Author Mark Antony Neal on his blog NewBlackMan wants us to read - Karla FC Holloway Weighs-in on the Duke Rape Case:
Justice inevitably has an attendant social construction. And this parallelism means that despite what may be our desire, the seriousness of the matter cannot be finally or fully adjudicated in the courts. The appropriate presumption of innocence that follows the players, however the legal case is determined, is neither the critical social indicator of the event, nor the final measure of its cultural facts. Judgments about the issues of race and gender that the lacrosse team's sleazy conduct exposed cannot be left to the courtroom. Just as aspects of their conduct that extend into the social realms of character and integrity should not be the parameters of adjudicatory processes, the consequence of that conduct will not be fully resolved within a legal process...What did she just say? Mr. Neal does not provide an interpretation or any analysis he just provides a listing of Prof. Holloway's academic creds. Help. Karla FC Holloway is the William R. Kenan Professor of English, Law, and Women's Studies at Duke University. Is it some university thing that professors get to have two middle initials?
Despite the damaging logic that associates the credibility of a socio-cultural context to the outcome of the legal process, we will find that even as the accusations that might be legally processed are confined to a courtroom, the cultural and social issues excavated in this upheaval linger...
However, as long as the bodies of women and minorities are evidence as well as restitution, the troubled terrain we labor over is as much a battlefield as it is a sports arena. At this moment, I have little appreciable sense of difference between the requisite conduct and consequence of either space.
Read the Full Essay
It also looks like the duke.edu website is linking to Professor Holloway's essay. See - Women's Studies at Duke University.
Have any Duke professors written any essays pointing out the prosecutorial misconduct of Mike Nifong or supporting the innocence of their three students? Is there an equal time rule at Duke? James E. Coleman Jr. did write a letter to the editor of The News & Observer back in June calling for a special prosecutor. Millions of words for education, but no words for justice?
'AMac' at WindsOfChange.net covers the poor performance of The Fourth Estate:
2006 is turning out to be another anillus horribilis for many of the companies that publish major American Newspapers....Support for alleged victim, J. DARNIELLE : CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP:
A smaller domestic scandal may be--in one sense--in its final week: The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case. It offers lessons in the vulnerability of individuals to abuses of authority, and in the reluctance of some members of The Fourth Estate to let go of a story line they've become attached to--facts be damned....
Closing Thoughts
In the midst of witnessing this demolition-derby-style episode, it can be hard to remember that editors and reporters at institutions like the NYT and the Baltimore Sun are smart, conscientious, hard-working people. Despite that, this sort of self-inflicted damage to institutional credibility is a recurrent theme of the mainstream media.
What goes wrong?
The immediate desire to discredit the young woman in the case makes me sick. It's like the first thing people say when a woman says she was raped is, "Oh, are we sure it was rape?" That infuriates me, this pervasive notion that women just casually lie about something like that, this first-response tendency to protect the accused. You don't see people rushing to explain away people accused of theft or arson or murder nearly as often as you do in a rape case. But you wouldn't lie like that on anybody, right? Neither would I, and neither would most women.Duke Basketball Report - The Latest Hit To The Lacrosse Case:
Let us separate the defendants and the charges for the moment and look at the conduct of the authorities. There is a pattern of conduct which is alarming, and either the city, the state, or the justice department, or a combination of all three, should investigate.Robert KC Johnson asks Twenty Questions:
How could other North Carolina figures in law enforcement allow this record to stand uncondemned, thereby presenting an image to the country that the state routinely conducts investigations in this manner?sources:
Karla FC Holloway Weighs-in on the Duke Rape Case [newblackman, Sept. 18, 2006]
Coda: Bodies of Evidence [Karla FC Holloway | columbia.edu]
The Duke Lacrosse Rape Hoax: Witnessing a Media Train Wreck [WindsOfChange.net, Sept. 19, 2006]
J. DARNIELLE : CAN'T STOP, WON'T STOP [maireadcase, Sept. 18, 2006]
The Latest Hit To The Lacrosse Case [DukeBasketballReport.com, Sept. 19, 2006]
Twenty Questions [DurhamWonderland, Sept. 19, 2006]
