At Duke, It's Getting Predictable
Students at North Carolina Central University held a
vigil yesterday to show their support for a fellow student who says she was raped by three members of the Duke lacrosse team. At the vigil, students could sign a banner and t-shirts protesting violence against women, and a lesbian (self-identified) told the crowd that she had been raped (by a man). A local artist who's part of a group called Men Against Rape Culture read a poem.
It's all getting a little predictable, isn't it? Any moment, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are going to arrive.
I don't mean to sound cynical. I'm against sexual violence as much as the next guy. (Probably more than the Duke lacrosse team, from the sound of it.) I'm no fan of rape culture. I'm not even sure what it is, but I know I'm not a fan of it.
All satirical asides aside, the problem is that no one really knows what happened, other than the people who were present. (And even they may genuinely believe contradictory accounts.) Shouldn't that be more definitively established before the alleged crime gets transformed into a larger political, cultural and racial issue?
As a longtime New Yorker, I can never forget
the Tawana Brawley case, and the troubles that the men falsely accused in that hideous fiasco (by, among others, Al Sharpton) have had recovering their reputations....
...which is not to say that I have any idea what really happened. Just that I get nervous when people start holding rallies about alleged crimes.
One final caveat, before you all start reaming me out: One of the NCCU students suggested that if their football team (all black, I think) had been accused of raping a white woman, the accused would be in jail by now. I'd like to think that's not true...but that may be wishful thinking.
