| "Swaggered for Years"; Ask the media...Where's the MANGUM equal? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 18 2011, 10:55 AM (2,131 Views) | |
| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:36 AM Post #16 |
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From the NYTimes article. # New York Times, April 1, 2006 -- Team's Troubles Shock Few at Duke "Peter H. Wood, a history professor who played lacrosse at Harvard and was captain of the team at Oxford, said that lacrosse players on campus stood out for their aggression, which he said was in some ways endemic to the game they played. Lacrosse was invented by Native Americans, who called it the little brother of war and played it violently, town against town, with hundreds on the field at a time. It was popularized in 20th century in the prep schools of the Northeast. ''The football players here are often rural white boys with baseball caps or hard-working black students who are proud to be at Duke,'' Wood said. ''Basketball players are held at a higher level and are more tightly controlled. Too often, there seems to be a surliness about some lacrosse players' individual demeanor. They seem hostile, and there is this group mentality.'' The team members and Pressler, the coach, have not spoken publicly about the incident or anything that has happened since. Fraternities once attracted many lacrosse players at Duke, and they connected through their sport and their similar socio-economic backgrounds. In recent years, though, the team has banded together outside the fraternity system. Students at Duke are required to live on campus for their first three years; only seniors may live off campus. Several students said that the house where the party was held had served as a de facto fraternity house for the team. The players are also regulars at Charlie's Pub & Grille, a sports bar near campus, where patrons seemed sympathetic to the players and expressed dismay with how they had been portrayed in the news media. ''It's like they've already been convicted,'' said Matt Myers, a contractor. ''If they're guilty, full extent of the law. But if they're not, don't ruin their lives.'' Last Saturday, as protests were being held around campus, including a candlelight vigil at the captains' house, Jill Hopman said she saw about 20 team members at Charlie's. Hopman, who graduated from Duke last year and is a law student at the University of North Carolina, said the players were drinking and breaking into chants of ''Duke lacrosse.'' She said she was nauseated by the display and wrote an opinion piece for The Chronicle. ''It was just sitting there knowing that a candlelight vigil was held at their house, while they are slamming down the shots on the bar,'' Hopman said Friday. ''I don't know if they are guilty or not. I'm all for due process. But I love Duke, and they were under a microscope and were representing us. Forget all the issues about race and affluence and our relationship with the town. The one thing we all have in common is Duke.'' Employees at Charlie's would not comment on whether the players were at the bar last Saturday. Wood, who teaches Native American history, said that over the years he had taught many lacrosse players who were interested in learning about the culture behind their sport. He said that in his experience, the players had become haughtier in recent years, though he could not say why. He said it frustrated him because he remained passionate about the sport. ''It's gotten noticeably worse in the last four or five years,'' he said of the players' attitudes. ''They've gotten more aggressive.'' Wood said the athletic department was partly to blame. Two years ago, before the Blue Devils were to play the perennial power Virginia, several players told him that they were going to miss a Friday morning class. They had played poorly the game before, and Pressler had scheduled an extra practice. Wood said he told the players that he could not excuse their absence and contacted the athletic department to object. Still, they skipped the class. ''To me, that is beyond the pale,'' said Wood, who has taught at Duke for more than 30 years. ''You don't do that at Duke.'' Edited by Joan Foster, Apr 18 2011, 11:37 AM.
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| Quasimodo | Apr 18 2011, 11:37 AM Post #17 |
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Correct. Whoever is in charge of oversight of NCCU's academic standards (often called the "visiting committee" or "visitors" at other schools) should be interested in this. |
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| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:42 AM Post #18 |
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Professor Neal on NPR...http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5437124 Prof. NEAL: Well, one of the problems with the way that women are portrayed in hip-hop is that very rarely they have any agency, is very rarely a sense that they're in control of their bodies when they circulate in these music videos. And I think the reality is that there are folks who can't quite understand, with so many more black men having some form of control over the images that go out with hip-hop - the content of the lyrics, et cetera - why black men would feel compelled to portray black women the way they have been portrayed in some cases. Of course, I'm not talking about all hip-hop, but we're talking about most viscerally, you know, the commercial hip-hop that's out there. And I think part of that has to do with the fact that just as a community, we really have not had serious issues about gender and black women's issues to concretely address how these images circulate within hip-hop. CHIDEYA: You're on the campus of Duke University, you're a professor. You've called yourself a black, male feminist. You're married. You got two baby girls. How do you perceive the mood on the campus of the university? Prof. NEAL: When I talk to some of the African-American women students, there is some concern. I mean, it's been voiced in interviews with many of them that have now circulated around the country and the globe. It's almost as if whenever they're in spaces with men, it's almost as if they're expected to act out the images that these young men have been seeing, have consumed in the context of hip-hop videos. And I think the thing that's really striking about the university - the Duke University lacrosse case, is that folks really can't understand, why were these white guys interested in a black dancer? Well, if they're white guys that are 18 and 19 years old that have been watching BET and MTV for 19 years, they clearly have a specific sensibility about black women's bodies as being available to them, as being a sight for them to enjoy themselves. And, in the worst-case scenario, be able to do anything they want to them sexually without there any - being much resistance. And this really isn't a new phenomenon. I mean, this is the history of black women's bodies in this country, this idea that on the one hand, black women were beyond rape and this idea of black women being hyper-sexualized. What hip-hop has created a context for is that these black women's bodies now circulate in the globe in a way that's unprecedented. And I want to be clear: I'm not saying that this is about hip-hop. This really is about corporate America and corporate America's willingness to circulate these images of black women's bodies around the globe. Hip-hop just happens to be a vehicle where that occurs. |
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| Deleted User | Apr 18 2011, 11:42 AM Post #19 |
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Deleted User
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You will recall that members of the Duke faculty cautioned that "we must keep the victim's humanity before us". What I see coming from Sidney Harr and his ilk is a concerted effort to trump up an alibi for Crystal and not one word so far in print have we seen of sympathy for the loss of life or the suffering of this man's family. Where is the "humanity" of Reginald Daye? |
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| genny6348 | Apr 18 2011, 11:43 AM Post #20 |
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Genny6348
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It has been amazing to watch the lengths that her supporters have gone to paint this woman as something she is not. No amount of finagling can hide the truth of what and who she is. So determined she has been to ruin her own life as well as the lives of others. It is both sad and maddening at the same time. |
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| Deleted User | Apr 18 2011, 11:48 AM Post #21 |
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Prof. Neal . . . . And I want to be clear: I'm not saying that this is about hip-hop. This really is about corporate America and corporate America's willingness to circulate these images of black women's bodies around the globe. Hip-hop just happens to be a vehicle where that occurs. Now it's corporate America's fault. Never should we blame the women who performed in these hip-hop videos and allowed themselves to be viewed as sex toys. No, that simply can't happen in the black community because it has to be someone else's fault and if not whitey, then corporate America. |
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| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:49 AM Post #22 |
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Turbulent times for Duke and Durham By Greg Garber ESPN.com "The issues here," said Chandra Y. Guinn, director of the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, "go far deeper than a single incident. There are pockets of white privilege on this campus, pockets of class privilege. "Our students are focusing on the feelings of hurt and shame of the negative portrayal of Duke students." The students themselves, not surprisingly, are less circumspect. Their anger is palpable. On Thursday, the Concerned Citizens group sponsored an open- mic demonstration on the central quad next to the library. "They're angry because there's been a horrible alleged crime committed by our students," said Nick Shungu, a Duke senior. "The racial aspect only magnifies things." "There's an embedded white supremacy here," said Travis Simons, a Duke divinity student. The alleged victim claims that she was the target of racial slurs, and a 911 tape released by the city features a black woman claiming that a man who came out of the house called her and a black friend "n------" as they walked past. Neighbors also reported that they heard racial slurs. "North Carolina is the Bible Belt, and a fair amount of folks in the black community feel the sexual attack was something the young woman brought on herself," said Mark Anthony Neal, a Duke associate professor who teaches black pop culture in the African-American Studies Department. "On a certain level, they're most concerned with the racial epithets. "For me, this is not simply a case of sexual violence or just a case of racism. It's a case of racialized sexual violence, meaning if it had been a white woman in that room, it would not have gone down the same way. It's difficult for many folks to understand how race and gender came together in this case. You just can't pull them apart." Edited by Joan Foster, Apr 18 2011, 11:51 AM.
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| jarms | Apr 18 2011, 11:50 AM Post #23 |
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Uh....they didn't ask for "black dancers." But heck, that's probably racist too. |
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| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:52 AM Post #24 |
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Same ESPN" article On Wednesday night this week, a caller to WUNC's public radio program, "The State of Things," said that Duke treats the town like a plantation. "That captures it," said Neal, who was a guest on the show. "Durham residents have been looking for a moment like this to address their concerns. This was sort of the last straw. The fact that the university responded at all, I think, was due to that push-back." Betty Greene, a Durham resident for 10 years, lived in New Haven, Conn., for more than a decade. She said she believes the relationship between Durham and Duke is far more fractured than that of Yale University and its Connecticut city. "Last weekend was Duke's minority recruitment," Greene said. "What a welcome for minority students to walk into this story. I'm trying not to call it racial terrorism, but that's really what it is." Edited by Joan Foster, Apr 18 2011, 11:53 AM.
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| nyesq83 | Apr 18 2011, 11:54 AM Post #25 |
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I stand by my caption for Crystal: "Hornswoggled for Years" |
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| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:54 AM Post #26 |
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"A sign of hope among the wreckage? "If the DNA testing comes back and these lacrosse players are found guilty, the school is going to have to make some serious concessions," said Neal, the associate professor. "They're going to have to go to great lengths to make people feel safe." WELL< PROFESSOR NEAL...the DNA CAME BACK NEGATIVE...WHAT HAS DUKE DONE TO MAKE "PEOPLE" FEEL SAFE FROM YOUR RUSH TO JUDGMENT? |
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| Deleted User | Apr 18 2011, 11:55 AM Post #27 |
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Deleted User
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DAMN!, these bastards have been picking Duke's pockets for years and some wench wants to call the atmosphere "racial terrorism". |
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| Joan Foster | Apr 18 2011, 11:56 AM Post #28 |
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DURHAM -- In the vast sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church, nearly a hundred people gathered to talk about weighty issues that caused a lot of shifting in the pews. Clergy, sexual violence counselors, lawyers and community activists gathered at the downtown church Wednesday to further expose and then begin to close fissures that have divided Durham since an escort service dancer told police that three men at a Duke University lacrosse party sexually assaulted her. Leaders of the state chapter of the NAACP called on Durham clergy several weeks ago to pull together the diverse crowd. The intent was to help the city and others across the state take a long look in the mirror to face up to the racism, classism, sexual violence and media sensationalism exposed in the case. "We are trying to speak the truth to each other about issues that aren't often discussed," said the Rev. Joe Harvard, pastor of the host church. In short but provocative messages, eight speakers touched on some of the challenges. The Bible, several religion professors said, includes passages in which women are subservient to men. Racism and religion @@@@@@@ William Turner, another Duke Divinity School professor at the conference, read several excerpts from different times in history that showed a foundation of racism rooted in religion. "I heard a social philosophy of racism clearly articulated in the '50s and '60s," Turner said. "We do not hear such clear articulation today, but the root has not gone away." Amy Laura Hall, a Duke Divinity School professor, said a "new South" that is hush-hush about hatred should dig into a not-so distant past "that's barely covered." In large and small forums, participants at the three-hour conference criticized the media and the defense attorneys. Participants charged that the accuser, an N.C. Central University honors student, is often portrayed more pejoratively on television ticker tapes and in some newspaper articles than are the defendants. "What we're seeing currently are defense attorneys playing the media like a banjo," said Cash Michaels, editor of The Carolinian Newspaper, a twice-weekly black-owned newspaper in Raleigh. Michaels launched a Web site on Mother's Day where people could write in and show support for the accuser. Al McSurely, a lawyer from Chapel Hill, is pushing a "Quiet Zone" proposal in which defense attorneys and the district attorney would stop holding news conferences about the case. Some said they worried that defense attorneys might try to move the case out of Durham, although no such motions have been made. The NAACP conference sparked much discussion but launched few concrete steps. Sexual violence counselors asked for help from clergy with domestic violence issues, particularly when many battered women are still encouraged by their pastors to stay with their husbands and try to overcome problems at home. William Barber, president of the state NAACP chapter, said he hopes to persuade clergy to agree to devote June 2-4 to the domestic violence issue. All who attended said there was much work to be done. "We never intended this conference of being a one-time thing," Barber said. "But we knew there had to be a bringing together of all people so we can begin." Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com. Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2006/05/25/79800/delicate-issues-get-open-scrutiny.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1JtXDFITG Edited by Joan Foster, Apr 18 2011, 11:57 AM.
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| Deleted User | Apr 18 2011, 11:56 AM Post #29 |
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Deleted User
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Didn't Prof. Neal ultimately get out of Dodge? |
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| Deleted User | Apr 18 2011, 11:58 AM Post #30 |
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Deleted User
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The more I read from the past, the more I want to dive into my computer screen. I need to go take my meds. |
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3:29 AM Jul 11