As always, check out Justice4TwoSisters, the blog dedicated to coverage of this case.
Many of the following links I found through either Justice4TwoSisters or Abyss2Hope.
Rachel’s Tavern: Survey Shows Race Has Strong Effect on Believing Victim; Sex Does Not
Males were slightly more likely than females to believe the rape occurred. An overwhelming number of black respondents – – 72 percent – – believed that a rape occurred, while just 27 percent of whites agreed. Fifty-six percent of whites did not believe the rape accusation, with only 15 percent of blacks agreeing.
Newsweek Cover Story on Duke Rape Allegations
Pretty good accounting of all the known facts and claims (up to the time the story was written, anyhow).
Abyss2Hope: More About College Stripping
I find it interesting that the men actively involved in stripping (if you’re a customer, you are involved) are seen as making acceptable choices while women involved in stripping are seen as making unacceptable choices.
Cash Michaels: High-Tech Lynching of Alleged Victim Intensifies
Black Looks: Black Women’s Bodies
We return then to the belief that when it comes to rape and sexual assault, women bring it on themselves. It is their rape rather than the man’s or men’s rape. If and a big if hangs over both cases in the minds of many, the women were in fact raped, then they have only themselves to blame. One an exotic dancer and single mother and the other a HIV+ woman with a sexual history. The story does not change. It is always about the woman being raped but never about the man or men who are doing the raping.
Black Commentator: Rape on the intersection between race and sex
Though some have downplayed the significance of race in this case ““ violence against women is violence against women ““ the intersection of race and gender is palpable. As Greg Garber notes in his fine coverage of the case for ESPN.com (“Turbulent Times for Duke and Durham,” 3 April 2006), the default request for exotic dancers at mainstream escort agencies is for white women (preferably blonde and big-breasted). Thus in all likelihood, regardless of what happened inside of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd, the young men were hoping to consume something that they felt that a black woman uniquely possessed. If these young men did in fact rape, sodomize, rob, and beat this young woman, it wasn’t simply because she was a woman: but because she was a black woman.
Hugo Schwyzer: Some Thoughts on Gang Bangs and “Proving It”
The thrill of the gang bang — or gang rape, which is different — is not the sex: it’s the audience. Pardon the vulgarity: but the real payoff is not to fuck, but to be seen fucking.
Feminist Law Professors: This is Why Rape is Underreported
BlackProf.com: What Isn’t Being Discussed
The one aspect of the case where there appears to be no controversy…that several of the young White men shouted racial slurs at the two Black exotic dancers…seems to have fallen off the public and media radar.
Time Magazine: Why the Cabdriver’s Testimony Could Help the Prosecution
Who knows how it’ll turn out; but according to this article, the cabdriver’s testimony – presented as an alibi by one of the defendants – may discredit the time stamps on the photos, which have also been presented as proof of innocence. I don’t want to make too much of this story, but I think it’s a good example of how it’s hard to form a judgement about the meaning of evidence based on only hearing one side’s arguments; and now that the DA has (thankfully) stopped blabbing to the press every second, the only side we’re hearing from is the defense.
TalkLeft: The Impropriety of the DA’s Comments
I’m not a fan of the D.A.. I appreciate that he’s pursuing the case – although I wonder if he would have if there hadn’t been so much activist interest – but I don’t have a lot of faith that he’s pursuing it in a competent fashion, or that he’s arrested the correct men. And a lot of his early interviews felt like glory-hounding to me.
Slate: Be Careful What You Think You Know
One might hope that all this evidence, and the unambiguous legal charges, would lead to reasonable legal inferences and unequivocal legal conclusions. But that is where we’d be dead wrong. Because the so-called objective “evidence” currently being meticulously weighed and evaluated by the media is no more “objective” or “conclusive” than the rank speculation by the pundits. Everything we are hearing about the DNA tests and the photos is selective, secondhand, and anecdotal. We are being played by the lawyers, with leaks and well-chosen sound bites.
CNN: Interview with Essence Reporter
Some really useless speculation about Mary Doe’s psychological state here. But I’m linking to it because of the really distressing news that Mary Doe is virtually on the run, moving with her kids from undisclosed location to undisclosed location every few days, and worried about threats she’s received. This is one reason rape is an under-reported crime.
Lisa Bloom: Is This Any Way To Resolve A Rape Case?
We need a system we’d encourage our daughters to use if, God forbid, they were a rape victim in a high-profile case. Making it to trial should not be only for the strong and well-funded. If the law is to protect even women with criminal records, low incomes and complicated histories from rape, then the system needs to step up and protect women like the Duke accuser, who, after all, did only what we tell sexual assault victims we want them to do: Report immediately, have the rape kit done at the hospital, and don’t grant any media interviews before trial.
Pinko Feminist Hellcat: Duke Rape Charges Bring In The Business
The next time I encounter some tool in a comments thread cautioning against a rush to judgment in the Duke lacrosse rape case–and I must say, I have never read so many cautions against a rush to judgment in my life, about anything–I’m going to ask them to tell it to LaShawn Barber, who pronounced the whole affair a “fake rape” last week. Oh, don’t worry: LaShawn’s hopped aboard the “let’s not have a rush to judgment” train now, of course. It’s okay to rush to judgment, so long as you rush in the right direction.
Ilka Damon: Assuming the victim to be credible
I’d have to conclude that you could certainly look at the whole mess as Jill assuming these guys were rapists. I don’t see it that way. I see it as Jill assuming the victim to be credible.
NBC: What Happens To Reported Campus Rapes That Aren’t National News
Trash Talks Back: Not Okay, Not Rare
The thing is this: I don’t think it’s OK to say that what happened with the Duke lacrosse dipshits is rare. It’s not an isolated thing. Rape happens on college campuses A LOT. And rape happens to adult dancers A LOT. It’s a total logical fuck-up, the way this thing is being spun.
Inmyhumbleopinion: About that drunk driving conviction
The smear-the-accusor crowd sometimes says that Mary Doe once tried to run over a police officer. In this comment on TalkLeft, IMHO does a good job describing what actually seems to have happened. Drunk joyriding, yes; attempted murder, no.
NOTE: Comments are for feminists and pro-feminists only.
If you’re not a feminist or pro-feminist, you may leave comments at the same post on Creative Destruction.
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The poll showing that race was a bigger factor than sex in whether people believed the rape came from a local Raliegh – Durham television station that surveyed its viewing area. I grew up in VA and NC and am not at all surprised that race was bigger factor there. It would be interesting to see how factors in this in other parts of the country. My guess is that it would still matter more, but not by as much. I know racism is bad everywhere, but if you haven’t lived in the South, it is hard to imagine just how bad it is there. But I could be wrong, I would need to see the numbers.
By the way, these particular numbers really are astounding. Whenever I see breakdowns purporting to show huge differences in opinions between two groups, I like to add the disident numbers, and I usually find that a vast majority of people were not affected by their group status. For example, if a survey shows that 61% of men believe A and 39% beleive ~A, while 56% of women believe ~A and only 44% believe A, the news reports will usually talk about how this shows how much men and women think differently. But adding 39% of men who believe ~A to the 44% of women who beleive A, you get 83% of people whose opinions may not have been determined by their sex. Usually this method debunks a lot of supposed differences.
But here, if you add the 27% of whites who believe the rape to the 15% of blacks who do not, you only get 42%, meaning the opinions of 58% of the population in the Durham Triangle area hold opinions shaped primarily by their race.
nubian was right…