| Revised book review: "Race to Injustice" | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 9 2010, 01:51 PM (281 Views) | |
| Quasimodo | Nov 9 2010, 01:51 PM Post #1 |
|
Race to Injustice: Lessons Learned from the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, by Michael L. Seigel (a compendium of articles by various authors about different aspects of the case) My first impressions of this book--sight unseen--were unfavorable, considering its chapter headings (which were all that was available) : "Alcohol Consumption on College Campuses" (I suppose a study of Scottsboro should concentrate on "riding the rails without buying a ticket"?) "Invisible Criminality: Male Peer Support Groups, Alcohol, and the Risk of Aggressive Sexual Behavior" and my favorite: "Black Venus Hotentot Revisited: Gratuitious Use of Women of Color's Bodies and the Role of Race and Gender in Campus and Academic Relations". At $32.00 a copy, I decided to pass on this one. However, recently I noted that a copy was available on Amazon for $2.98. So I took a chance. And while it is indeed necessary to keep a hurl bag handy, some of the included essays are actually worthwhile. Edited by Quasimodo, Nov 9 2010, 01:52 PM.
|
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 9 2010, 01:55 PM Post #2 |
|
Sample from the chapter on The Town Gown Relationship:
[I disagree with this last point, in that I believe Durham supported Mangum for the same stereotyped reasons Scottsboro suppored Victoria Price--that is, to preserve and reinforce the existing relationship between the races. IMHO bigotry played a major part in both cases. But I digress…] |
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 9 2010, 02:02 PM Post #3 |
|
Sample from the chapter on The Moment of Truth:
|
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 9 2010, 02:11 PM Post #4 |
|
I have not examined the entire book yet (it only arrived yesterday) but at first glance it does appear to contain good discussions of the flawed ID session and other legal aspects of the case. It is a bit disconcerting to see some of the standard myths repeated by some of the authors, along with some of the expected arguments; but some of the articles have real value; and, for instance, like the DNA chapter, they preserve in print form a good deal of information about the case which might otherwise be lost to time and the vagaries of the Internet. This book is evidently being used as a text (my copy has a used text sticker on it). And there is still the expected : "The Duke lacrosse case is a story that is crucially centered on our inability to address and undo our longstanding assumptions about women of color's bodies." (I don't think it was the women of color who were the objects of prejudice in this case...) But if you can be prepared to discard the unpalatable and distorted, the remainder of the book might be worth a keep for the sake of those positive articles which are included. |
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 9 2010, 02:59 PM Post #5 |
|
A sample of the dangers of being too far from events and analyzing them in an 'antiseptic' mode:
And all along I thought that Nifong never believed Mangum and that the players were vulnerable to her scam exactly because of their "status" as white students at Duke... (And I guess prosecutor Knight should be credited with believing a woman who was lower class when she cried rape, because women never lie about rape and women who work in the sex trade have difficulty getting anyone to believe them. Judge Horton even said that such women were not to be believed, absent convincing proof and evidence. . . clearly he was exhibiting, not realism, but a retrograde attitude towards women and his decision only reinforced a patriarchal view of society... (sarc/off) |
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 12 2010, 08:27 AM Post #6 |
|
Hurl moment: from the chapter Prosecutorial Discretion Meets Disaster Capitalism:
[As if maybe their innocence should not have been declared? As if maybe it might take MORE than just a single declaration of innocence to erase a year's worth of calculated defamation? As if they were not entitled to that--and MORE--in order to get their wrongly-damaged names restored?] [As for Mangum, what humiliation did she suffer? She seems IMHO to have done nicely--even graduated without missing a day.] [Are we supposed to have sympathy doled out also for Victoria Price--that poor woman who suffered humiliation in Alabama courts because she was vilified by the defense team for the Scottsboro boys?] |
![]() |
|
| Quasimodo | Nov 12 2010, 08:43 AM Post #7 |
|
From the chapter Black Hottentot Venus Revisited:
No less an expert than Karla Holloway gets quoted extensively in a footnote... Edited by Quasimodo, Nov 12 2010, 08:44 AM.
|
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers · Next Topic » |







9:14 AM Jul 11