"[Duke's] loss does not diminish the lesson to be learned from the Blue Devils and their handling of the false rape allegations that made us take interest in them in the first place.posted by ericb at 8:30 AM on May 29, 2007
The Blue Devils are to be congratulated for surviving the past year and advancing all the way to the NCAA title game. The Duke lacrosse program and its players were demonized by overzealous media representatives, academics who hate jocks and racial opportunists. Typical, irresponsible college behavior (underage drinking) was used as an excuse to paint the Duke players as potential skinheads.
Their 2006 season was stolen. Three Duke players faced criminal charges for a year. Many students and faculty member on their own campus turned on them and staged protests. The Blue Devils, 17-3, not only survived, but they thrived. They didn’t wallow in victimhood. They took the field and went about the job of debunking their critics.
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve become obsessed with victimhood and its ability to cripple the very people who cling to it like a Tic Tac at an onion buffet.
Years ago I met Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, the boxer who was imprisoned 20 years for murders he did not commit, and Carter explained to me his philosophy that hate and bitterness destroy the vessel that carry them.
I didn’t truly understand Carter’s mentality until recently, until I fully grasped how a victim’s mind-set had overtaken too many young people and began fueling a bitterness that was swallowing and destroying the very people who see themselves only as victims.
No doubt, many of the Duke lacrosse players come from relative wealth, so it is easier for them to see themselves as more than victims of an agenda-driven prosecutor, cowardly school administrators and black activists looking for racial (in)justice.
However, we should still take note of their reaction to persecutor Mike Nifong’s misconduct. Former Duke coach Mike Pressler and former Blue Devil players David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were victims in every meaning of the word.
Based on the shaky word of two escorts, Duke canned Pressler, and Nifong slaughtered the reputations of three college students.
Oh, and talk-show host Nancy Grace used her CNN television platform to vilify and convict the players on a near weekly basis. On the day the players were exonerated by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Grace took the day off from her talk show.
Yes, I’m going to compare this to Rutgers and Don Imus.
Grace sat on national TV and contributed to an atmosphere that tried to incarcerate three innocent men for a crime that had virtually no corroborating evidence. As far as I know, no one has demanded her resignation, called for a meeting at the governor’s mansion or asked for an apology. She’s free to sit as judge, jury and executioner for ratings again.
Meanwhile, Don Imus had to be eliminated for cracking a tasteless, insensitive and unfunny joke.
Why? Because we (black people) are too invested in maintaining our victim’s status. Imus gave us an excuse to say nothing has really changed. And as long as we’re victims, we’re not responsible for our salvation or progress. This mind-set must be rejected.
And so does the tradition of passing old bitterness onto our young people. America has made tremendous racial progress. This cannot be denied. It is fact. We make a mistake when we spend more time preparing young people for the racism that they will surely face in America rather than preparing them for the opportunities that await them.
If the message to black youths is that America is racist and set up to prevent their success, we cannot be surprised that black youths have embraced a culture (hip-hop) that expresses hopelessness and negative values.
Just as a divorced/single parent can permanently damage the psyche of a child by burdening them with their feelings of hurt and despair toward the other parent, an adult can do the same thing to young people by feeding them their racial animosity.
No matter how valid your feelings of victimhood, they do not empower the sympathizers you try to recruit. Your feelings of victimhood oppress.
Your fundamental belief that you control your destiny empowers you and strikes fear in the people who try to limit your success.
The cliché is true: Success is the best revenge. Just ask the Duke lacrosse players."
"....for the 41 Blue Devils who've overcome so much, they know a single lacrosse game doesn't end a thing. But by listening to the players and to their coach and their families and their fans, what we also realized yesterday is that for the rest of us, it's not really over either.posted by ericb at 10:59 AM on May 29, 2007
The indictments are gone. The charges dropped. But the ugly themes and intrinsic conflicts remain.
We learned small things about a mostly inconsequential lacrosse program -- some terrible (a string of criminal offenses by players) and some admirable (a perfect graduation rate). But we learned a lot more about ourselves, about societal nature, media coverage and knee-jerk judgments. About the stereotypes, tendencies and inherent discord that continue to divide us -- be it geographically, racially or economically -- like some sort of tectonic shift. This case that seemed to ignore truth for so long managed to reveal some pretty ugly truths in the process.
‘That's the world,’ Duke coach John Danowski said. ‘The world is about politics, it's not about right or wrong or the truth.’
As yesterday's loss slowly settled in, players were pensive, even philosophical, about all they've endured. They know that win or lose, they'll forever compete and live and work under a label. This is a team of players who've seen their faces on ‘wanted’ signs, whose teachers petitioned against them, whose fellow students marched against them, calling for their expulsions, their contrition and even their castration.
‘There is a dark cloud over us,’ defender Eric McFadyen said..
So, no doubt, some people found relief, maybe even joy, in Duke's loss yesterday. For others, it darkened the shade of blue through which we've come to view this star-crossed lot, a group whose college education barely strayed from the same lesson: No, life isn't always fair.
Mike Pressler, the former Duke coach who watched yesterday's game from the stands, walked through the Blue Devils' post-game locker room. His face was red from the sun, and a pair of dark sunglasses hid his eyes as he walked from locker to locker, sharing back-slapping hugs with each of his former players. It wasn't hello and it wasn't goodbye. It wasn't congrats or condolences, either.
It was an emotional greeting, a friendly recognition that they'd all lived through something together, and that they'd all continue to live through it. Their perspective is as unique as the conclusions they each take away. While the world stared at them in the fishbowl, they were staring back at the rest of us. We know now whose view was scarier.
It's sad how what we thought was a case of three young men finding their innocence has evolved into a realization that ultimately what these athletes have gone through wasn't really about innocence found, but rather innocence lost."
"The players also acknowledged that their families had the monetary means to afford a defense that ultimately proved their innocence, and said prosecutors and police need to be kept in check to prevent similar 'railroading' of those less well off."*posted by ericb at 2:16 PM on May 29, 2007
• Kenneth EngAnd so, please begrudge me my interest in this case, as it appears as so many things to so many different people, and to me, I find that funny - both funny ha-ha and funny strange.
• Rastafarians and Klansmen teaming up to overthrow Caribbean governments
• Colognia Dignidad
• White supremacists
• Black supremacists
• White supremacists who convert to Hinduism and write strange, flowery novels about cats and the mystic properties of Hitler
• White trash
• The murder of Kathryn Johnston
• The position of the Klan in the Progressive Movement, and how repulsive this appears to anyone nowadays
"...these three individuals are innocent of these charges.Mike Nifong -- Rogue Prosecutor.
Now, we approached this case with the understanding that rape and sexual assault victims often have some inconsistencies in their account of a traumatic event. However, in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house on that night.
Now, the prosecuting witness in this case responded to our questions and offered information. She did want to move forward with the prosecution.
However, the contradictions in her many versions of what occurred and the conflicts between what she said occurred and other evidence like photographs and phone records, could not be rectified.
Our investigation shows that the eyewitness identification procedures were faulty and unreliable. No DNA confirms the accuser's story. No other witness confirms her story. Other evidence contradicts her story. She contradicts herself.
....Now, in this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in this case where caution would have served justice better than bravado, and in the rush to condemn a community and a state, lost the ability to see clearly.
Regardless of the reasons that this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong. Today we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.
Now, we have good district attorneys in North Carolina who are both tough and fair, and we need these forceful, independent prosecutors to put criminals away and protect the public, but we also need checks and balances to protect the innocent.
This case shows the enormous consequences of over-reaching by a prosecutor. What has been learned here is that the internal checks on a criminal charge -- sworn statements, reasonable grounds, proper suspect photo lineups, accurate and fair discovery -- all are critically important.
Therefore, I propose a law that the North Carolina Supreme Court have the authority to remove a case from a prosecutor in limited circumstances. This would give the courts a new tool to deal with a prosecutor who needs to step away from a case where justice demands."
"..what do you think about the fact that Duke invited Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty back as students in 'good standing?' What are your thoughts about Brown University inviting Reade to their campus -- and his acceptance of such? What issues relative to class, race, ethics and morals might have been involved in these decisions by the universities? Are Duke and Brown capitulating and ignoring evidence that these boys/men are deserving of disdain and censure? What is 'at play' in their respective positions and decisions?"I am curious as to how your responses|positions [in any offline e-mail, and here in this very thread] will "square" with the various statements you have previously made?
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posted by supercrayon at 4:04 PM on May 28, 2007