April 19, columnist Edward Delp wrote that the prosecution of the Duke Lacrosse Team was a sign of “reverse racism” (“Endgame at Duke”). And because of this racism, District Attorney Nifong would have to “eat crow” – weeks after the accuser dropped charges. Well, there is a food worse than crow. Silence. And there are millions of sexual assault survivors chewing that food right now. The column encourages them to swallow, and choke.\nDistrict Attorney Nifong followed procedure. He believed the complainant as long as she was still willing to prosecute, and kept the case together as long as was possible. How was he at fault?\nThe public climate to which the columnist referred was actually a secondary reaction to the initial response of the University. For months after the allegations, the lacrosse team was unsuspended and not investigated because the players were “good [read rich, white] boys.” Good [read rich, white] boys don’t rape. The public reacted to this blatant lie, not individual lacrosse players.\nProtestors criticized the American institution of racist sexual exploitation. Whether or not an assault took place, the lacrosse team specifically requested two African American strippers for their party. Perhaps they believed the seventeenth century propaganda that black women were inherently more licentious than white women, and subject to white men’s desires. The lacrosse team represented white male privilege, and that privilege over brown bodies was on trial in the public domain, as it should have been. \nLet me remind you that this public trial was not “reverse racism,” as there was no power structure to blindly enforce any hypothetical prejudice. The team members had a fair trial. In contrast, the trees of this state are fertilized by the blood of defendants in unfair trials. That’s racist. \nFinally, the columnist warns that, if we are not careful, this could happen here. How convenient that he encourages women not to speak in the middle of National Sexual Assault Awareness Month (Little Five Weekend, no less). For every person who steps forward, there are fourteen women who don’t. The real travesty is that the outcome of this very public trial encourages those fourteen to stay in the shadows, choking on silence to avoid “eating crow.”
Asha L. French\nGraduate student
