Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Duke Rape Deux

I referred to it yesterday. LaShawn Barber was already all over it. Now, Mary Katherine Ham illuminates the "laughable" difference in coverage.

The News & Observer's omission of race is laughable:

The man is described as being in his late teens or early 20s, about 6-foot-1 and wearing a black do-rag, a gray sweatshirt and blue jeans, according to a police news release.

Why laughable? Because the same story appeared in the Charlotte Observer, written by the same reporter, with "black" included, since it was part of the original police report. It was clearly removed in the Raleigh edition:

Police had not charged anyone late Sunday in connection with the allegations but released a description of a suspect: a black male, in his late teens or early 20s, about 6-feet-1-inch tall and wearing a black do-rag, a gray sweat shirt and blue jeans, according to the news release.
Yes, well, as Ham correctly notes, this never was about protecting women.

More at Right Angles

KC Johnson will be over all this again. Thankfully! I want to reiterate how glad I am that he continues his quest for justice. His tireless work and that of those at Liestoppers could be a catalyst for a major maturation in race relations and the judicial system. It could be a change for the good. Maybe the pendulum will swing back from the vilifying of all white men and land in the middle: treating all people of all genders and colors equally. A girl can hope.

Where are all those pot bangers? (for a definition and description of Pot Bangers, go read his post) Says Johnson:
The movement proceeded through three distinct phases.

1) March 24 through March 30: Fully confident that a rape occurred, the potbangers demanded punishing the lacrosse team and a public posture that focused on the evils of rape.

2) March 31 through April 10: Recognizing that a rape might well not have occurred, the potbangers refused to abandon their denunciation of the lacrosse players, and instead began to stress the team’s alleged racism.

3) April 11 onward: In the aftermath of the DNA evidence, the potbangers shifted wholly to claims that they were never seeking punishment for the lacrosse players, but were merely addressing the broader societal issues of racism and sexism. This approach was coupled with defiant refusals to apologize for their rush to judgment and an emphasis on the drinking habits of the lacrosse players.

The one constant in this progression: having come out strongly against the players early on, the potbangers were determined to find something to justify their assault on the lacrosse players’ character.
The potbangers, MSM, race baiters, academic elite will all remain silent. Heaven forbid, they address a real problem with real consequences: the black crime rate and the social causes (divorce, single parenthood, marginalization of men, the state taking over for the family) that continue to plague their own community. As LaShawn Barber has mentioned before, the crime most black people experience is at the hands of other black people. Is this social injustice unworthy of solutions? Yes, if the solutions are difficult and require a fundamental change in dogma. The problems will continue because they feed a politically correct beast that has no intention of dying.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just more fodder for Tom Wolfe! Actually, he wrote all this up years ago.