cautionary tales beneath the Nifong/Duke debacle

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 4:07pm

Now that this chapter is closing -- Duke just settled with players out of court-- aren't there unerlying lessons beyond the obvious ones about overarching ambition and nefarious acts of political desperation?

What about the subtler overlap of gnarly issues of gender, race, class and privilege? As a father of a teenager who'll be heading to college in a couple of years, I think we should pause and offer our sons a few pragmatic tips -- maybe scare the hell outta them. Those fellas did not rape that girl. And "something" (illegal) did not happen, as Nifong still suggests, a ludicrously self-serving rationale.

Yet I'd hope other groups of more privileged white boys will stop and think before they ask a poorer woman of color to strip in their private quarters. Dear sons, if you're going to play with matches, watch out. Fire can be shouted in your crowded frat house. Go watch the pole dancers. Rent SHOWGIRLS. Don't feel entitled to a particular set of fun and games without the possibility that someone will feel exploited and/or exploit the circumstance herself. To be responsible is to be self-protecting.

And though I don't personally care if consenting semi-adults want to create their own one-night-only clubs ... it's been surprising to me in this "values voters" culture how few people have denounced the climate of boys-will-be-boys behavior that allowed these false accusations to be made. The far right and Fox News preach abstinence-only sex education and indeed "lifestyle" pre-marriage, don't want condom distribution to discourage pregnancy (or even HIV in Africa), but are strangely silent about the lurid evening these young Lacrosse heroes planned for themselves. Fox has been obsessed with their victim status -- the backlash against good white boys just because they're good and white and boys -- while carefully sidestepping the exploitative behavior that allowed the accusations.

The same culture that gasped and stomped its feet over a flash of Janet Jackson's breasts -- at the hand of a white boy -- seems unconcerned by the MO and moral compass employed in this particular rite of passage. Moral relativism reaches into many pockets of our society. Perhaps as everybody voices their relief and gloatingly await Nifong's public stoning we should continue to examine the ancilliary issues. Like the OJ case, this one holds a mirror up and reveals more than one 56 old white man's narcissism.

Updated On: 6/18/07 at 04:07 PM

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:21pm

"...a poorer woman of color to strip in their private quarters..."

Are you saying it would have been better if they had asked a WHITE hooker with traces of 4 different men's semen?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:26pm

hell, with their means they could have hired a girl from a reputable escort service regardless of her color and avoided this whole fiasco.

moral: if you're going to pay for it, buy quality.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:32pm

An excellent book, just out.


It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:35pm

I'm saying, if you hire a hooker to do a private show for a horny team, look closely at the way the situation can be exploited. At all salient points. The race and socioeconomic plight of the women are not arbitrary factors in predicting catastrophe for all parties. Watching Meridth Veira fall all over the Seligman kid today I realized how we want a happy ending with a tidy moral. She didn't once say "do you regret hiring a stripper? The tale has now become a simple morality story -- American's favorite kind: An evil liar got in cahoots with a self-serving DA and brought down a group of squeeky clean model citizens to be. The End.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 6/18/07 at 5:36pm

Thanks, I look forward to reading the book.