Comments on: Seizing the mantle

By: Michelle

Michelle — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 02:50:16 +0000

Wow, what a mess!
I have avoided commenting on this until now because I never felt like I knew the whole story – while obviously a big story below the 49th parellel, it seems to be pretty well below the radar up here. And yeah, I know, I’m slow but I finally got the time to follow and read all the links tonight.
So again, wow, what a mess! From the point of view of the legal system, it sounds pretty pathetic and disasterous… at least the way its played out. But I wouldn’t doubt for a minute that there weren’t also a whole lot of ad hominem (likely including racist) attacks going on too – the profs at Duke may well have been stupid (there’s just something about the hallowed halls of academia, isn’t there? Like they lose all touch with reality) but given the comments its all too easy to find in online forums, I can imagine what some of those blogs and emails might have looked like. And it seems like some people were just never taught that two wrongs don’t make a right.
One more thought I had, reading the Barber link, she may have personal experience with Duke (I freely admit that I don’t) but I wondered how she could so categorically state that its all about only “perceived” racism at Duke. How does she know for sure whether that one comment was referring to black or white (or both) men? Just saying she comes across as a little biased (the other way) herself.
The sexual assault may or may not have happened – yeah, I’m leaning pretty heavily towards not, or at least not by the defendants named. It certainly ain’t going to stand up in court anyway. But that in itself goes no further in proving that racism doesn’t exist at Duke (or anywhere else for that matter) than it does in proving that racism does exit.
I think all we know for sure is that they appear to have a pretty pathetic prosecutor’s office (when will you guys figure it out – don’t make them elected officials!) down that way, a complainant with extremely questionable credibility (although to be fair does anyone know whether or not she has been receiving/reacting to some form of external pressure – just asking) and faculty who appear to have some “issues”, as in knowing when to speak and when not to, and who may well (or may not) be constructing their own version of reality.
Like I said – a real mess! And I know, there’s a pretty good chance no one will actually even read this now, being just a little below the fold, but at least I got to say what was on my mind.

By: Phil Andrilla

Phil Andrilla — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 15:15:16 +0000

Can you say BASKETBALL?The Blue Devils will buy themselves a few 6′9″ shoot the eyes out of the basket phenoms and bingo, everybody(presently under the age of 15)will want to go to Duke again.

By: Kris, in New England

Kris, in New England — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:41:45 +0000

From B2 in #3 above: “…I just thought they were a bunch of typical professorial pinheads…”

Truer words haven’t been spoken about the tenured members of academia in a long time. While I don’t mean to brush this entire population with a broad stroke…it seems to fit the majority.

I hope the families of the young men sue Duke, the DA, the crime lab and the local police BLIND. There isn’t any amount of money that can give them back what they’ve lost; for so many a charge of guilty in the media will be a black mark upon their lives for years to come. And the entire process has certainly given them an “education” they likely would have preferred to miss. But a message needs to be sent – loud and clear and expensive – to those involved.

By: lex

lex — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:10:39 +0000

prowlerguy, it is clear tha my intention was poorly executed. Ms. Barber’s body of work stands in stark contrast to that of Group of 88. My juxtaposition of her entry within the text was meant to highlight the fact that not everyone within the African American community subscribes to the politics of victimization.

By: CPT J

CPT J — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:44:35 +0000

Follow the money. Whither it cometh, whither it goeth. In the future, it likely goeth away.

If I was in the Duke development office, I’d be sending out resumes to serious schools and fund-raising organizations that appreciated their staff. Smart, capable people of any race or gender know they don’t have to be held hostage by fanatics and nitwits of any race or gender.

The perfect justice of tenure is that Duke is now stuck with these 88 idiots forever. The civil lawsuits will be a serious drain on the university’s resources. Since the 88 like attention, they’ll probably find new causes to pontificate on, and new ways to go on biting the hand that feeds them.

By: prowlerguy600

prowlerguy600 — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:24:18 +0000

Perhaps you and I read a different blog entry by Ms. Barber, but I didn’t see her doing anything like what you attribute to him. In fact, it would be strange for an African American woman to do what you claim.

However, it does seem that such muddle-headed thinking and “I’m a victim, pay me GD it!” thinking is attracted to and is generated by the two departments whose majority signed on in the lynching of the evil white men:Women’s Studies and AA Studies.