The Danger of Opening Old Wounds

The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case/Hoax was needless to say a blemish in our state's history as so many systems failed. From the legal structures to the news outlets to even the social systems-- all mechanisms which we trust to operate succinctly in our best interests overtly failed. Some years later, as many of us are trying to move away from this obvious debacle, unfortunately, but as expected there exist individuals who still insist on stirring the preverbal hornets nest. Enter Kristin Butler, a Duke University columnist who I assume is supposed to be a journalist for the Chronicle. This event (the Duke Lacrosse Rape/Hoax) by itself was polarizing. It brewed the “perfect storm” of race, class, and gender. In 2006, Michael Levenson of The Boston Globe paints the picture vividly:

Only 3 miles of knotty magnolias, wooden bungalows, and faded tobacco factories separate the sprawling campus of Duke University, a wealthy, predominantly white institution, from North Carolina Central University, a historically black college that is its smaller neighbor in Durham. However, students rarely travel between the two. Duke, with its stone walls, Gothic buildings, and lush green lawns, and North Carolina Central, with its brick dormitories, basement cafeteria, and park benches, each has its own social life and academics.

In hindsight, I admit I even threw a few "dogs into that fight." In addition to numerous letters to the editor of the Herald Sun and a photo essay, additionally I am conducting and have submitted academic research within the context of this particular case. That said; if we look at this grim episode, through Butler's lens, it plays metaphorically like a final four game with clear winners and losers. At the risk of being blunt, Butler’s lens is extremely distorted. Quite frankly, everyone lost. Taking a research approach if we employ a critical analysis of the media coverage, there are multilevel frames within the context of this case which illustrate tabloid journalism at its best. What is tabloid journalism? Simply put, it represents highly sensationalistic 24/7 coverage of pop issues within a slow news economy. Classic examples include “Bennifer,” the Britney Spears melt down/custody battle, and of course, debutants gone wild featuring Paris Hilton. Again, this is not really news which governs and shapes our lives but more representative of the items you pick up in the grocery store check out line, along with bubble gum and chewing tobacco. The irony here is that this type of news is strategically located with the items we chew up and spit out. In essence, some two years later, this episode fits perfectly within this category. Not to minimize its journalistic value in how not to do things, but more metaphorically, too many people were chewed up and spit out all in the name of a moral brand. Those riding the horse of journalism seek the truth while those riding the horse of justice seek to turn wrongs into right. In both cases the horses tied for dead last because all systems failed. Talking with Rob Elemore, News Director of WTVD last year about this case he clearly admitted that many journalists “got this wrong.” By not being critical and asking the right questions the city of Durham and the campuses of Duke and NCCU took a direct hit on our public visage. But strangely, that’s not the biggest blemish. More haunting is the capricious manner in how human lives were and I argue still are being handled. Many of the key players within this “news opera” now will wear a scarlet letter of sorts which time may be able to heal. Regardless of which camp one supports, the fact remains that everyone must move on with their life and unequivocally the process is going to be painful to say the least. As many are trying to migrate away from this spectra, in comes Butler who throws gas on a smoldering fire. It is astonishing (if not insidious) for Butler and the Chronicle to not help to heal the wounds as opposed to the latter. I am tremendously distraught by this incredulous lack of judgment. Again, at the risk of being a critical quasi intellectual Butler’s piece, failed to offer or at least demonstrate any attempt was made to obtain an opinion from NCCU faculty, staff or students. Though I did hear her espouse her work on the conservative radio program, The Bill Lemay Show. Question: was this coincidental or by design? In my honest opinion (and yes its purely subjective) Buter’s writing is endemic of an opportunistic word processed lynching. I would expect more from anyone who is able to win awards in journalism. In fact, Butler’s op ed piece is dangerously close to being libelous as the facts are not entirely accurate. As a student of culture and a professor of media if you have the ability to control discourse, you are obligated to do it responsibly. As we were all told, sometimes its best not to say anything if you cannot say anything nice at all. Respectfully, in the sprit of harmony and in the essence of de-escalation, as an alum of NCCU I ask Butler and others for a cease fire.

W. Russell Robinson

NCCU Alumni class of 93/95

Professor of Mass Communications

Shaw University

Pundits Run Amok

Good Afternoon/Evening
Bill, I listen to your program though I don't always agree with you or your point of view. I feel that you offer a well constructed non emotional perspective on topics which unequivocally are related to the triangle and the nation. Listening on 5/20, I first have to say that I do admire how you and the station were quick to shift focus to inclement weather that was approaching our area. That said, I also have to say how I strongly feel that it was poor judgment to devote an hour of air time to Kristin Butler and her assault on NCCU and Crystal Mangum. The Duke Lacrosse Rape Case/Hoax was needless to say a blemish in our state's history as so many systems failed. From the legal to the news to even the social systems-- all structures which we trust to operate in our best interests failed. Some years later, as we are trying to move away from this debacle as expected there are people who still wish to keep the fires burning. Enter your guest Kristin Butler, a Duke University columnist who I assume is supposed to be some type of journalist for the Chronicle. This event (the Duke Lacrosse Rape/Hoax) by itself was polarizing. In hindsight, I admit I even threw a few "dogs into that fight." That said, this case if we look at it through Butler's lens, plays very much like a final four game with clear winners and losers. Simply put, nothing could be further from the truth. What pains me about this the most is that we have become so detached from the fact that human lives were involved here and those same lives were ravaged. You have the wrongfully accused, a woman who has apparently become irrational and discombobulated, overly zealot parents and boosters from Duke University and NCCU, an opportunistic DA and journalists who feel this represents their "white ford bronco." As many are trying to migrate away from this spectra, in comes Butler who throws gas on a smoldering fire. What's worse, you allow her a platform that has the potential to escalate tensions as opposed to using the power of media ease away from this. To me it is grossly irresponsible as a broadcaster. It is capricious for Butler and the Chronicle to not help to heal the situation that they obviously had a part in. I am greatly disheveled by this. In fact I observed that you failed to offer or at least demonstrate that any attempt to obtain an opinion from NCCU faculty, staff or students to join you on your panel. This is endemic of opportunistic bias and I would expect more from a seasoned broadcaster. It is uncalled for and quite flatly wrong. I respect you as a person but you have lost credibility with me as a broadcaster. It may not mean much to you but to me it reflects a lot as I listen to diverse opinions. As a student of culture and a professor of media if you have the ability to control discourse, you are obligated to do it responsibly. You are better than that and your listeners deserve better.
Like I said, I do not always agree with you or your perspective but I do respect your ability to step away from the issue of the day. Today I failed to see that and it borders negligence.

I am deeply disappointed.

W. Russell Robinson

The Taxonomy of White Folks: Strictly My Opinion

White People and White Folks

Strangely, in my two years now writing this blog I never stopped to offer a clear definition or in academic speech, taxonomy of white folks. As a social/cultural critic that is blatantly irresponsible and I think it is high time for me to correct the issue before I go any further.

First: True or False

White folks and White people are the same.

False: White folks are individuals who subscribe and ascribe to the politics of white privilege. This privilege citied by Peggy Mcintosh (1988) means the following: White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools , and blank checks. Furthermore, taking a more historicized perspective, one of America’s best know scholars, WEB Dubois lays a operationalized application of white privilege. He states: It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white. They were admitted freely with all classes of white people to public functions, public parks, and the best schools. The police were drawn from their ranks, and the courts, dependent on their votes, treated them with such leniency as to encourage lawlessness. Their vote selected public officials, and while this had small effect upon the economic situation, it had great effect upon their personal treatment and the deference shown them. White schoolhouses were the best in the community, and conspicuously placed, and they cost anywhere from twice to ten times as much per capita as the colored schools. The newspapers specialized on news that flattered the poor whites and almost utterly ignored the Negro except in crime and ridicule. Digesting this information and also examining my experiential base, I see that white privilege equates to recognizable power and the willingness to exploit that power to maintain the status quo. This philosophy I add enables a plethora of advantages existing through the various structures within our society, be they legal, educational, social, economical, informative, political, spiritual, what have you? To have this power and to incessantly use this same power with impunity rips away any humanity from those who do not fit this dynamic. Actions of this type represent the reprehensible and are endemic of xenophobic arrogance. These people personify White Folks. Conversely, white people represent the opposite. White people are cognizant of their white privilege and function as allies to its eradication. White people I offer come in different forms including but not limited to, the economically disenfranchised, aka the po, the gay and lesbian community (not all mind you) the academically educated (again not all), the spiritually disenfranchised (those who are not born again Christians) and certainly those white people who have elected to considered white abolitionists.

Under these degrees of separation I can willingly say I love white people because white people to me represent progressive attitudes. White folks on the other hand, I work to (regrettably in some cases) cultivate a tolerance for the simple fact that without the bitter I cannot truly appreciate the sweet.

Second: True or False

White folks only come in one color.

False

White privilege is not exclusively based in pigmentation. There is a politic to white privilege which has an overarching extension into the realm of socio economic class. This means you have a potpourri of folk who try to take the credit of white privilege but really can’t claim the card. One of the most public examples of this was with OJ Simpson. As Michael Eric Dyson puts it, once OJ was linked to the high profile death of his white wife, his white privileges came under fire. The conundrum with OJ of course was that as he was on trial for his very life, he amassed enough money to exercise the last credits of his American Express Race Card to purchase a verdict, historically reserved for white folks in power: that being an acquittal. In the idealistic version many have of the US court system, the one where Perry Mason gets the villain in the end, justice is free for all. Yet in this realistic view of the criminal justice system, which is more criminal than just, verdicts do have a price tag. Often times, people of color can’t come up with the cash to get off the dime. So using the American Express Race Card analogy, many of us when we swipe our card, the response is on the reader is often times a big DECLINED or guilty. Needless to say, as OJ’s was APPROVED or not guilty, his American Express Race Card, the white one, was permanently revoked and ceremoniously cut up for not only him, but the rest of the world to see.

Now as OJ represents the quintessential case study, there are quite a few others which must be outed:

Clarence Thomas

Condelesia Rice

Armstrong Williams

Michael Steel

Alan Keys

Jimmy JJ Walker (yeah I know right)

And here is a Wikki list in case you may want to know others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_conservatism

Tune in for more on my social constructions of white folks

Cool hand Luke 98

Cool Hand Luke 98

The movie cool hand luke to me I consider a piece of white comedy. Don’t get me wrong, the acting is masterfully done. But as I watch that movie I kinda laugh because to me it shows, well at least attempts to show, white folks being oppressed by white folks. To me that is comedy at it’s best. How do people in power, oppress other people in power? Mathematically, it just doesn’t add up. Now in my version of cool hand luke, where I am luke aka JOB, I spent many a night in the box. The box for those who aren’t too familiar with prison work gangs represents solitaire confinement under the worst conditions. In my case, I was sent to the box almost every other day. In this particular episode, as usual, the bitch and I had a conflict. Again being overworked, with no assistance, and no safety net as well as one foot in the unemployment line and the other on a banana peel it was only a matter of time before I slipped. Enter the month of September. Something happened, I can’t really recall specifically what, but it was enough to make Diane decide to issue another letter of reprimand. Being that she already taken me to the virtual whipping tree once before (disciplinary hearing) she pretty much had me where she wanted me. Lets run down the list: warning, suspension, 2^nd warning, what else could there be? In her typical style, she left the letter stating what I had failed to do in an envelope on my desk and had left for the day. In short it documented the occurrence listed previous issues and then ordered me to a pre-diciplinary conference scheduled for Monday where the consequence would be immediate dismissal. Reading this I just imploded. To me, the game was over. I remember reading it to one of my friends Corey who worked in the security department. As I read it, tears started coming from nowhere. Then I started breathing heavily. Things started getting fuzzy and I started to breath uncontrollably until I could only put pieces of what was happening to me. I heard EMS come through the door of where I was laying down. Riding through the corridor on a stretcher. Being in the cardiac unit of Duke University Hospital. Was I having a heart attack? Was this a stroke? What was going on. As they were about to admit me they felt that I had suffered a panic attack more than anything else but wanted me to follow up with another cardiac specialist just to be on the safe side. In my heart and mind, I knew it was stress and the job. Here I was 28 having panic attacks. Something had to be done. Something had to change in a big way. The way I saw it, staying was not an option. I gave myself a day or so to let everything clear out in my head and finally the letter was written. It was short and to the point, I quit. Of course there were the faux nice factor but simply put, I could no longer take it. I slipped my letter of resignation on her desk as I went to lunch. Coming back, I saw the toothy grin coming towards me like a beefy great white shark. I understand and I think it’s a good decision. Within my one hour of going to lunch and turning in a resigination, the word spread like the 49er gold rush. Everybody knew. Even the fair-haired boy Alex who was working pretty much for Diane. It was almost like vultures showing up after the kill. Hey Russell I hear you just quit, let me go tell my friend who needs a job. Damn. As I went to tell my more closer associates the reaction was heartbreaking to some. In fact one person came to tears. Then there was one other person who had gone through a similar issue but decided to take the school to court. I remember her saying, how can help her if I’m not on the inside getting information. This made sense. So giving myself a little more time to consider my actions I decided to that a two pronged approach was best. First, I submitted a letter resending my resignation. I remember walking into Steve’s office, the director of academic programs.

“I guess you have heard the news.”

“Yes Russell I have, are you ok, I mean are you going to be alright?”

“Sure, I think I’ll be fine. In fact, after careful reflection I sincerely believe that Diane and I can really work through our disagreements, therefore I am giving you this letter resending my resignation.”