Duke's devil of a mess: with the rape case against three Duke lacrosse players unraveling, a group of Black faculty are now accused of rushing to judgment

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, March 8, 2007 by Christina Asquith

DURHAM, N.C.

Last spring, at the height of the frenzy over accusations that three Duke University men's lacrosse players had gang raped a Black exotic dancer during a party, faculty from Duke's African and African American studies department chose to take a stand.

With emotions running high, the faculty decided to take out a full-page advertisement in student newspaper, the Duke Chronicle, quoting the fears that minority students had expressed in a recent campus forum.

"I wonder now about everything ... if something like this happens to me, what would be used against me? My clothing?" one student had asked.

"This is not a different experience for us here at Duke University," another student said. "We go to class with racist classmates, we go to the gym with people who are racists ... It's part of the experience."

While almost no criminal evidence had been made public at that early stage as to whether a rape had actually occurred, professors felt that the Black students' broader complaints over racism and sexism on campus should be aired.

"Black students were being told, 'There isn't any racism or sexism, and if you talk about that, you're attacking the lacrosse players,'" recalls Dr. Wahneema Lubiano, an associate professor of literature in the AAAS department. "Every time we raised it, people told us to shut up."

The ad received endorsements from a total of 88 professors representing 13 departments, mostly in the humanities. The Chronicle ran the ad on April 6th, 2006, to little fanfare.

However, a year later, it has taken center stage in a blogger-fueled campaign against the professors, saying they falsely accused the lacrosse players. The issue has turned personal, and three professors have received death threats.

The rape charges have now been dismissed, the alleged victim has been largely discredited and District Attorney Mike Nifong is under investigation for ethics violations. With the case unraveling, the Group of 88, as they have been referred to, are now facing fierce criticism that their own biases fueled a "lynch-mob mentality" on campus that has destroyed the reputations of three young men, whose families are saddled with more than $3 million in legal fees. One lacrosse player has filed a lawsuit against visiting political science professor Kim Curtis, saying he was failed because he was a member of the team.

"The impact of the ad was devastating," says Dr. Steven Baldwin, a chemistry professor at Duke. "This was a large segment of faculty, some highly respected, and it really swung the pendulum against the lacrosse players."

The Swinging Pendulum

Members of the Group of 88 say they have received hundreds of e-mails, many of which were racist and threatening in tone. In January, Fox TV news cameras showed up unannounced at the home of two professors, demanding to know if they "felt bad ... for convicting the players." Duke alumni, who are known for their generous donations to the university, have complained to the administration about the faculty.

In response, a handful of the embattled professors are actually turning up the volume instead of backing down. In published statements, they say the "social disaster" ad did not deal with the lacrosse players' guilt or innocence, and they accuse their critics of attacking their scholarship and trying to silence their calls to end racism and sexism at Duke.

"There's a whole industry out there seizing on the opportunity to pillory a group of faculty members as leftist, racist, elitist, avant-garde Marxist people," says Dr. William Chafe, a history professor and one of the 88 signatories. "They are creating a wonderful straw person to attack."

But the groups defending the players, which include Duke alumni, students, professors, and a Brooklyn college professor who runs the popular blog Durham in Wonderland, say the lacrosse players are the victims.

Jason Trumpbour, a Duke alumnus and spokesman for Friends of Duke, a group formed last year to defend the lacrosse players, calls Chafe's comment "ridiculous."

"This isn't about ideology," Trumpbour says. "What we're criticizing them of doing is prejudging the guilt of the lacrosse players and using the players' troubles to call attention to their own social issues."

Sorting Out the Victims

Did the Group of 88 rush to judgment, and in doing so act out the exact prejudices they aim to combat?

Perhaps the most vociferous attack on the lacrosse players came days after the rape allegations aired. Dr. Houston A. Baker Jr., the former president of the Modern Language Association and a former endowed chair at the university, wrote a scathing letter to the administration, which he made public.

"Young, white, violent, drunken men among us--implicitly boasted by our athletic directors and administrators--have injured lives," he wrote.

University provost Peter Lange, the administration's top academic officer, accused Baker of prejudice for "presuming one knows something must have been done by or done to someone because of his or her race."

"We will not rush to judgment," Lange wrote in a response to Baker. Shortly thereafter, Baker and his wife, Dr. Charlotte Pierce-Baker, left Duke for Vanderbilt University. Baker has not responded to interview requests, and neither he nor the university will comment on his departure.