Business…here’s the scene from the first Duke lacrosse game. Bring the hate mail on.
Speaking of that, my editors and I made the decision to disclose the fact that I have had affiliations with both Duke and North Carolina in my four years living in Durham. Their concern was with people digging through my archives or this site, finding out some things about me, and assuming I was operating with bias when I wrote the piece.
Allow me to assure you that any opinion I offer on anything is from an objective position. That isn’t to say I don’t hate Duke basketball. I do.
But I also wrote what might be the most glowing piece on J.J. Redick on record (even though I had a blast taking shots at Duke, the piece is fair to Redick). I also wrote a reverential look at Duke’s run of ACC tournament dominance since the late ’90s. I also have written on the Duke lacrosse situation in an unbiased manner.
What I like and what I don’t like have nothing to do with what I think. And, for the most part, I write from what I think. Emotions are irrational, and I’m not irrational when I write. I might be wrong, but never irrational.
As it relates to this piece, I wrote what I saw and what I was told. Based on that, I wrote what I thought and noticed.
That’s the job. And nothing is more important to my job performance than integrity.
So say what you want about me, or call me what you will. But never, for a second, question whether I’m fair. I’m passionate and imperfect, but I’m not a fool. Neither are my editors. They never would have sent me to the game if they didn’t think I’d do the job right.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
21 Comments
by Jim Kendall
Have you forgotten that Kim Roberts admitted that she started the racial slurs? You also ignored the good things the ad hoc comittee had to say about the lax team. These young men are still in the process of escaping a lynching. You just missed an oppourtunity to speak out against this type of injustice. You write well and are obviously intelligent. Please do not become a Cash Michaels.
by Kirk
This will surely motivate the hairy-footed denizens of Uncle-Dad country to action like nothing since that funny Frenchman what hated Ricky Bobby.
I can’t wait to see how many emails you get with misspellings of words like “lacrosse”, “Duke”, “strippers”, and God only knows what else.
by Stephanie
Kirk,
Uncle-Dad country? LOLOLOL!
I too am waiting to see the emails Bo receives.
by eauhellzgnaw
Bomani,
I am with you 100%. I think that the support these guys have received from day one is suspect—it’s more than school spirit, more than support from lacrosse fans, more than support from the families and friends of the individual students; these people would have supported the Duke Lacrosse players no matter what. To a considerable degree, this support is based on a collective identity surrounding racial victimhood.
There is nothing wrong with your story per se; however, the absence of a similar critique of the accuser’s racialized support might lead some to accuse you of bias. I’d attribute it more to the fact that you’re writing for ESPN, but I can see how, given it’s focus, one could read this story as racially biased (I hadn’t even thought about your Duke/NC connection. Some people take sports way too seriously).
To repeat what I said on Jimi’s site a while back, the people you describe at this game are exactly the same as everyone who supports the accuser unconditionally: both groups need to rally around their preferred “victims” in order to combat what they see as (racial, class, or gender) oppression and to forge solidarity among their particular in-groups.
The blind supporters of the accuser and the suspects act as if they have a personal stake in the case simply because they identify with or share the same racial identity as the accusers or the suspects. Thus, they throw their support behind the respective sides, regardless of the facts. What’s most disturbing is that people took sides immediately, before any reliable evidence had surfaced. The justice4twosisters blog started pretty soon after the incident and it’s been well-documented that people started buying up the Duke Lacrosse jerseys immediately.
The desperate need to cling to racial victimhood that characterizes both groups is poisonous and damn near pathological: it’s as if these people want those with whom they identify to be victims based upon their identities.
by Justin Sands
If you guys haven’t checked it out yet, this blog, Durham in Wonderland, is the BEST source of the Duke Rape Case: http://durhamwonderland.blogspot.com/2007/02/only-in-durham.html
by Ryan
On point, Bomani. I’m sure for some there it was just “the thing to do” and that can be real stupid. Same for the hype, how is a scandal like this the only way to get people to watch lacrosse?
On the other hand, 6500 people isn’t that that many. But still, where’s the perspective before so many people get together behind almost anything? Larry the Cable Guy just came through my town and a group of students stood out in a storm to picket him with signs, “making America dumber,” like that. How you gonna picket a comedian not named Michael Richards? Sounds like pretty harmless jokes, not my shit but I don’t know what he’s rolling out there that would give anyone the need to tell people what they approve for others’ entertainment. If it were legitimately offensive to anyone, there would have been a whole big thing about it already, isn’t he one of the biggest things around? Guess it was something to do, gotta find some acceptance from somebody somewhere.
Same way, hey all, our athletes didn’t rape anyone, let’s celebrate, any reason to get together and agree with each other.
But you know, out of Wisconsin, we couldn’t even have celebrated the same about our football team while Booker Stanley was around. Guess it could always be worse.
Thanks for the eyes, ears, brain and train of thought.
by Dizzle
“You write well and are obviously intelligent.” – Jim Kendall
Congrats, Bomani. You’re yet another one of these articulate black folks I keep hearing about all the time.
by Rob
Yawn. Another UNC alum taking poorly-reasoned cheap shots at Duke. “Objective”, my rear end.
Tomorrow: Sun to rise in East!
by Jarrett
Journalistic Integrity – 1
Cameron Crazies – 0
by AMac
Great commentary, Mr. Jones. The blogger ‘liestoppers’ posted further thoughts here.
(Second try at a .)
by a concerned reader
Bomani,
Give this a read. I’m not saying it’s the gospel truth, but it deserves some good, hard thinking and open-minded reflection. Some very good points made here. It’s on the liestoppers blog.
“Overkill
When my son was an adolescent, at times he seemed to feel it was a great personal trial to be burdened with two younger sisters. They gossiped about his business, they drank the last bottle of soda. They even, occasionally, had the temerity to date his friends. Invariably, “incidents” would occur. that he felt needed parental adjudication. He would come to us, in what my husband called “high torque.”…demanding reparation, revenge,or a little of both. Soon, as parents, we noticed a pattern developing. Although, he was usually “right” in these incidents…often, we ended up truly annoyed…with HIM.
.
One fine day, he emerged from the basement, red-faced, clutching an opened old record album. It was so old that my daughter had assumed it was one of mine. “No,” he explained. It was a “collectors” Fats Domino album (Who knew he knew about Fats Domino? … We were more of the Chubby Checker ilk.) He had purchased it from a friend, unopened, as an “investment”… now forever denied him because his sister removed the cellophane. He wanted her grounded. He wanted her allowance. He wanted her first born child sold to compensate for his financial loss.
.
We were on his side for the first five minutes, still sympathetic at ten, but after fifteen minutes my husband heatedly asked our son why this great investment was tossed on a pile in the basement? Soon after, Dad summarily banned him to his room.
.
Later we went up to speak to him. We hadn’t been entirely fair either. But we had diagnosed his problem. Why did someone, usually more sinned against than sinning, often find himself so unsympathetic? What was in play here?
.
Overkill.
.
He just didn’t know when to stop. His anger, his self-righteousness, his overplayed and over-long indignation became exceedingly unattractive. He never would concede two sides to any story. He would never concede at all. So, from a position of strength , his arguments descended into the ludicrously overblown.
.
Overkill.
.
My son, I’m happy to say, outgrew that quality, so-o-o, I used to think it was adolescent in origin. But the Duke Lacrosse case has proved me wrong. Overkill affects all ages. This case is loaded with it.
.
Today I read the Bomani Jones article for ESPN. I felt an old familiar reaction. Is it just me, or are we on overkill here? ENOUGH about the stripper party and underage drinking! Spare me one more description of this “racist” team! To paraphrase Shakespeare ( are you out there President Brodhead?) whatever happened was a grievous fault and grievously have these boys PAID for it.
.
It’s been a year of astounding pain for these young men. You and others like you… that have repeated the same now overblown mantra again and again… you have had your pound of flesh. The team has paid for their party in the most terrible ways. They have been slandered, and smeared, hounded, even threatened. But although the Hoax is crumbling, pundits like you… seem unable to adjust your rhetoric or your thinking. You’re stuck on last Spring. STOP! For God’s sake, enough about the party!
.
You remind me, Bomani, of another young man and what I used to think about him:
“He just didn’t know when to stop. His anger, his self-righteousness, his overplayed and over-long indignation became exceedingly unattractive. He never would concede two sides to any story. He would never concede at all. So, from a position of strength , his arguments descended into the ludicrously overblown.”
I hope you outgrow it too.
.
That said, let’s address the “racial epithets.” I abhor them in every instance. I abhor them here. I really abhorred them eleven months ago. But after media distortion, and prevaricating pundits, an outright LYING district attorney, hidden DNA results, Gottlieb’s magic notes, and on and on and on … I find myself asking some questions. Besides our “haven’t had sex for a week”, “new-to-dancing,” troubled, self medicated, drinking stripper with “a long psychological history”…who else is there to verify anything BUT the “white cotton shirt” remark? Who else? I’m waiting. (And excuse me, there is NO record of previous racial incidents. NONE. Stop insinuating that there is.)
.
While we wait, let’s talk about the “white cotton shirt “exchange.Kim Roberts said that the one or two comments in question were provoked by a vile racist comment of her own. (You left THAT detail out, didn’t you?) So you have a sorry incident of poor behavior by two individuals: Kim and a unidentified player.
.
That retort was NOT made by Reade or Collin or Dave, the three falsely accused currently in Durham’s collective legal clutches. But, Bomani, some of you seem to want these three boys..the ones you have in hand… to pay SOME significant price for it. And you seem to like the idea that the whole team be branded for life as part of a “racist” group…for this one nasty exchange ,one Spring night, in their youth. Do you suggest then, in the same spirit, that all Nifong’s ADA’s pay professionally for his transgressions: be branded as part of a group of” corrupt prosecutors” and shunned? ” Or the entire English Dept at Duke be called “racist” in turn for their then-colleague Houston Baker’s racist remarks in a letter last Spring? Shall we all make lists of who must be ruined for what?
.
If racist comments were made by anyone, it was wrong.
.
I think we said that eleven months ago.
.
And ten months ago.
.
And last week.
We agree. We disapprove. Alrighty then.. it’s one VERIFIED exchange.
.
PLEASE STOP NOW.
.
But you say, maybe there were MORE remarks.
.
What other credible “proof” exists of other remarks? ( “credible” being the key word here? ) Who told you that? Who are you trusting? America’s most infamous D.A., the integrity-challenged, notorious Mike Nifong? And his “source” was? Oh, yes…Crystal Gayle Mangum: a troubled woman whose story changes substantially in every telling! What would give HER word any standing or credence above 47 other witnesses (48 if you count Kim)? Only the fervent DESIRE of some of you to have confirmation of something YOU WANT to have happened. That’s it!
.
It feels good to believe it. You want these them to be guilty of SOMETHING so much.
.
Because although you don’t know THESE boys, you think you know…. “boys like that.”
.
Once that was called prejudice. What’s it called today?
.
This “bad behavior” is all you have now. You clutch it to your bosom and wave it in our face to distract from the true hideousness of this Hoax. Racial epithets are the fall-back position of the “Something must have happened crowd.” But..where’s the proof? Every substantial lie uncovered to date has come from Crystal, Nifong or their enablers. Yet, you want to harp on these same themes, beat on them, demand apologies, demand trials, demand denunciations, demand God knows what! Bomani, you and those with your mindset, have so overplayed your hand. You are the very definition of “overkill.”
.
Are you going to counter…”But one of them lied about their names to hire the strippers.” Oh, give it up and go to your room. I said SUBSTANTIAL lies. If there were racist remarks, they were deplorable. I don’t approve. . . I don’t approve of parties with strippers either. Or women who work as strippers. Or using a taxi as a lethal weapon. Or pole dancing, lap dancing, trysts with strangers in motels. I don’t approve of modeling lingerie for your “driver” or trolling motels while your little children are cared for by others. I don’t approve of conceiving children whose Daddy you can’t identify.
.
I don’t approve of calling such a woman a “goddess,” a “sister survivor,” or a “queen.” I don’t approve of lying about rape to get out of jail free. Or lying about rape to win an election. Or lying about evidence to cover other lies. I don’t approve of folks who use a tragedy like this to build an audience, sell newspapers, push an agenda, get funding, or maybe a better gig for themselves. I don’t approve of folks who make the most far-fetched excuses for “their side,” and ignore actual evidence that supports the other. I don’t approve of reporters who insinuate, Bonami, what they can NOT prove.
.
There is no record of racial incidents by this team.
.
So I ask you…when will it be enough? And when will you and your colleagues show the slightest bit of shame for your own sorry role in this travesty. The inaccuracies, the innuendos, the truly shoddy, unsubstantiated, biased reporting?
.
And what about YOU? Has there never been a regretful moment, a hurtful remark, a mote in your own eye? NONE? NEVER? I watched the other night while a woman…who condemned the teams’ “treatment of women” last Spring, humiliated a young waitress who had no recourse other than to endure her. Her own “treatment of women,” rolling once so righteously from her lips… might need some tweaking as well. Of course, she…like some of you…might never see any similarity. You embrace the larger themes, talk the talk, and live as you wish. Bonami, what qualifies YOU to cast the first stone?
.
You are losing whatever validity or sympathy you once had. You are so dismayed that the Hoax is imploding, that you have to re-run your tired mantra again and again. You do yourself or your causes no favor. Considering what the boys and their families have endured, and the terrible behavior of many in the media, just like YOU, you’d think you’d show some compassion, some restraint, some shame of your own, for the egregious media rush to judgment. The “quality of mercy” enhances him that gives and him that takes. Pomposity is a real put-off.
.
So let’s say this one last time.
.
Sorry about the party. Truly sorry about the “cotton shirt” comment.
.
But that’s all you have. These are good kids.
.
And they’ve suffered enough.
.
Your hatred of them is obscene.
.
You’re on overkill.
.
It is time to move on.”
by Left Coast Vic
Let us be clear about one thing … these are not “good kids.” I think Bo did a fine job of describing the team’s rap sheet and it is pretty clear that the team had problems. “Good kids” dont hire strippers to perform at the house. So who am I to be so high and mighty? Well, I am a bad kid. I smoke, I drink, I’ve been to strip clubs, I’ve been at house parties with strippers, I’ve been to illegal street races, etc … Those are not the traits of a good kid. The Duke lax players are no different.
Now, I know some folks are saying, “Well everybody at their age does it.” Ok, fine, everyone at that age engages in destructive behavior … but that does NOT make it right. The intelligensia of America has designated the college campus as the forum where young men and women can do what they wish without fear of meaningful, substantive reprisal.
I am not dense. I get it (I think Bo does too). Fine, the rape charges are dropped. I just think that 36 separate disciplinary incidents are too many to be swept under the rug.
by Rex
Concerned Reader:
Your post had 9996 characters
.
Overkill
.
Your post had 1672 words
.
Overkill
.
Your post had 151 lines
.
Overkill
.
Your post was 4 pages long
.
Overkill
…
by SoWhatIsYourStandardBo?
Let’s do the math. 47 kids on the team. 3 years. 36 citations (no felonies). That’s about 0.75 citations per kid over 3 years. Or about 75% of them got a single citation in a 3 year period. The rest, none. Wow. That’s heinous. Probably below average for a college student. Let’s compare it to the average BCS football team–remember, no felonies. Where are the cries to suspend football seasons? O yeah. BCS football teams are primarily “minority.” Clearly, there is a double standard. The Duke lacrosse players are “bad kids.” The BCS football players are, what, exactly? And were any of them on the cover of Newsweek last year? No. That would be racist to question the behavior of “minority” athletes. Might have caused a riot. The Duke kids would have been better off if they had actually done the crime, been “minority” and played for Bobby Bowden at FSU or Phil Fulmer at Tennessee. But take another shot at them Bo. Once someone stands outside your door with a “Castrate” sign, the rest of the crap you dish out seems kind of petty.
Let’s be clear–the next person who wants to condemn this team for its 36 non-felony citations over 3 years while ignoring their academic performance (hey, they actually academically belong at the school they attend) and other positive qualities and not hold every minority-laden college team to the same criteria, is racist. And it doesn’t matter if you are white.
by zach
Not everyone on the team was there and many left early. To put it bluntly, I don’t care about the drinking or anythign else. An injustice was done here. If we start saying they deserve it because of what happened, then many of the innocent people on death row who were released deserved what they went through too then. After all, many of them had criminal records.
by lynp
Thanks for a good laugh, Public urination will get you everytime-which by the way is not rape, murder, selling drugs and the like. Should we castrate these guys? Sorry, forgot the noise violations and the odd drinking in public. why are you wasting your time on the hoax? Black men are being murdered everywhere. The black community is falling apart. Why are you not a leader to your people? I quess it is just easier to pick on the white boys than go in the ghetto. Like Cash, you have missed your opportunity to be Emile Zola. This chance won/t come again. Shame on you and ESPN. Like others
by eauhellzgnaw
To me, these comments are more disheartening than the ones that use racial slurs.
The very assumption that because Bomani is black, he must defend black criminals in collegiate programs, must be defending the accuser, and must hate white men is nuts, but is probably a commentary on the fact that there is no such thing as nuance in American public discourse.
These are the same people who say that race doesn’t matter (unless it’s some minorities oppressing white people) and that people should be treated as individuals with their own opinions. Yet, Bomani should “go play golf with OJ.”
by mcf
Okay, I see your point–even if there was no rape, no sexual assault, the lacrosse players are not perfect. Agreed, although as some other commenters here and elsewhere have noted, the extent and significance of their imperfections have been vastly exaggerated (especially as compared to other college students, other athletes, or other young people generally–we might be sorry this is the case, but their behavior overall [leaving aside the alleged racial epithets, which seem to involve at most one or two remarks by one or two people who may have been provoked, not that that is an excuse] is closer to typical than to extreme).
As for celebrating them at the game, though, I think you may have overlooked one aspect of this controversy. Many commentators, from national news media to some of Duke’s own professors , have criticized Duke as a bastion of racism, sexism, and elitism and most of its student body as spoiled rich kids with a sense of entitlement. Though obviously the majority of the student body has far less at risk than the accused players, and has lost far less already than the lacrosse team as a whole, the situation has been to some extent difficult and hurtful for everybody. For many students, this game may have represented not only an opportunity to support three individuals and a team they feel were unfairly maligned, but a chance to welcome a step toward normalcy and celebrate the opportunity to go out and watch a good team on a nice day. A lot of students would like this all to be over–that may be naive, but it’s certainly understandable.
by Rhonda Fleming
If Liestoppers is such a wonderful truth seking site, then why have they closed the message board on the blog page? Must you be a part of their clique? So much for censorship, and their ironic claims to seek truth and justice, dispicable!
Rhonda Fleming
Sister Of Durham Citizen, STILL Unsolved, Neglected, And Refusing To Give Up Until There Is Indeed Justice For Allen Croft!
justice4all2005@yahoo.com
by Chris Halkides
Dear Mr. Jones,
Many misleading or just plain untrue things were said about the lacrosse team in the first months after the alleged attack. Most of them have been rebutted in “Until Proven Innocent,” by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson. I will mention only two. The second dancer initiated the racial slurs, not the team. More importantly, none of the defendants were the ones participating. Some have reported that 25% of incidents of misbehavior by students at Duke involved lacrosse players. This statistic was generated from exactly four incidents, exactly one of which involved a laxer. The 25% value is worse than meaningless; it is downright dishonest. Bottom line, the laxers got a raw deal from the media, as well as members of the Duke faculty.
Chris
by Chris
Dear Mr. Jones,
On the other Duke Lacrosse thread, Brian said “I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of the three boys accused had a rap sheet a mile long. ” Reade Seligmann (no record) has a list of accomplishments that reads a bit like an Eagle Scout’s. Collin Finnerty did get convicted of simple assault in the summer of 2006, for throwing fake (!) punches. The judge set aside the conviction in December of 2006. So, where is the mile-long rap sheet? It simply does not exist.
More generally, the Coleman report found that there was no pattern of racism or sexism in the behavior of the team–just too much drinking. Your articles in the matter were way too harsh on the three accused and the team as a whole but way too easy on Nifong and the Durham PD. By February of 2007, no one who closely followed the facts of the case could believe that Reade, Collin, or Dave could possibly have raped the accuser–so long as the laws of chemistry and physics operate in Durham the same as they do in the rest of the world.
Chris