On March 13, 2006 two young black women, professional
strippers, were hired for a college party. Within a month, the nation was
embroiled in the Duke
Lacrosse Rape Scandal, where a number of white men were accused of raping
one of the dancers. This was a made for media scandal, and black commentators
from coast to coast were quick to call for the head of these young men. I was
not among them. Early on, I said something vey impolite: that if you thought for
a moment you would ever get any truth from a room full of privileged rich kids
and two women whose job it was to lie, cheat and steal to separate men from
their money, you were delusional. The scenario had all the markings of a "trick
toss"—essentially a grab-n-dash—gone awry. The young men weren't
innocent—as it was clear that they'd had broken the school's honor code—but I
was pretty sure they didn't rape that young lady. Long before the evidence
presented itself, I
basically told people how it was gonna go down. And, point for point, it
came to pass.
The woman has fallen off the public stage, but
we all know the names and faces of the accusers, and they have to live with that
for the rest of their lives. Yes, we know they made racial insults and were
generally ungentlemanly, but they weren't rapists. Rev. Al Sharpton, to his
credit, never jumped into the lynch mob, so Whoopi misspoke
when she said he owed the boys an apology. It's almost two years on and I'm
still wondering who among the columnists, feminists, opportunists, activists and
others will step forward and apologize to these boys. They were vilified for
nothing, and their names and reputations were besmirched by a woman making false
allegations. Not just that, but by lying, the woman made it harder
for real victims of rape to come forward. I predicted that we would never find
out what happened that night, but we'd all feel a little greasier, no matter
what. And I think I was right.
Don't the accused Duke
Lacrosse Players have an apology coming? Why or why not?
Jimi Izrael is a writer and commentator living in Tallahassee,
Florida.
