Duke/NCCU: Can't We All Just Get Along

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog. It’s not because there’s nothing to write about. I’m distressed that the Durham City Manager has recommended a budget that will end funding of the African American Dance Ensemble, cut $78,000 from the Hayti Heritage Center and reduce funding of the Walltown Children’s Theatre. I have some harsh words related to that, but I will pause long enough to get a feel for what the heck is behind the mess.
There’s all this drama related to Hillary and Barack that is worth addressing. I’m still not over Hillary evoking the memory of Bobby Kennedy’s assignation to validate her right to stay in the hunt. Sorry Hillary, the big talk among many black people is the fear that Barack will be killed if he wins the election. How stupid can you get?
I could have written about Rev. Michael Pfleger mocking Hillary Clinton at Obama’s Church. There’s so much to write about, but I stepped back long enough to allow my readers to respond to my last post-an attack of a column written by Kristen Butler in the Chronicle, Duke University’s student newspaper.
I’m amused by the responses to that blog. Before reacting, I wanted to give my critics more time to speak. To give them a chance to let us know how they feel before bringing to their attention that many of the assumptions they made related to what I wrote, or what they felt I wrote, have more to do with their own suppositions and less to do with my own position on the subject.
What this all teaches us, sadly, is that America isn’t ready for a real discussion about race. It’s difficult for white people to hear a person state the obvious-that being white concedes a level of privilege denied those who are black. It is implicit in being white, like it or not, that you are innocent until proven guilty. That you deserve another chance, and that any effort to minimize your right as a white person provides you the right to destroy those who came against you.
Some of my readers don’t get that. Butler’s column was racist at its core. Why? Because Butler made assumptions about an institution that is loving and forgiving enough to give a person like Crystal Mangum a second chance. What Mangum did was wrong. Does that mean that we, as a society, should take from her the right to make amends? Should we punish her for the rest of her life, while rewarding others for their involvement in all that happened?
Mistakes were made by all involved. Mangum made a mistake. Members of the lacrosse team made mistakes as well. My hope is that all of the wrongs be exposed-not just a few. The comments made at the party are offensive. Does it serve us well, as a society, to forget those words? Do you remember them, or have we discounted them completely after proving that the other claims were false.
We can’t do that. Black people are hurt by words like “thank your grandfather for picking the cotton for this shirt.” We can’t forget the email message that was sent out by a member of the team afterwards indicating their desire to hire a black stripper for the purpose of abusing her. We can’t forget the broomstick reference.
What happens in this conversation is the negation of it all based on the severe nature of the lie told by Mangum. There is no doubt that these young men have been hurt. Yes, they deserve an apology, but so do we. Who is we-the black residents of Durham who are hurting as a result of the way Duke students, protectors of the integrity of members of the team, and all the mad people who want heads on silver platters, have failed to consider the deeper issue at hand.
Race is hard to talk about. It is harder when people refuse to understand how their words and actions rekindle old thoughts. Race relations in Durham, NC have taken a major hit over all of this. Butler hasn’t helped by attacking NCCU. Those who have responded to my blog need to step back long enough to see how their words, and their feelings around this issue, is hindering are ability to move forward.
The assumption of privilege is an issue. That’s what Rev. Michael Pfleger meant when he spoke at Barack Obama’s church. Although it may be hard for white people to hear it, it is something assumed by black people. What is difficult for many to contemplate is why we feel this way. The bottom line is you can’t understand how it feels to be black until you have walked in those shoes. The reverse is also true. You can’t understand what it means to be white until you walked in those shoes.
Get this white people. I have been stopped on numerous occasions for driving while black. I have been stopped for walking in my own neighborhood. I have been followed by sales clerks to assure I won’t steal their precious goods. I have been denied work because I’m black. I’ve dealt with being told one thing over the phone and another when I show up due to the assumption made by the person on the other end of the phone-that I must be white. I have received a lower grade than white students despite doing better work. How do I know this? Because they have told me so.
This is the burden we carry as black people. The feeling that whites get more, while we get less, is a load to disprove. My readers say get over it. Many have concluded that blacks are cry babies. We need to pull our heads out of the old rhetoric and accept that all white people love black people, and that America is over its legacy of racism. If that was all true, we would not be having this conversation.
How do we make America a better place? Why not celebrate that Crystal Mangum graduated from NCCU. Shouldn’t we all be happy that she is working to change her life? Why bring up Solomon Burnette’s past troubles with the law? Why not celebrate that he found his way, got a degree and is taking classes at Duke. It’s called being reformed. Why can’t we celebrate that?
Would it be different if Mangum and Burnete had committed crimes were the victims were students at NCCU? Would it be easier for people to celebrate the commitment to change if white people hadn’t been impacted by their former ways? Open your eyes people. Race is at the heart of this discussion, and an apology is in order. For all who have failed to comprehend how the way we respond hinders our progress-shame on you.
With all of that being said, get this. Not all students at Duke are privileged. Not all students are racist. What we have here are groups of hurting people. The problem is no one will pull back from their own pain long enough to listen to those on the other side.
Wake up. We have to learn to love one another.

Chronicle Column Damages NCCU/Duke Relations

Its days like this that make me regret having earned a master’s degree at Duke University. It has been hard enough having to explain why I never attended a historical black college or University. Black people in the South take great pride in the HBCU tradition. They should. Those schools enrolled and graduated people like me long before the Duke’s of the world considered the possibility that black people can do more than serve whites folks on campus.
For many, attending Duke is paramount to treason. Names like Uncle Tom, sell out and Oreo are common slurs used to define me for having chosen to get a degree at Duke. I remember the looks on the faces of the locals when I informed them I attended school at Duke. It didn’t take long for me to learn there is a long, not so pleasant history that has crippled race relations in Durham.
Students on Duke’s campus were considered snobbish and the product of white privilege out of control. I did my best to curtail the hatred black residents felt about Duke. They were quick to remind me that “those people” think they are better than us. No, that’s not true, I would argue. Now, after reading Kristin Butler’s column in the Chronicle, I feel like stuffing my head in the sand.
Butler’s column “Summa cum looney” attacked North Carolina Central University for granting degrees to Solomon Burnette and Crystal Mangum. Burnette, the son of a former Durham City Council member, served a 13-month prison sentence for robbing two Duke students in 1997. Butler chided Burnette for writing a nasty column in the NCCU student newspaper that had revolutionary undertones. Go get them Dukies. We certainly can’t have that.
Shame on NCCU for allowing this fool to get a degree, and how dare NCCU allows him to write in the student newspaper. That’s bad enough to cast a few stones over on Fayetteville Street. The coloreds over there lack good judgment, but wait it gets worse. How could they, oh no they didn’t grant Crystal “the lying, stank stripper” a degree.
They should know better than grant her the chance to pull her life together after attacking a few good white boys on the lacrosse team. Can you hear the arrogance in her words, the disdain, and the disgust? Don’t take my word for it, read what she wrote.
“Because of the university's blatant refusal to enforce its own rules, I will never again take an NCCU degree seriously, and neither should any other self-respecting Dukie. NCCU's "seal of approval" no longer guarantees good character, and it's just too hard to tell the thugs and liars (like Burnette and Mangum) apart from the high-performing majority.”
What ever happened to giving a person another chance? Isn’t that what members of the lacrosse team got after violating rules related to off campus drinking on more than one occasion? Should they hold some responsibility for hiring two exotic dancers to shake their groove thang?
The problem with Butler’s column is the double standard lurking in each word. It’s okay to get drunk, use a few racial slurs, urinate in your neighbor’s yard, consistently violate campus policies on off campus drinking and still attend class and get that degree if you attend school at Duke. Why, because we’re Duke dammit.
Black folks need not apply for the same privileges. You have not earned your right to break rules and to be treated as the victim despite your contribution to the mess. Burnette should be punished because HE ROBBED TWO DUKE STUDENTS. The nerve of him to think he can get away with that, and assume a normal life. The administration at NCCU should punish him for making that assumption. Can you hear the underlying white privilege yet?
This is why people worried after the story of an alleged rape hit the airwaves. It’s because of a long history of abuse and neglect coupled with an air of privilege among those kids who go to school at Duke. They think they’re better than the black folks who live in the city. They refuse to accept the thought of a person getting a second chance after a mistake is made.
Get this Ms. Butler. NCCU is a great school. They don’t hand out degrees. People earn them. Both Burnette and Mangum deserve those degrees. The fact that they brought harm to the fine students hiding behind the trees at Duke doesn’t negate their right to make lemonade out of those lemons.

Stith Stiffs Durham

Excuse me for a minute as I vent regarding local politics. I am disgusted, disappoint, baffled and totally pissed off at Thomas Stith. It is rare that I would be so consumed with indignation related to the campaign antics of a local politician, but this joker is jeopardizing the stability of local affairs.

For those not living in Durham, and for those who refuse to read the local news rags, Stith is accusing incumbent Bill Bell of pressuring the Durham Police Department into charging those guys on the Duke Lacrosse team. The city is being coerced into settling out of court for falsely accusing David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligman. Reports have lawyers for the players asking for $30 million dollars.

The city halted and internal investigation of the proceeding leading up to and after the arrest after being warned that the findings could be used against the city. The city of Durham is under attack, and most citizens agree, according to numerous polls on the matters, that the city should not settle the case.

In jumps Stith, who has been critical of Bell for failing to exert strong leadership to curtail crime in the city. The release of a timeline documenting early meetings between Bell, City Manager Patrick Baker, the lead detective of the case, Durham Police Department Investigator Ben Himan, is being used to fuel the flame.

On Thursday, Stith pushed Bell to say whether he asked police to expedite the case. Stith has implied the rush to judgment was the result of the Mayors intrusion in the investigation. That’s what has me pissed off.

By using this case to advance his political career, Stith has put the city at risk of having to fork out money to compensate the damages done. In taking this position he has become a spokesperson for the lawyers seeking a judgment against the city. The problem with that position is he, as a current member of the city council, has an obligation to protect the interest of the city, and by attacking the mayor, he places his desire for political gain above his desire to serve the people of the city.

In doing that Stith has used the case in a way reminiscent of another politician- Mike Nifong. By aligning himself with the agenda of the lacrosse players, he has allowed his selfish need for power to overshadow his need to function as a person of integrity. There’s more.

This is also a case of speaking out of both sides of ones mouth at the same time. In one breath Stith claims the Mayor lacks leadership when it comes to crime. In the next exhale he attacks the Mayor for exerting leadership in this particular case. I’m not sure how to read that contradiction. Is the expectation to take leadership in some case but not in others, or is it left up to people like Stith to jump down a persons throat after they have the benefit of all the facts?

To his credit, Bell has reminded us of the context of that meeting. The city of Durham was on a national stage. The city as divided in a way that outsiders may not have understood. Part of that was a consequence of a number of local matters that reporters from the outside hadn’t covered. They didn’t know about t he long history of hostility with the school board. They didn’t know about the scandals within city government that led to the termination of a city manager, and how many in the city blamed black leadership for a lack of accountability.

They didn’t know about all the news related to students at Duke University and how the residents of Trinity Park had berated school leaders for failing to control those problems. They hadn’t reported on the hostility between students who attend North Carolina Central University and those at Duke University. No one bothered to deal with the great divide that existed in a city with two universities that rarely found occasion to deal with the presence of the other.

Bill Bell was facing a city ready to explode. The outside agitators threatened to destroy any sense of unity that had been built up over the years. Some didn’t know it was Bill Bell who put his job on the line as Chair of the Board of County Commissioners to fight for the merging of the city and county school systems. They didn’t know that this is a man who has fought for unity for a long time, and that all that makes Durham special was under serious attack by the national media and outsiders who labeled Durham as a city in need of some help.

Hindsight is 20.20. It is certain that mistakes were made along the way. Many assumptions were made. As a reporter on the case, I made my share. It’s hard not to when emotions get in the way of sound judgment. What’s the price we should pay for that mistake? It certainly isn’t $30 million.

The city of Durham needs strong leadership. The type that doesn’t put us out to dry. Not even when it will help you win an election.

Not a penny!

Oh, no they didn’t! I’ve been patient in watching the unraveling of the Duke Lacrosse rape fiasco, but now those boys and their parents have forced me to roll up my shelves and take them to the woodshed.

It wasn’t enough that Roy Cooper, the States Attorney General, decided to drop all charges against Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, now they have the audacity to sue the city of Durham, North Carolina for a whopping $30 million. No, it wasn’t enough to have Mike Nifong disbarred and thrown in jail for 24 hours. It wasn’t enough to settle things with Duke University for their role in jumping too soon to dismiss them from school. Now, they want to force the 210,000 residents of Durham to pay an estimated $142 each for the police department’s role in the mess.

If I had my say in all of this, and I don’t, I wouldn’t give them a penny. Those boys and their parents have done a great job of convincing people of their innocence. They have become the national poster boys for the pain caused from prosecutorial misconduct. They want you to think they deserve some compensation for being the targets of the national media and the symbols of white arrogance. I’m not buying it.

As much as I’m willing to admit an injustice in this case, I will not fork up a dime to pay them for Mike Nifong’s mistake. I will concede no one in that house raped or kidnapped that woman, but a number of crimes were committed. Those boys aren’t innocent. They are innocent of the charges they faced, but these boys are not the victims of a ploy to destroy them. What happened to them is a consequence of their placing themselves within an environment where bad things happened.

Something happened in that house. Black women were called bad names. Someone made a comment about a broom stick. Someone thanked one of the girl’s grandparents for picking the cotton that made their shirt. Boys under the age of 21 were drinking, and they had called and employed the services of two exotic dancers.

Have we forgotten this wasn’t the first encounter members of the Duke Lacrosse team had with the Durham police department? The former coach of the team has written a book critical of officials at Duke for kicking him out based on an assumption of guilt. Please, please help me understand his position. From what I remember he was dismissed not because of what may have happened that night, but rather because of a series of altercations that had gone unchecked.

Have we forgotten that Duke University purchased homes in the Trinity Park community shortly before the fetus hit the revolving apparatus; due to complaints coming from the residents in the Trinity Park community? Duke decided to take matters into their own hands by acquiring property to give them greater control over what happened.

I have an issue with the language of innocence applied in this case. Even more critical is the application of recompense when the victims possess the resources needed to fight the system. How much did Daryl Hunt get paid after spending time in prison for a crime he didn’t commit? Why is it that the District Attorney in that case has maintained his license to practice law and now holds a position as an assistant in the Attorney General’s office? I’m steaming due to the way in which we, the citizens of Durham, are forced to pay for the mistakes made by public officials when those accused are rich, powerful and pissed off because someone had the nerve to come against them.

As much as I hurt over what they went through, I have no patience when it comes to their intent to sue us for the wrong they’ve endured. I would be more compassionate if they were utterly innocent. They’re not. They violated the rules of Duke University and the city of Durham, and now want us to pay.

I don’t think so!

Oh where, oh where has Obama been?

I have to make a confession. I’m pissed! I’m hurt, upset, disgusted and confused over the state of the American judicial system.

Part of my frustration is related to living in Durham, NC, home of Duke University and that infamous rape case. As a long time resident of the city, I have endured the hassle of having outside critics give their perspective on the state of things in my fine city. It irks me that most observers fail to place this case, and all that follows, within the context of the history and happenings of the city. I could talk about that all day, but there’s much more behind my fury.

I’m livid over the mixture of contradictions that remind me that America is a country that places privilege and race above justice. I crave to believe that we have become a nation that is purely color blind when it comes to the dispensing of judgment. That is not the case, and I’m annoyed that I have to waste time to convey the nature of this evil. As much as I want to move past presenting arguments that do more than expound the stance of another mad black man; I can’t let go of how deeply marred I am due to these incongruities.

A little background to my rage-I just finished reading the recent installment of the Duke Lacrosse case. Mike Nifong, former Durham District Attorney, is facing a $500 fine or up to 30 days in jail for criminal contempt. The question for this most recent segment of the soap opera is whether Nifong willfully and intentionally made false statements to Judge W. Osmond Smith III in May 2006.

The brunt of my frustration involves the level of attention given this case in comparison to the countless others that go unnoticed, and that are clear case of prosecutorial misconduct. The most recent example of a district attorneys misuse of power is the Jena 6 case.

A recent response to my blog got it right-why is it that black people are reduced to marching and shouting in front of courtrooms as a means of remonstration? Why do we continue to employ 50 year old stratagems to get the attention of those who manipulate the process?

I’m angry that people have to pack buses to do what we have always done, while high profile attorney’s and politicians jump on the bandwagon to support the causes of these boys in Durham, NC who became the target of an indomitable prosecutor.

Where are the congressmen and senators in that case? Where is Barak Obama? He found time to comment on the Duke Lacrosse rape case, but hasn’t made his way down to Jena to plead on behalf of those boys. Why hasn’t he made a stop on his journey across the country to raise money and prove to Americans he’s white enough to be their President?

I’m annoyed that none of the presidential candidates have made this an issue worthy of their attention. I wouldn’t be as pissed if Obama hadn’t taken time away from his duties as senator to write a memo regarding the Duke Lacrosse rape case. Maybe the assumption of innocence sways the way he and others functions when it comes to speaking up. If that is true, then I’m pissed even more.

Why? Because I utterly abominate the terminology of innocence when applied to those boys involved in the Duke Lacrosse rape case. They are not innocent. They are innocent of rape. They are innocent of kidnapping, but they are guilty, it can be assumed by the evidence in the case, of racial slurs, the communication of threats, underage drinking and lewd behavior. You may reason, why is that important? It’s important in addressing the grave disparity in the way power brokers involve themselves in cases demanding scrutiny.

The focus down in Jena, LA is on the wrong people. Instead of fighting against the local bums in power, we should be calling on those who demand our votes to get their butts down there and handle their business. All that talk about equality in American doesn’t mean a thing when all you do is talk, raise money and appear on television for another debate.

If you have the power to make a change, use it. So, let’s take all of that rage and send letters to Obama and ask him to prove to us he’s real. If not, let’s contact Hillary.