Group of 88 Statement

In light of a strongly negative reaction to the Group in the Duke Chronicle comments section and a biting essay on the Group’s motives in Johnsville News, the Group of 88’s statement suddenly disappeared from the Duke server. JN scanned the image before it, somewhat fittingly, vanished into the ether.

The statement dated from April 6, when 88 members of Duke’s arts and sciences faculty signed a document saying “thank you” to campus demonstrators who had distributed a “wanted” poster of the lacrosse players and publicly branded the players “rapists.” The rush-to-judgment denunciation occurred only four days before the DNA evidence that Mike Nifong had promised would “immediately rule out any innocent persons” instead revealed no matches.

It appears that most Group members didn’t share signatory Karla Holloway’s false bravado that critics have “displaced the actual content of the ad for the fiction of their own meagerly articulated agendas.” So much easier, I suppose, for ashamed signatories to dismiss their critics when Duke’s own website no longer provides access to the ad’s text. As the statement’s underlying presumption of guilt has been torn to shreds by evidence revealed since April 6, not one of the 88 has retracted his or her signature, or even publicly questioned Nifong’s “separate-but-equal” approach to Duke students.

Ironically, the document listing the Group of 88’s membership remains on the Duke server, though who knows for how long. As of now, 88 Duke professors are listed as signing on to a statement that no one can read on the Duke site. But, then again, it seems as if the specific wording of the statement was always less important than the symbolism of 88 faculty members issuing a public denunciation of the team at a time when Nifong was riding high.