Duke lacrosse team rape case reveals depth of racial stereotypes
CVK
I’ve been meaning to post about this for a long time now, but I needed some time to sit down and sort through all the information out there. I’m hoping that by now you’ve already heard about this story from other media outlets. Anyway, bear with me–this will be a long post.
Several white members of Duke University’s lacrosse team are accused of raping and sodomizing two black women and subjecting them to racist abuse. The way this case has been handled by mainstream media is really indicative of just how deep racial stereotypes run in this country.
Workers World has a great summary of the case, but I’m going to paraphrase the main points here:
On March 13, two African-American women were hired by members of the lacrosse team to perform as exotic dancers. The women were under the impression that they would be performing for a bachelor party of five men, but when they arrived, they encountered a drunken lacrosse team party with over 40 men present. As soon as they entered the house, they were subjected to racist and misogynistic slurs. The women were very frightened so they decided to leave. One member of the team, however, coaxed them into staying. What happened next, from Workers World:
Once she was inside, she was allegedly pulled into a bathroom by three men, where they subjected her to a brutally violent rape and beating. The victim says she was vaginally, anally, and orally penetrated, punched, kicked, and nearly strangled by the three men for about 30 minutes.
For nearly two weeks, not a single member of Duke University acknowledged this case. It wasn’t until March 28 that Duke’s President finally held a press conference. Moreover, all 47 of the lacrosse team’s members refused to talk to police.
Workers World does an excellent job of pointing out how the media and Duke’s administration are deliberately trying to obscure the blatant racism and misogyny of this case:
Many media outlets make a point of referring to the victim as a “stripper” or “exotic dancer,” while framing the allegations of racist verbal abuse as mere race “issues” or “tensions.” Many outlets dare ask if this case has anything to do with race at all, as if sexual violence can ever be separated from systemic oppression.
Gregory Kane at BlackAmericaWeb wonders if this crime is indicative of the fact that the lacrosse team members have bought into the stereotype of the oversexed black woman. I don’t know about that, but clearly members of the media have bought into it. Rush Limbaugh called the rape victim “a ho” during the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program. And this guy compares this case to the Tawana Brawley case in 1987, in which a 15-year-old black girl charged that six white men, some of them police officers, had raped her. The case was later thrown out for lack of evidence and Brawley’s boyfriend claimed she had made the whole thing up.
Rachel over at Rachel’s Tavern has a great post on the hypocrisies of the way crimes by white men are portrayed in the media versus those by black men:
One of the most troubling ways this is done is by the use of special terms coined in honor of Black men’s crimes or criminal involvement. The most famous example of this is the term “wilding.” The term wilding was used to describe the attack of a White woman in Central Park in the late 1980s… Another example of this is the whole “Stop Snitching” phenomenon, which has been labeled as a huge threat to the criminal justice system…
The trend of giving special labels to Black men’s bad behavior (or in some cases alleged bad behavior) makes it seem as if Black men invented gang rape or the code of silence that prevents snitchin. If the young wealthy White men can hide beyond their attorneys and say they are not “snitchin” on advice of counsel, the outcome is the similar—the crime is harder to solve. If a group of these White guys decide to have a party where they invite strippers and engage in wilding, the outcome is similar–another woman is sexually assaulted. Unfortunately, most people(especially White folks) in American culture don’t see these behaviors as similar. They think that one Black person’s bad behavior is somehow representative of all Black people, not the individual Black person or people involved. They think subconsciously or consciously that Black men are dangerous and White men are the innocent boys next door. So next time you hear a special lable for Black men’s bad behavior. Please think twice.
Blackfeminism.org has a great post on this issue too, comparing the words used to describe the alleged perpetrators of the Central Park Jogger rape to the rapists in this Duke case:
the language used to describe the accused rapists in the Central Park Jogger case was still very dehumanizing. For weeks, we heard those kids referred to in animal terms: “a pack,” “preying,” or “preyed upon,” “predators,” “animals,” “savage” and the like. At least one paper called them (or compared them to) “wolves.”…
Now, I am not a fan of using animal language to describe people, but the obvious question is ’Why aren’t white offenders (and accused offenders) referred to in these same terms? Why in this Duke case, are we not hearing the media call the alleged attackers to as “animals,” or “a trio of dogs?” Why do we not hear the phrase “allegedly preyed upon” a woman? Is rape somehow less savage or animalistic when comitted by white lacrosse players?
The best place to keep up on the latest developments in this case is the blog Justice 4 Two Sisters. The site describes itself as ”a watchdog, information hub, and activism vehicle to ensure this young woman receives the justice she deserves. (It is our position both women were victims of a hate crime.)”
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Controversy.com on 19 Apr 2006 at 1:52 pm
Duke lacrosse case’s feminist, racist, elitist aspects…
In the waiting-time for more DNA results and a third suspect in the Duke lacrosse rape story, wirters are weighing in on things feminist, racist, and elitist. Tip o’ hat to BlogHer.org’s Erin Kotecki Vest for teeing up these…
Mixed Media Watch - tracking media representations of mixed people on 24 Apr 2006 at 7:16 am
[…] MIXED MEDIA WATCH NEWS UPDATE Jen discusses three recent news items. The Duke Lacrosse team rape case reveals some interesting (racist) patterns in the ways in which the media describe crimes perpetuated by black people versus those perpetuated by whites. Hines Ward’s visit to South Korea prompts the government to make some serious changes in the way it treats mixed Koreans. For the first time ever, a mixed black/Chinese woman enters the Miss Chinatown pageant in Los Angeles and wins third place! Finally, we mourn (ahem) the conclusion of the show we love to hate, Black.White. […]