Posted on 01/10/2007 6:31:28 AM PST by TBBBO
From Diverse Online
Current News Duke Fallout Continues as Top Black Professor Resigns From Race Committee By Christina Asquith Jan 10, 2007, 08:13
The Duke University professor heading a university-appointed committee to investigate race relations on campus in the wake of last spring’s men’s lacrosse scandal has resigned from that committee in protest against the recent decision to invite two of the players back on to campus.
“The decision by the university to readmit the students, especially just before a critical judicial decision on the case, is a clear use of corporate power, and a breach, I think, of ethical citizenship,” says Dr. Karla Holloway, the William R. Kenan Jr., Professor of English and Professor of Law at Duke. “I could no longer work in good faith with this breach of common trust.”
Holloway, who is Black, had agreed to head one of the four committees formed by Duke President Richard H. Brodhead late last spring. She says she’d hoped to improve the racial climate on campus after a Black exotic dancer accused members of Duke’s men’s lacrosse team of rape and racial slurs — prompting a media frenzy and nationwide accusations of racism against the university and its students.
Since that time, though, the prosecutor’s case has all but fallen apart, and public opinion has swung drastically in defense of the lacrosse players. Professors like Holloway — who had condemned the players — are now facing criticism for prematurely assuming the players’ guilt and, ironically, making racist charges against the White players.
In her resignation letter, Holloway criticized the Duke administration for not coming to her defense, as attacks in the form of blogs and letters to the university newspaper have mounted in recent months.
“The public support [the administration] has extended to these students has been absent in regard to faculty who have been under constant and often vicious attack,” she wrote.
University spokespeople did not respond to Diverse’s requests for comment.
Holloway’s resignation is the latest turn in a roller coast ride since last year for those representing Duke’s Black community. By 2006, the Black studies program ought to have been stronger than ever, since the university spent 10 years — from 1993 to 2003 — implementing it’s “Black Faculty Strategic Initiative.” The initiative doubled the number of Black professors, from 44 to 88, and poured millions into funding the Black studies program, which Holloway led for a time.
However, some professors have claimed that the lacrosse scandal shone a spotlight on underlying racism on campus. The accuser was a Black single mother, working her way through college at nearby North Carolina Central University, while the three defendants were all White and from wealthy families. Adding to the racial tension, a neighbor said he overheard the players slinging racial slurs at the dancer.
Initially, many at Duke supported the dancer. Students held candlelight vigils on campus and 88 professors, now known as the “Group of 88” signed an advertisement in the student newspaper calling for the administration to take a stronger stand against the players. The administration “failed to recognize the racial dimensions of this and failed to address it quickly,” wrote Duke political science professor Paula McClain in an article published in the summer of 2006.
Also during the summer, six Black professors left Duke, although most said their departures were unrelated to the scandal. A university spokesman said at the time that 10 more Black professors had been hired for the start of the 2006-2007 academic year, but Holloway claims that number is inflated.
In recent months, the pendulum of public opinion has swung in favor of the lacrosse players as controversy and criticism have dogged district attorney Mike Nifong’s handling of the case. Multiple DNA tests have found no link between the dancer and the players, and it has been revealed that Nifong never met with accuser and hid evidence that would excuse the players. Not long after the charges were filed, many Duke students could be seen wearing blue bracelets with white letters proclaiming “INNOCENT.” In an October editorial, a science professor accused those who had not supported the lacrosse players of abandoning the Duke family.
“The faculty who publicly savaged the character and reputations of specific men’s lacrosse players last spring should be ashamed of themselves. They should be tarred and feathered, ridden out of town on a rail and removed from the academy,” he wrote.
Holloway says she was deeply shocked by that editorial, and the administration’s failure to offer even a note of support to her.
Later in October, however, the board of trustees elevated the Black studies program to a department. While the program already offered undergraduate and graduate degrees, trustees said at the time that the promotion reflected Duke’s “commitment” to its Black students.
Although Nifong dropped the rape charges last month, the kidnapping case against the three players is set to go to court this spring. Many speculate, however, that the case will never make it to court given the seemingly weak evidence. But regardless of what happens in the case, Duke is already feeling some chilling effects from the tide of negative publicity.
Applications have dropped 3.3 percent since the scandal broke, from 19,387 in 2006 to 18,495 in 2007. The university also received 20 percent fewer early decision applications this year compared to last year.
“We must work together to restore the fabric of mutual respect,” said Duke president Brodhead in a recent letter addressed to the Duke community. “One of the things I have most regretted is the way students and faculty have felt themselves disparaged and their views caricatured in ongoing debates.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
The neighbor was Jason Bissey who lived in the house to the south of the lax house. You have to understand that, all along, a lot this has been about name calling. Mike Nifong thinks that if he can get that insult in front of a jury that it will be like the proverbial red flag in front of a bull and they will convict in a blind rage regardless of any other evidence or non evidence. The fact that Kim Robers, aka "the second dancer", started the racial taunting with "you little dick white boys couldn't get any so you had to hire us" seems to be completely OK with the likes of Nifong and Holloway.
She had a son of her own.
http://tinyurl.com/ya86fc
The 2nd black ho admitted on 60 Minutes that she had started the racial slurs by telling one of the students he was a "little-dick white boy."
They then called her the "N" word. Then on 60 Minutes she said, "Well, they didn't have to use the "N" word. They "could" have said 'black.'"
I suppose it never dawned upon her that she "could" have kept her mouth shut in the first place and didn't have to make reference to their reproductive organs. What a dummy!
Wow, that is quite a story. So her son was a rapist. Maybe that is why she was quick to believe the lacrosse players were too.
Professor of Higher Ebonics.
And...
All this was done based on the "content of character" litmus test espoused by the Great Extortionist himself.
In case you haven't already seen this...
The simplest grammatical error: it's instead of its.
Not surprising in a publication entitled "Diversity Online."
Sorry, but see what?
LOL
One good thing about this perversion of justice is the exposure it has given these clowns.
Looks like an Anita (over the) Hill.
"It's clear Holloway believes justice is exacted at the hands of a frenzied mob and not by a decision of weighed evidence examined by a jury of peers."
Only when applied to whites of course.
http://www.newsobserver.com/141/story/530874.html
Published: Jan 10, 2007 11:29 AM
Modified: Jan 10, 2007 12:23 PM
NCCU death suspect still in custody
Shannon Crawley, arrested in the killing of an N.C. Central University student last week, remains in police custody after a judge declined to set a bond for the Greensboro woman this morning.
Crawley, 27, was arrested last night in the death of Denita Smith, whose body was found at the bottom of a staircase at Campus Crossings, an apartment complex that houses students.
Crawley's attorney, Bruce Lee of Greensboro, declined to comment on the case.
Crawley shuffled into the Durham courtroom in white scrubs and jail-issue slippers, her shoulders slumped and her eyelids drooping. She sat on a bench to face the judge, who charged her with murder.
Crawley, who has two elementary-school aged children, has no prior record, an assistant district attorney told the judge, except that she failed to appear in court a year ago on a charge of driving without her license.
Lee said he hadn't talked to Crawley and was on his way to the fifth floor of the jail to visit her.
Meanwhile, two men who appeared to be Crawley's relatives milled around the lobby of the jail, trying to escape a legion of reporters. They declined to comment.
Police released smiling mug shots of Crawley Tuesday night when they announced her arrest. This morning, new photos had been taken at the Durham jail, showing a a sullen girl with tear-streaked cheeks.
Those smiling pictures were mug shots? I thought surely those must be her ID pictures from the Greensboro PD!
This article.
So she wanted the Duke administration to come to her defense (regarding the allegations against her) but she would withhold the same from the Lacrosse players?
I see.
That is my view. This is a great step that a racist who would resign such a committee because of the race of the students readmitted is off such a committee. Getting racists, who you know would not be resigning if the readmitted students were black, off of a committee to see how to improve racial relations at Duke is a necessary step toward actually being able to improve race relations at Duke.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Duke students...
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