the Centrist

          Perhaps there is no better example of how tenuous it is today to be a young middle class white male in a society gone awry with Political Correctness (PC) than that of the “Duke Lacrosse Rape Case”.  It seems to this columnist that it is obvious that from the beginning these men were considered guilty until proven innocent … their only crime … being young middle class white males.  District Attorney Mike Nifong held court in the press by repeatedly fanning the flames by calling these young men everything but members of the Klu Klux Klan.  It was almost like a surreal event paralleling the last scene in the “Wizard of Oz”.One could almost hear Nifong command, “pay no attention to” these facts “behind  the curtain”: only pictures of the lacrosse team in the line up; that the complainant couldn’t accurately identify the men; that one defendant had irrefutable proof he was not physically present at the time of the alleged rape; that the accuser changed her story several times before the indictment; etc.  More evidence of the prejudice by both our society and courts occurred at the initial hearing where a black supremacist group was allowed to shout “dead men walking”, as the ‘victims’ were framed as perpetrators.  Within a month or so a Washington DC Court increased a misdemeanor charge against one of the three to a felony (this charge has since been dismissed).  Their own university took public punitive actions against both the team and these payers … one professor flunked a team member even though numerically he had earned an average grade.  Others insisted, via a petition, that the three ‘confess’ and condemned “heir actions”  Duke’s Administration joined the fray by suspending the entire Lacrosse season, resulting in the resignation of their coach.          

Moreover, the DA was aware that there was virtually no DNA on about or inside the complainant which could be matched to any of the players … but he withheld that pertinent information from the grand jury, press, and defense attorneys.  Nifong was also aware that there was DNA in, on, or about the litigant from four different males … this information was also withheld.   This DA never even interviewed her … let me restate that, never even interviewed her to ascertain the credibility of her accusations.  Rather, he was more interested in garnering African American votes for his upcoming election.  So reputations and futures be damned, these were young white middle class males, thus, they had to be guilty in the eyes of the PC public, press, and university.  And did these institutions ever prove true to his assumption as they virtually ran with the bait.  It is apparent that in today’s society if one is not PC, and sometimes that qualification is tenuous at best, no matter the facts, guilt is assumed in many circles.  But this is the first time, with the exception of the heartbreaking days of bigotry in the old south, that a racial group has been assumed guilty because of the color of their skin.  While it is so true that women and African Americans have suffered so grievously at the hands of the courts of mainly while males in the past, no amount of injustice by modern day courts to the children and grandchildren of bigoted old white males will vindicate the crimes of the past.  The judicial system must strive for justice, not for vengeance.  This is as blatant a case of racism and reverse discrimination as I have ever seen.  Furthermore, just because the victims are in the majority, white and male, does not exempt them from being the victims of prejudice, in fact in this atmosphere it encourages it.  Unless this Nifong and his cohorts are brought to justice every young white male will have become ‘fair game’ for any unfounded accusation.

Since these three men have had their pictures and names slandered across the air waves and print media, why have we yet not seen a photo of the accuser?  Also, given that Nifong has finally recused himself and the complainant has now changed her story … again … it seems reasonable that they both should be charged with felonies … and in Nifong’s case automatically stripped of his power and disbarred.  But even if these perpetrators (plaintiff and DA) receive jail time, justice will not have been served … because the greatest damage may not have been the injustice against these three white males, but to future rape victims.  Nifong, his accomplishes, and this plaintiff may have succeeded in turning the clock back some fifty years on violent crimes against women of all races … who, thanks to this fiasco, will forever be viewed with at least a jaundiced eye by most juries.