STRIPPERS AND JOCKS-The Self Debasing and the Debasers, always a volatile mix

She said Adam, Matt and Brett did it. He/they said they didn't do it. She said they pulled her into the bathroom and sexually assaulted her for 30 minutes. She also said that she was hit, kicked and strangled during the attack. http://www.wral.com/slideshow/news/8256201/detail.html?qs=;s=4;w=500

She is an African American woman with two children attending North Carolina Central University supporting herself and children by dancing naked for men at private parties and working as an escort three days a week. She has accused three men, two of whom reportedly are Captains of the second ranked, nationally respected Duke University Lacrosse Team.

The alleged assault took place March 14th just after midnight at an off-campus house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. which is rented by three unnamed team members. Two women reported to the house just before midnight to perform exotic dances for approximately 40 or so drunk and rowdy partiers. The women were embarrassed, ridiculed, and called nigger. It is also reported that the women were pressured to refund the $400 collected to pay for the dances. It got out of hand, the women became upset and left. As they left one of the partiers was heard to holler at one of the women, '... Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt,' which may have alluded to the days of cotton picking slaves.

At 12:53AM one of the two women called in to 911 to report that they had been called niggers, a racial slur that doesn't sit too well, especially if it comes from the mouths of privileged white boys. The caller said that they were not hurt. The caller was also doing her best to hold back her tears. http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/421799.html

At 1:22 AM a security guard at Krogers called 911 to report a woman that was "drunk or something" and refuses to get out of a car. The owner of the car, a woman by the name of Kim and the woman that called 911 earlier that night at 12:53, is heard saying in the background that "maybe they can take her where she wants to go" and said that she would explain what happened when police arrived.

On the 16th of March police obtained a search warrant and recovered several items belonging to one of the strippers there on the 14th. Red fake fingernails and a cell phone were a couple of the items recovered from the house on Buchanan.

Several members of the community became outraged when news of this did not hit the media until last week when the victim came forward. Since then a lynch mob has formed to rally behind the accuser.

Over 200 angry people gathered Monday to make their voices heard. One woman was quoted as saying, "This is a matter of white privilege," senior Tiana Mack said. "When I read what was going on, it made me think about Jim Crow.... If these three culprits get away with it, it will prove to me that Duke does not honor the black woman's body."

Two hundred people rallying behind a woman that chooses to feed her two babies by pimping herself, her body.. two hundred people, mostly women, that are relying on the word of an anonymous woman they never met or will meet. A woman with a questionable criminal background and perhaps a sad story of mental instability. A woman that could or not be telling the truth.

Now I dare to bring a victim into question only to make a point. Where were these 200 outraged people when a little child was beaten with PVC pipes and suffocated? Where were they when the murderer of a 7 year old girl was released on bond while awaiting trial for First Degree Murder? Where were they after Michelle Bullard was abducted at gunpoint from the home of her friends and where is the outrage over law enforcement's bungling of that case by labeling her and the other victims in the house that night as suspects in her own disappearance? Where is the investigative news reports looking into these cases and the follow-ups?

Sure a woman is crying rape, someone's daughter, granddaughter says she was brutally attacked, "gang raped" I believe the headlines call it. This is a brutal world and unfortunately these crimes are all too frequent and more often that not the perpetrator usually skates to do it again someday.

The white members of the Duke lacrosse team did submit their DNA to authorities and have been said to have been cooperative with the police investigation. There are at least two sides to every story and evidence will decide which side Durham District Attorney Nifong will believe.

At the very least this case is about a proud, angry black woman that was made fun of and called a nigger and is seeking revenge. At the worst it is about privileged white boys subjecting a woman to one of the worst crimes you can commit and an attempted cover-up by fellow students. Either way it is an awakening or a nightmare.

I want to believe that there was no sexual assault, perhaps it is because my family donated the School of Engineering Library to Duke and my father once played football there, perhaps it is because I am a male and these allegations cast a shadow on my own personna as being male. I want to believe boys will be boys and all prostitutes lie. But I am also tempted to grab me a rope and join in on the lynch mob because of the same reasons I listed above. I hate this, I hate everything about it.

Comments

[Yolanda]

you would see it this way being rich and white.

walk a day in my shoes and see the world from a poor african american's perspective.

there will be no justice here.

there never is.

[Duane Bell]

What ever happened to "Innocent until Proven Guilty"? Not only is their now a good chance nothing happened, but these men must pay to defend theirselves. What if they didn't have the finances needed. No one talks about any of this. "Nigger" is such an awful word. how about making these gentlemen wear signs showing everyone their awful taste in vocabulary? But this is going too far. Innocent Until "PROVEN" Guilty. Please. This is the foundation of our country. Please.

[Magnolia]

I beg to differ. This has the name Tawana Brawley all over it.
The truth is,Yolanda, that there is no longer justice for white folks, rich or poor. We have to find them guilty to avoid the rioting that will ensue if we don't. A black person,found guilty,will eventually be freed with the race card.Unless of course,his crime was against one of his own race. And you don't like him,anyway.
The Duke guys? I don't see them having anything close to a fair trial. If they proved the woman was dead a week beofe this happened,even..they would have to be found guilty, because they are white. Being white is now a sin,obviously. Where is the "equality" in being forced to find someone guilty because you racists blacks will burn down our homes if we don't?