BRODHEAD'S TELL-TALE RHETORIC: THE LACROSSE TEAM WAS GUILTY

DURHAM, N.C. -- April 5, 2006
A Letter to the Duke Community
Allegations against members of the Duke lacrosse team stemming from the party on the evening of March 13 have deeply troubled me and everyone else at this university and our surrounding city. We can’t be surprised at the outpouring of outrage. Rape is the substitution of raw power for love, brutality for tenderness, and dehumanization for intimacy. It is also the crudest assertion of inequality, a way to show that the strong are superior to the weak and can rightfully use them as the objects of their pleasure. When reports of racial abuse are added to the mix, the evil is compounded, reviving memories of the systematic racial oppression we had hoped to have left behind us.

THAT IS BRODHEAD’S OPENING, AND HE GOES ON ABOUT HOW SERIOUS THE ALLEGATIONS ARE AND THE PUNISHMENT THAT WILL FOLLOW IF THE ALLEGATIONS ARE UPHELD.
HE GOES BEYOND THE ALLEGATIONS OF RAPE AND SODOMY:
But it is clear that the acts the police are investigating are only part of the problem. This episode has touched off angers, fears, resentments, and suspicions that range far beyond this immediate cause. It has done so because the episode has brought to glaring visibility underlying issues that have been of concern on this campus and in this town for some time—issues that are not unique to Duke or Durham but that have been brought to the fore in our midst. They include concerns of women about sexual coercion and assault. They include concerns about the culture of certain student groups that regularly abuse alcohol and the attitudes these groups promote. They include concerns about the survival of the legacy of racism, the most hateful feature American history has produced.
BRODHEAD IDENTIFIES DUKE’S PROBLEMS AS BEING CLASS-BASED, RICH VS POOR:
Compounding and intensifying these issues of race and gender, they include concerns about the deep structures of inequality in our society—inequalities of wealth, privilege, and opportunity (including educational opportunity), and the attitudes of superiority those inequalities breed.
[BRODHEAD TAKES ON COLLECTIVE GUILT FOR DUKE AND UNIVERSITIES LIKE DUKE:]
And they include concerns that, whether they intend to or not, universities like Duke participate in this inequality and supply a home for a culture of privilege.
NO BREAK HERE: BRODHEAD CONTINUES:
The objection of our East Campus neighbors was a reaction to an attitude of arrogant inconsiderateness that reached its peak in the alleged event but that had long preceded it. I know that to many in our community, this student behavior has seemed to be the face of Duke.

IS IT CLEAR WHAT BRODHEAD HAS SAID HERE? “The East Campus neighbors” are Durham citizens who live near 610 North Buchanan Street, where two stippers were hired in the expectation that they would be competent enough to perform a dance before members of the lacrosse team. Brodhead is talking about an attitude of “arrogant inconsiderateness” which he says the lacrosse players displayed toward their neighbors. He says as a fact that the attitude of arrogant inconsiderateness “reached its peak in the alleged event.”

NO, NO, NO!

BRODHEAD MIGHT TRUTHFULLY HAVE SAID THAT THE NEIGHBORS (JUDGING HASTILY BY WHAT THEY HAD HEARD ABOUT A RAPE COMMITTED AT 610 NORTH BUCHANAN) DECIDED THAT THE ARROGANT BEHAVIOR OF THE LACROSSE PLAYERS HAD PEAKED IN THE ALLEGED RAPE.
I DON’T SEE HOW YOU CAN READ THIS AND NOT THINK BRODHEAD IS TELLING THE DURHAM EAST CAMPUS NEIGHBORS THAT HE BELIEVES THE “ALLEGED EVENT” TOOK PLACE: OTHERWISE HE WOULD NOT HAVE SAID THAT THE ATTITUDE OF ARROGANT INCONSIDERATENESS PEAKED AT THE EVENT. HE WOULD HAVE PUT THE ONUS ON THE NEIGHBORS FOR BELIEVING THAT A BAD ATTITUDE PEAKED THEN.
Brodhead’s rhetoric trips him up: He had prejudged the lacrosse players.