that term, but its statement referred to "what happened to this young woman." Ignoring calls to wait for the evidence, the gang instead went into full social-justice gear.
"What is apparent every day now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism, who see illuminated in this moment's extraordinary spotlight what they live with every day...We're turning up the volume in a moment when some of the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down while we wait. To the students speaking individually and to the protesters making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourselves heard." In other words, Go vigilantes go!
Now it is time to hold these folks accountable. I know it’s too much to expect that these politically correct vigilantes have their teaching licenses taken away. But perhaps it’s not too much to ask that they be officially reprimanded by the university.
“What happens to the people who helped to create a mob mentality against students, rendering their lives miserable for more than a year, when their guilt was never established, never even probable, and now they have been shown to be innocent?”
Well, if they’re liberal, they get tenured.
“What’s amazing is that people continue to pay tuition to have their kids brain-washed by the gang of 88.”
What’s amazing is that people continue to overpay to send their kids to ANY number of “elite” institutions where this type of Leftist fascism dominates the faculty and administration.
And every other white male on the campus. Gang mentality-if the sought after 'perps' aren't available, then someother ones will do instead.
Maybe they should check Nifong’s DNA! Hmmmm
I’m sorry to have to say it, but the professors will skate under the claim of academic freedom because they signed a public statement. Most of them don’t have big assets anyway. Duke and those who conducted the sham hearing and those who fired the coach etc. can perhaps be held accountable. I hope it costs Duke billions of dollars.
The one thing the lawsuits could and should demand of Duke, in addition to money, is mandatory sensitivity training for the Duke 88. That much is perhaps achievable.
A big bucks settlement might lead Duke administrators to tell faculty, in the future, don’t sign these kinds of public statements. Some will bitch about their “free speech” being infringed but even the whiners will learn the lesson for the future—be careful what you sign.
Will they change their attitude, learn to respect “innocent until proven guilty”?
Not in a thousand years. There is no more bigoted world than that of the university (unless perhaps it’s inner city black culture). But please, Freepers, remember that some of us academics are also Freepers. So while the university world is a mess, full of narrowminded bigots, a handful of us have managed to get tenure and survive while being contrarian. We have sacrificed a lot and we do our best to give students an alternative voice. Please, in condemning the vast majority of academics, don’t forget the handful of us who differ. It’s not fun to read condemnations of academics that shows no awareness of the fact that tenure does, in some instances, protect some of your own from being fired.
I had to keep my mouth shut for 17 years. It took ten years even to get an entry-level job, another 7 for tenure. I earn less than most high school teachers after 30 years in academia. But tenure protects me as a conservative. My colleagues tell me that if they had it to do over again, I’d never get tenure. But now that I have it, it does protect me. So when you are tempted to condemn tenure without qualifications, remember that there are exceptions to all blanket statements. Think carefully before you propose simple elimination of tenure as a cure—it might be worse than the disease.
Right on...I have held this view for some time....when the dust settles, Nifong, gets a job as chief dog control officer...
I went to an engineering school and found that, for the most part, my engineering profs were pretty apolitical. It was refreshing, as very nearly all of the other profs (English, Psyche, etc) ranged from Liberal to Radically Liberal and many weren't afraid to use their position as a bully pulpit from which to preach.
No, several of them were black, including the ones who used the most inflammatory rhetoric.
I cannot believe that a tenured professor could libel both the university, its students and flunk students and that the university have no recourse to protect itself from out-of-control professors.
I do not expect the entire G88 to be released. But what about professors who flunk students unjustly, make up quotes for the “Wanted” poster and lie about current students. Surely they have crossed a line that Broadhead could use to take action, if he was more than a figurehead.
When they encounter something Southern--like white Southern frat boys at a party--their mind immediately conjures up images of segregated water fountains and they draw their swords and go into Crusader Against Racism mode.
Get it straight Dinesh. Those boys were yankees.
A chime in on the Duke case from a former, or current, Claremontista. While he's right on most of the article, he should get the nationality of the true victims right....
bttt
Whether they can be held to account is one thing, but probably they can be sued and forced to go to court. Perhaps the university/one who actually wrote the petition is the best target. But ultimately it depends on whether the plaintiffs wish to sue.
Its a bit of an oxymoron that this group (the 88) that I assume is mostly white still conjures up white supremacy. And the preachers of hate on the “black” side willingly goes along with this charade is a story for the ages.
Houston Baker was subsequently lured away by Vanderbilt University (sort of like going from a Triple A to a Double A team in professional baseball).
At least we know what white liberals think of blacks and how much respect they have for them beyond a few tokens. The white libs are basically telling everyone who wants to be relavant that if they misbehave towards the establishment they will be thrown to the “n######.” Ask Imus?
REAL southerners do NOT play lacrosse. they play FB!
free dixie,sw
TAMU/Baylor/Rice/Auburn/OU is the RIGHT sort of place today to send your child. (NO PLACE, imVho, in DYland is the right place, with the POSSIBLE exception of Norwich!)
free dixie,sw
Bump.
Nifong seems to be suffering from Recovering Southerner Syndrome. This is the ailment, first named on this blog, in which Southerners feel so guilty about slavery and segregation that they perform undignified backward somersaults to prove that they are "not really Southern."
The only idiots I've seen with this disease are Johnny-come-latelys (maybe 2nd generation Southerners) and POLITICIANS. I've never met a true Southerner, male, female, black, native American or white that were ashamed of their ancestors (more Hollyweird revisionist tripe). Heck, I had black classmates in college Econ stating that welfare HURT blacks, one wanted to deport blacks, and many had the CBF on their vehicle. We all stood - black and white - when Dixie was played.
The only ones turning their back on the South are politicians, liberals and lunatics that think God wants homosexuals to preach from pulpits.
when i was last in grad school (long ago) the MOST rabid "free dixie folks" were southern-born, NON-white students! (Asian,Black,Indian, Latino & the "Appalachia refugees"'fyi, the LEFT doesn't consider them as being white'.)
it was the OUTSIDERS who were "all fired up" against the CBF.
btw, my "brother of the heart" recently wrote a "no thanks" letter to Princeton University, which had offered his 16YO son a "full ride" (Wills made 1600 on the SAT as a HS sophomore!!! he IS going to Rice instead.)starting this fall.
free dixie,sw
Gang of 88 = left wing lynch mob
Shades of the red guard...
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