Durham, N.C.
Last spring, at the height of the frenzy over accusations that three Duke University men’s lacrosse players had gang raped a Black exotic dancer during a party, faculty from
Duke’s African and African American studies department chose to take a stand.
With emotions running high, the faculty decided to take out a full-page advertisement in student newspaper, the Duke Chronicle, quoting the fears that minority students had expressed in a recent campus forum.
“I wonder now about everything … if something like this happens to me, what would be used against me? My clothing?” one student had asked.
“This is not a different experience for us here at Duke University,” another student said. “We go to class with racist classmates, we go to the gym with people who are racists … It’s part of the experience.”
While almost no criminal evidence had been made public at that early stage as to whether a rape had actually occurred, professors felt that the Black students’ broader complaints over racism and sexism on campus should be aired.
