Monday, January 29, 2007

Barber, Wells, and the Sins of Denial

As John in Carolina noted, the head of the state NAACP, Rev. William Barber, was invited to preach at yesterday’s Duke Chapel Sunday service by the man he described as his “good friend,” Duke Chaplain Sam Wells.

Wells’ disturbing record on the lacrosse affair began with his April 2 sermon, when he contextualized the “disputed facts of an ugly evening” (on which, he said, he would await “forensic evidence”) as part of “a disturbingly extensive experience of sexual violence, of abiding racism, of crimes rarely reported and perpetrators seldom named, confronted, or convicted, of lives deeply scarred, of hurt and pain long suppressed.”

Wells further denounced “the subculture of reckless ‘entitlement’, sexual acquisitiveness and aggressive arrogance,” which “undermines the university because it corrupts the imagination on which the whole university rests. It breaks the university’s law.” Indeed, fretted the chaplain, “the last week has exposed the reality that sexual practices are an area where some male students are accustomed to manipulating, exploiting and terrorizing women all the time—and that this has been accepted by many as a given.”

Someone with such a view of the lacrosse case, I suppose, would see no difficulty in giving the pulpit to the head of an organization whose statements and actions have been cited as grounds for a change of venue in a case against students of Wells’ own school.

I decided to watch the webcast of Barber’s sermon to hear what he had to say. With copious references to Martin Luther King, Jr., Barber organized his talk around the “devastation of denial” when Pontius Pilate gave into the mob and denied clemency for Jesus.

“The refusal to acknowledge what is right in front of us,” declared Barber, “can be devastating,” even more so when accompanied by a denial of responsibility to change what is bad. Any “attempt to deny injustice covers us with the blood of guilt,” since “all the denial in the world will not save us from ultimately having to face reality.” To replace this atmosphere, “what we need today is a theology of truth and not denial.”

Following this link will bring up a document based on denial, not truth. A photograph of Barber himself frames a legal memorandum riddled with such case-related inaccuracies as:

  • “The only Black [lacrosse] player, a freshman, left the party before the dancers arrived.”
  • “After about three minutes of dancing . . . there were racial remarks made.”
  • “Around 12:20, some men who saw the vulnerable Ms. M returning to the house called their friends who had taken cabs and gone to get some cash from an ATM.”
  • “Theresa Arico, the SANE coordinator at Duke Hospital said ‘there was a certain amount of blunt force trauma present to create injury’.”

Barber, alas, seems reluctant to apply his desired “theology of truth” to his own organization’s statements. Instead, the NAACP head tailored his remarks to fit the organization’s new talking points—namely, that any dismissal of the case would be based on prosecutors caving in to public opinion rather than acting on the merits. “Pontius,” reminded the Reverend, “denied his responsibility that wrong was occurring before him in the court of public opinion,” and his “denial led to a great injustice.”

“We cannot deny the reality around us,” preached Barber, “or the responsibility as the church to seek change.” He cited as one example the problem of minority children, who too often in this country receive an inadequate education.

If I didn’t know better, I might have assumed that with those remarks, Barber was referring to former Duke lacrosse player Kevin Coleman, who received a 2005 ACC Service Award for his record of community service. In addition to working at the Duke Children’s Hospital and the Erwin Gardens Rehabilitation Center and Nursing Home, Coleman gave time to the “Read with the Blue Devils” program. Duke athletes promote reading skills for local third and fourth graders—just the kind of students about whom Barber was sermonizing.

In fact, more than 10 lacrosse players from last year’s team participated in the Read with the Devils initiative, seeming to put Barber’s words into practice. And the team’s commitment to the program has been longstanding.

Of course, Barber was referencing neither Coleman nor any other lacrosse player. In his comments on the case, the NAACP chair continued his organization’s practice of lionizing the accuser, wondering, “What about a society where young ladies even have to consider sexual occupation for financial sustainment, or to use those things as a flawed attempt to gain self-esteem?”

Barber’s question, it would seem, would best be directed to Group of 88 member Mark Anthony Neal, who this summer informed readers of Duke Magazine that “[t]he strip club is the new church,” a development that

raises all kinds of interesting possibilities around spirituality and black bodies, dealing with issues of spirituality outside traditional notions of what spirituality in a church is supposed to be . . . When we think about women who work in strip clubs, the key component there is that word “work.” In some ways this is legitimate labor, and we need to be clear about that. And women make these decisions based on what kind of legitimate labor is in their best interest. While it’s important that black women’s sexuality not be exploited, at the same time, I don’t want to get into the business of policing black women’s sexuality, which is just as dangerous.

Of course, Barber did not call out Neal, a professor in the African-American Studies Department, though his target was “right on this campus and in this community.” He asked listeners to “set aside the criminal charges for a moment, set aside what the courts will do about various things.” (So much, apparently, for the pre-Nifong recusal NAACP party line that only the courts could determine the facts.) “What about having parties with strippers and drunkenness,” mused Barber, “and reports of racial slandering?”

The NAACP has a long and distinguished history. But advocating temperance has never formed a critical or even secondary element of its agenda. Nor has it frequently been associated with Victorian standards of sexual morality.

Meanwhile, the state organization’s concern with a racially charged argument between Kim Roberts and one or two lacrosse players would seem more genuine had the state NAACP also denounced the racialist rhetoric of Houston Baker; or the revenge-thirsty Chan Hall; or the former Durham NAACP chairman’s recent claim that “the racist media and NC Bar Association . . . wrongfully used their influence to attack the integrity of a prosecutor at the rare time he prosecutes a case which profoundly has the potential to challenge racism, classism, and sexism simultaneously.”

But Barber was silent on all these issues. Instead, he wondered “about the real issue of sexual violence against so many women.” He asked his listeners to “set some things [about the case] aside, we can’t deny it.” This interpretation harkened back to Group of 88 member Wahneema Lubiano’s springtime assertion that “Regardless of the ‘truth’ established in whatever period of time about the incident at the house on N. Buchanan Blvd., the engine of outcry in this moment has been fueled by the difficult and mundane reality that pre-existed this incident.” In short, if the “facts” fail to fit the desired narrative, simply “set some things aside” and continue forward, rather than admit error.

Barber chillingly summed up the consequences of refusing to follow his demands: “If we deny God’s call to face reality, to change reality, then we sin, and the blood is on our hands.”

One person who attended the service e-mailed me to say that she walked out when Barber denounced the lacrosse players.

Barber concluded his sermon by observing, “Nothing is worse than to know better and deny a responsibility to do better.” These words serve as a fitting epitaph for the state NAACP’s performance in this case. An organization that long has committed itself to procedural regularity and protecting the rights of the accused has sacrificed its legacy upon the altar of racial politics.

Wells possesses wide leeway to invite whomever he wants to preach. But is it unreasonable to expect a University chaplain to avoid people who have gone out of their way to portray Duke students in what is at best a highly misleading and at worst an outright inaccurate fashion?

Hat tip: W.W.

147 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does Brodhead agree with Wells' choice of Barber to speak? And what does Brodhead think of the NAACP's malicious allegations?

Anonymous said...

I'm a christian and I dont think he should be a reverend or any form of self-proclaimed messanger of God.

Anonymous said...

What do the members of the Board of Trustees think of Brodhead and Wells and the Group of 88?

Anonymous said...

What do the members of the Board of Trustees think of Brodhead and Wells and the Group of 88?

Anonymous said...

And what do they think of them now?

Anonymous said...

I'm sick of religious people. Christians, Moslems , Scientologists, Mormons ... sick of them all. Sorry.

Anonymous said...

once again, it's not what really happened, but what YOU really wanted to have happened...

Anonymous said...

The good reverend should have ended his sermon by professing that "I love Big Brother", in honour of the character in Orwell's novel whose approach to the truth most closely resembles his own. 2+2=5.

Anonymous said...

JLS says....

There you go Duke Alums, Duke donors, parent sending students to Duke. That is what your money is going for.

Months after this frameup is known to be what it is, this is what YOU with YOUR money are paying to have said on the Duke campus. Really inviting Finnerty and Seligmann back to campus was more of an insult than anything else, if this is the types of smearing of them that Duke is still sponsoring.

Anonymous said...

Why is every black preacher or activist as fat as about ten hogs?
Do these people eat all the damned time?
Barber reminds me of Martin Luther King's four grown children. Every one of them are fat as hogs and fighting among themselves about how to best sell their Dad's "dream" for millions.
Some heirs to a dubious legacy.

Anonymous said...

KC- Have you interviewed
Rev. Barber yet?

Anonymous said...

Carolyn says:

The Reverend Barber had better do some real hard praying that Reade, Seligmann and Evans will do some 'setting aside' of their own - namely the lawsuit they should bring against a university that encourages this self-righteous hypocrite to bang his pot from Duke's pulpit.

Anonymous said...

Rev. Barber is currently an adjunct professor at Duke Divinity School.

http://www.chapel.duke.edu/documents/01-28-07.pdf (page 6)

Anonymous said...

"Everybody thinks of changing humanity, but nobody thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy

Anonymous said...

One hopes (probably in vain) that Brodhead will read a transcript of this old fashioned demagogue's sermon over breakfast and immediately suffer indigestion all day long as he considers the impression that it will make on all those Duke alumni, donors and prospective applicants and their parents across the land who read it on the internet. Needless to say, that would not motivate him to speak up against it. NOTHING, it seems, would motivate this man to speak up as he should. If he can survive this (if he is ALLOWED to survive it), Duke is a lost cause. The sermon is strong evidence that it already is.

Anonymous said...

If the "reverend" Barber can teach at Duke, then anybody off the street can.
No standards left at all.

Anonymous said...

While the issues in this case go beyond Duke University and raise serious queries about the ethics and power of special interest groups, the media, the police and the courts, I fear that Duke has suffered the worst. Frankly, it has exposed the fact that this institution is beyond salvation, that it is too far gone to command the respect or allegiance of its students--now and in the future. It is obvious that its managers are beholden to interests to such an extent that even a massive scandal has not been sufficient to knock them back to reality. As each month of this case passed, the response of the University made this clearer and clearer. I would never consider advising my children or any of my students to go to Duke University.

Anonymous said...

The management of Duke University is pathological in its eagerness not to offend some parties, a tendency that is far from uncommon in American higher education, as Lawrence Summers learned to his chagrin. It must be pathological, given what is being sacrificed to avoid such offence.

Anonymous said...

Barber's just catching up with Cash Michaels' oh-so-delicate sensibilities now? Geez, the two of them sound like a couple of maiden aunts with the vapors (and they're joined there by Miz "whatever they did was bad enough" Brodhead). This false outrage at drinking, hiring strippers, all this moaning about decent poor black girls trapped by the system, driven unwillingly to lewd work...ugh! The lying, blame-shifting frauds!

Take them all... preachers, teachers, and screechers all together... to this day the sole candid voice coming from that of band of venomous hypocrites has been Chan -- prosecute "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past." -- Hall.

Anonymous said...

to 12:57
"The management of Duke University is pathological in its eagerness not to offend some parties..."

Here's what John Hope Franklin said about Duke's trying to please the community.

4/26/06
There are friends of mine here in Durham, who have told me, since this incident, that they have hated Duke. They've always felt that Duke was lording it over the rest of the community. When, here is Duke, racing around trying to do this and that and the other to improve its relationship with the community and there are people standing out and saying, "I hate you, there's nothing you can do to keep me from hating you."

I hope that after ninety years I'm not siding with anybody because they happen to be of one race or the other. I simply could not bring myself to do that.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5363491

Anonymous said...

KC This is really unbelievable. Lying is bad - lying in church is one of the worst. Its beyond me how Duke keeps allowing employees to insult, the school and the students. Obviously, neither the Board or Chairman Steel care about these insults. Brodheard and the Board are hopeless and certainly to cowardly to take this crowd on. Duke should move to another section of the country and get out of Durham ASAP.

Anonymous said...

Whatever consolation one may draw from the growing vindication of the three young defendants in this case must be heavily conditioned by the chilling realisation that 10,000 other injustices have been done without any redress or public scrutiny in the crusade against "racism, sexism, classism".

Anonymous said...

K.C., Where's the webcast that you watched? Why no link?

Anonymous said...

Brodhead made his choices and took his stand when he decided NOT to come to the defence of his own students, whose rights were being crushed beneath a juggernaut of media, law and special interests. It is the same choice he continues to make, as much by what he DOESN'T say as what he does. It is his silences that have been so chilling and have condemned him the most. Having made his choices, he must accept the consequences and have the decency (a decency he has hitherto not shown) to ask for no quarter. I hope none is shown.

Anonymous said...

Did they have to bring this guy in with a forklift? Adjunct Professor at Duke. Is that the same as Murphy being a Adjunct Professor at NESL? WTF is going on here? Duke would still be paying Baker if he had not run off to Vanderbilt.

Anonymous said...

I love the comment by KC that the NAACP members---(or black preachers, in general)---have never been associated with Victorian standards of sexual morality.

Too hot! Sizzling!

I adore the subtle sarcasm.......with a hint of Jon Stewart on the side. GIS!!!

No, the NAACP has never lambasted their "men of G/d" for having multiple girlfriends at the same time they snuggle and cuddle with wife and family during "Sunday go to meetin' time".

Never have they been concerned about promiscuity to make it such a topic as Barber has done when slandering the lacrosse players.......rammimg his rotund rhetoric through the majestic steeple of Duke Chapel.......

........as the brightleaf Dukies weep for standards lost.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

This preacher is a demogogue, and has done nothing more or less than what such people do. But surely what is worse--MUCH worse--is that Brodhead both tolerates this (in spite of everything that has happened) and remains, as ever, silent. Any controversy that comes from this sermon should be directed at Brodhead.

Anonymous said...

This is a plea to the reasonable, decent professors at Duke. There must be many of you. Please speak up about the problems with the race/class/gender-obsessed, white-male hating portion of the Duke faculty, or at least about the portion of the faculty that wants to see the three accused lacrosse players crucified on a cross of hatred. Surely at least those of you who have tenure can speak out. Where are you? Don't you care about your students and your University more than you fear the vengeful retribution of Karla FC Holloway, Kim Curtis, and the other racists, sexists, and classists on your campus? How can the words and actions of Holloway, Curtis, and their co-conspirators not make your skin crawl and bring you to your knees in shame for your silence?

Texas Professor

Anonymous said...

Professor Johnson is to be commended in so many ways. Among them is that he has maintained the standard of his writing in a medium that militates against it. His postings are lucid, eloquent and addressed to his audience as though the latter were intelligent and thoughtful. I wish all posting here were like that...

Anonymous said...

I am shocked SHOCKED that this hater was invited and said what he said in the chapel. I will just pick one tiny detail from Barber's "sermon" - someone said nigger. Welllllll, isn't that the end of the world! Isn't that just a capital offense! I hear people saying nigger 50 times a day, in "music", on the bus, on the street. I also hear beaner, fuck, God damn, shit and on and on and on. The NC NAACP needs to be sent to their room until they can participate like big boys and girls. There is no excuse for such infantile behavior.
MTU'76

Anonymous said...

My dead professor--

You might as well plead with a chicken to spread its wings and take flight. Most academics are invertabrates. The few that aren't have their backbones surgically removed before they come up for tenure. As a species they are among the most cowardly, which is saying a lot. Why do you think they become academics to start with?

Anonymous said...

Oops--a Freudian slip... I meant to say "Dear Professor", not "dead professor". Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Eureka!

It's finally come to me of whom I am reminded everytime I see Richard Brodhead.

Pee Wee Herman.

I used to get a kick out of "Pee Wee's Playhouse".....along with Cowboy Curtis--played by a young Laurence Fishburne.

What a goofy and fun show! The way Brodhead tilts his asymmetrical, cone-shaped head when talking is pure Pee Wee!

He's a real loser as far as leadership. Tentative. Nondescript. Cowardly......(hope he stays out of dark theatres).

Instead of "Big Top Pee Wee"......it's "Big Drip Dicky".

Debrah

Anonymous said...

In a word, Duke is dead. If anyone has thoughts of sending their children there, they are fools asking for trouble. Why spend all that money on an institution that STILL won't do the right thing? Why PAY to have your children put in such a position?

Anonymous said...

Debrah--you are vulgar and lowering the tone of this blog. (And, what's worse, you're not amusing when you try to be.) Please emulate the good professor. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

K.C.

Your best to date... Hands down.

They aren't even trying to disguise their hate any longer.

Please keep exposing these hypocrites..

Anonymous said...

1:25 AM,

Well, in 62 years I've seen lots of chickens fly (pigs? not so much. but chickens? yes); and these chicken professors can fly too. They just need to pause and consider the importance of this matter. Maybe if they would have a few conversations with K.C., Professor Coleman, some of their economics faculty, and a few others, they could see that their voices are needed.

Texas Professor

Anonymous said...

To 1:35AM---

Thank you!

Now, what would the predictable, self-righteous, and sterile drones of the world like you do without the Debrahs of the world?

I'm pleased that I helped fulfill your affected piety quota for the day.

Stuff it, Maude.


Debrah

Chicago said...

I never thought I would be backing such a seemingly crazy idea, but moving Duke out of Durham sounds pretty good right about now. I would love to see how Durham holds up with out Duke. Durham relies on Duke a hell of a lot more than Duke relies on Durham. In fact, at this point it is quite obvious Durham is a gigantic liability to Duke.

Anonymous said...

I am not a conspiracy person. this whole thing is making less and less sense, Except if all the black preaching and continuation of the hoax is to further the cause for reparations. I consider years of welfare and food stamps already paying reparations - for amends to slavery, I will happily continue to pay. Do they want us to get so tired of their complaining, we say "Just shut up and we will pay."

Anonymous said...

Chicago--

Frankly, Duke is a giant liability to itself. Do you really think that, by moving the institution it will leave behind the cowardly profs and managers and the shrill and sanctimonious activists? The problem is as much (perhaps more) within Duke as without.

Anonymous said...

Just for the record, did anyone protest tonight when Duke retired the number of Shelden Williams? Where were the pot bangers, protesters and castration signs when Duke honored a young man who was kicked off his high school basketball team as a senior for his involvement in an alleged rape? I did not see the Group of 88 put an ad in the paper denouncing Shelden or asking for the "volume to be turned up."

Anonymous said...

My dear professor--

Your innocence is genuinely endearing. But how, in all your years, can you not have acquired a more realistic view of academics? It is simply not a matter of convincing them. Many are probably entirely convinced. It is a matter of motivating them to stick their necks out, even just a tiny bit. Therein lies the problem. With very few exceptions, they will not do it. Your plea is in vain.

Chicago said...

1:51pm-

You make an excellent point. My thoughts were hypothetical, but at times they seem in line. You are exactly correct, right now our own back yard is so dirty (Group of 88) that it is hard to imagine trying to help clean up Durham as well.

Anonymous said...

Chicago--

The problem is less the Group of 88 as the leadership of institutions such as Duke. (And by no means ONLY Duke.) 98% of faculty are too craven to take a stand one way or the other. A shrill minority bully a hapless and frightened "leadership". After all, how did the 88 get there in the first place? They were put there (and kept there) by... Duke University. What this case has done is exposed that the Duke that its alumni love is long dead. There can be no talk of rebuilding it. Duke is dead.

Anonymous said...

If Barber had not identified his "sermon" as applicable to the lacrosse players, he could well have been directing his Biblical applications to Brodhead and Nifong. After all, Pilate did allow an innocent man to be crucified, caving to the lynch mob, in total denial of truth and justice.

Barber is blind. Especially when he didn't take the analogy to its conclusion.

Jesus Christ came back to life after an unjust death sentence. THAT was the ultimate justice denied by men and the justice that men are promised to one day, likewise receive. "Vengeance is MINE, saith the Lord."

Wonder if Barber might see any analogies in that?

Twaddlefree

Anonymous said...

In what parallel universe are these Duke administrators and faculty living, in which they seem to think that inviting a man such as Rev. William Barber, to speak in our beloved Duke chapel is a GOOD IDEA?

Rev. Barber has aleady DEMONIZED the innocent Duke lacrosse players and his bias is clearly evident. In no way (from what I have read of his so-called "sermon") was there any call for healing or forgiveness or reflection on one's own sins. This is not the Christianity that I know.

My real problem is the choice of Rev. Barber as a speaker at this difficult time in the University. It reflects, I am afraid, a refusal by the Duke faculty and administration to back down from their tenuous positions that "something bad happened." And if the something bad is not rape, kidnapping etc. we will just invent some new "something bads."

Anonymous said...

Chicago--

I might add that, if I were a Durham resident, I would have a robust contempt for the idiocies of political correct Duke myself. The irony is that the resentment of the "townies" towards the pointy-headed "gownies" of Duke manifested itself in the form of an unholy alliance between media, law, police and Duke's shrill politically correct ideologues (all with the silent consent of Brodhead).

Anonymous said...

My real problem is the choice of Rev. Barber as a speaker at this difficult time in the University. It reflects, I am afraid, a refusal by the Duke faculty and administration to back down from their tenuous positions that "something bad happened." And if the something bad is not rape, kidnapping etc. we will just invent some new "something bads."

What this demogogue preacher said is secondary to the fact that (1) he was invited to say it; (2) Brodhead et al won't condemn him for saying it. In other words, the REAL issue here is the University itself, as it has been all along. In spite of everything, still they won't face facts.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait for February--Black History Month. We'll be treated to a long trumped up steaming pile.
Equality.
And all the contributions of AA.
Yeah, right. What a joke these people are.

White Boner said...

A few other posters have used the word "Orwellian" and that's really it. These people are literally so locked into their lies that they'll just say anything (the proverbial 2+2=4) rather than just say, "I'm sorry, I was wrong."

They think this is a movie ('A Time to Kill' or 'Mississippi Burning') instead of real life.

This preacher is breaking a fundamental Commandment, and I'm sure he'll be punished accordingly. (And how spiritually desperate must his congregation be to seek guidance from this worthless lump of vanity?)

Anonymous said...

Bill A..Are you taking a nap at last? What do you think of all this?

Anonymous said...

David Brennan--Good points. It was reported on another thread of this blog that the movie "A Time To Kill" was even used as a comparison.
Some of these people are really crazy.

Sebastian Junger

Anonymous said...

Debrah @ 1:43am--Don't pay any attention to jealous harpies, male or female. I really enjoy your posts.
Are you the same girl who wrote so many great articles on the Clintons? If you are you're something else. We should get together.

Sebastian Junger

Anonymous said...

Wells had to know Barber was going to say something along these lines yet he still issued the invitation. That's a real slap in the face to the entire lacrosse team. Imagine being denounced from the pulpit of your own university's chapel.

In many ways Duke has been revealed as a pathetic institution. I feel bad saying that but it's hard to imagine a university treating it's own students in a worse way than Duke has treated these young men.

A large group of the faculty acting like a lynch mob, an administration that appears to do nothing but cower and run for cover. And from both these groups utter contempt and disdain for their own students. Sad stuff.

Anonymous said...

Duke University has helped create this Perfect Storm and now it must try to salvage some respect from the wreckage.

(First)--Get rid of the G88 enabler Brodhead. Nothing good can come of his leadership now.

(Second)--Demand all professors who signed the ad apologize for their erosive and irresponsible conduct.

(Third)--Give some serious consideration to moving Duke out of Durham. The place is a third world banana republic.

Sebastian Junger

Anonymous said...

Those who hired Brodhead should have expected no less. His track record at Yale was no better,

After one of Yale's star lecturers was placed under suspicion for the murder of a coed, then Dean Brodhead scrambled to perform damage control. After another case of poor police work, DNA exonerated the man who had already been pushed out of Yale. Brodhead, at the beginning, stated due process would prevail - just as he did at Duke.

Obviously, Brodhead learned no lesson the first time around and has, consequently, played a large part in ruining not just one life, but now three more lives.

Is it any wonder the 88 seem to be controlling things at Duke? (No backbone at Yale - no backbone at Duke.) He will never change his colors. PATHETIC

Anonymous said...

My concern is that Brodhead is going to join openly with demagogues such as Wells and Barber in demanding that Durham be entitled to its "show trial" of racism, sexism and classism.

As Barber made clear in his "sermon", he cares little for such troubling matters as the "facts". As with Holloway and other members of the Group of 88, this case has always been about the "underlying" issues.

Duke University must have a strong leader to denounce such demagogery. Brodhead must step forward immediately, or he must step aside in favor of a man or woman of strength of moral character.

Anonymous said...

I think many of the comments on this thread are misdirected. There is, thank God, still freedom of speech in this country. I am exercising it now. If Mr. Wells is the duly appointed dean of the chapel, he ought to be able to offer the hospitality of his pulpit to anyone he chooses. If Mr. Barber is a duly ordained minister of religion, he ought to be able to preach as he pleases. The lady who walked out of the sermon in protest has every right to do so. I am very disturbed by the numerous comments suggesting that President Brodhead or anybody else ought to tell Wells what to do or Barber what to say or not say. This scandal calls for the exercise of free speech, not for its limitation. The Barber sermon is a now a public document. Like any other public document within a university, it invites discussion, debate, perhaps refutation. Someone has already pointed out that the sermon’s ostensible plea for justice is highly applicable to the three unjustly accused lacrosse players. Why doesn’t President Brodhead now speak up and say that? He could say that widely disseminated and undisputed evidence clearly supports the innocence of the accused and that, on behalf of the Duke community, he is delighted though hardly surprised to find confirmed the presumption of innocence he articulated months ago. If he won’t do that, how about Provost Lange? He seems a sensible fellow. But most of all why won’t the real “Duke community”—the large majority of decent and intelligent faculty and students—speak up? They need take no position on whether Mr. Barber is over-weight or Mr. Brodhead looks like Pee Wee Reese. All they need to do is support truth, fairness, racial harmony, “diversity”, and all the other good things that are the stated goals of liberal education. And at this point they don’t even need to exercise any “leadership”, just intelligent “followership”. The heavy lifting has already been done by other people, including several on this blog. Stupidity should be drowned out by vocal good sense, not by implicit restrictions on civil liberties.

Anonymous said...

Jealousy is driving all of this. Duke, despite its obvious, deep limitation, is an elite academic institution.

What we are witnessing here is a jealous fit over blacks' inability to compete in these institutions. Duke's students are to be punished for succeeding where black kids are failing. In other words, it's time to cease the "but I know that white racism still exists and it's deplorable" BS. Are blacks supposed to live in a perfect world where they never suffer the slings and arrows of fate?

As Steve Sailer (and others) have written, the bitter truth is that blacks, as a group, test at about 10 points below whites on IQ tests. Combine this with the pathologies of the black community, particularly illegitimacy and fatherlessness... and, well, you've got a mess.

This is just a continued effort to blame whites for the failure of blacks to compete in the educational and job markets.

While I appreciate the efforts of KC, he also can't stop dragging out this tiresome rhetoric about the plight of blacks. I realize that it is politic to bend over backward to baby and cosset blacks, but this public hand wringing over blacks only exacerbates the problem. Blacks are only too aware that whites will give away the farm in an effort to show their sympathy for blacks. So, they play it for all it's worth.

Anonymous said...

Brodhead has had many opportunities to explain his actions. He was interviewed in the Duke Chronicle - where he stated he was not immune to self-criticism even though he offered none. He was interviewed on the first 60 Minutes program. He has, to date, steadfastly refused to criticize those who many others have righteously exposed during this travesty of justice.

To Brodhead I quote:

"The smaller the mind the greater the conceit." - Aesop

"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none."
- Thomas Carlyle

"Conceit is God's gift to little men." - Bruce Barton

dl

Anonymous said...

So very appalling that this racist was invited to speak at Duke Chapel, and allowed to utter vile lies, unchallenged. Shame upon Duke, again. Have Wells and others completely lost their minds? They have learned nothing. MD90, G92.

Anonymous said...

“all the denial in the world will not save us from ultimately having to face reality.”

Halleluja and amen, brother Barber! Truly, reality cannot be escaped indefinitely...so would you please stop fleeing it?

Anonymous said...

Bill A..Are you taking a nap at last? What do you think of all this?

2:48 AM


Actually, I WAS asleep. I am trying to get some rest, as I have to speak tonight to the Bob Taft Club in Arlington on -- you guessed it -- the Duke lacrosse case. (Arlington is about three hours away from where I live, and I will be getting back here at about 12:30 - 1 a.m. Long, long day ahead).

As for Barber's comments, they are truly sickening. Black ministers have a reputation for literally all of the things which Barber condemned. This was hypocrisy at its very, very worst, and I find it most interesting and enlightening that Duke University provided the forum through which a man could lie and then advocate wrongful criminal charges against three young men be continued.

If there is a mob here, it is with the NAACP and its allies. Pontius Pilate was wanting to let Jesus go, and the mob called for his crucifixion -- after a crooked trial, of course.

Here, we have charges that are blatantly false, not to mention mutually exclusive, and the Barber-led mob is demanding that there be a crooked trial and "crucifixion." So, it seems to me that Barber's own words condemn him.

Furthermore, because the mob is using Duke University as a base from which to make its demands, Duke, too, stands condemned. These people are beyond words to describe just how low, dishonest, and just plain evil they really are.

Anonymous said...

Whores all.

Anonymous said...

Reverend Barber -- he can "talk the talk", but he can't "walk the walk." Same with Wells. "Men of God", my @$$.

As for the NAACP, it may have started with good intentions and a purpose, but in the last 35 years, it has become a farce.

Anonymous said...

Barber's comments are not surprising. The true miracle would have been if Barber had said "Oh Lord, in the name of 'decency' we have been staggeringly indecent. We have cultivated hatred, borne false witness, encouraged and embodied hypocrisy, betrayed any principles we claimed to hold dear, followed false prophets, endangered the true victims among us, and profited from the cowardice of others. We have refused to admit error, and have tried to make our lies cover our lies."

Anonymous said...

The more I think of it, the more I think that this was one of the lowest moments in an event filled with low moments. Here is Duke University being used as a forum by which someone can once again endorse false criminal charges against people -- and these charges are transparently false.

Furthermore, by using the analogy of Pontius Pilate, Barber condemns himself. Barber is at the head of a mob demanding a crooked trial and false conviction -- and then he accused US of being a lynch mob.

You do not know how much I despise this kind of hypocrisy. By the way, is he going to tell us that Crystal is Christ? Or maybe himself? The mob before Pilate was NOT demanding charges be dropped; it was demanding a crooked trial and execution.

Thus, the good "reverend" whose posted talking point on the NAACP website are a pack of lies, cannot even get his theology and biblical history correct.

And, quite fittingly, Duke University was the stage from which this latest salvo of lies was given.

Anonymous said...

Duke is coming across as one hell of a RADICAL festering sore of learning.

Really pleased I will now be taking Duke off of the list of potential universities for my 2 young adults!

Duke has been allowed to become a melting pot of racial intolerance and reverse racism through very weak management from its leader!

I believe its time for Mr Brodhead to stand down .

Anonymous said...

Am getting a bit tired of the 'something MUST have happened' issue. Even more is the'no one fought for the innocent black man who now sits in jail..who was screaming then..'
Well guess what..NOTHING HAPPENED THAT NIGHT AND maybe that is the difference...where were the AA leaders if there was injustice to the black man. GET THE BIG PICTURE HERE FOLKS...we are not just fighting for the Duke 3 we are fighting for JUSTICE. FAIR justice is not suppose to see race.
This never should have been about race..

Duke Lax Mom AND SO VERY PROUD OF IT!!

Anonymous said...

KC
Barber wasn't RELUCTANT to use his theology of truth, he used it quite skillfully to support his racist agenda which feeds right into the white liberal university educators loathing of their own race. Why are white people the only people not allowed to love their race?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps instead of preaching about women being pressed into a degrading profession, Barber should instead be working with Durham officials on cracking down on prostitution and getting those women into rehabilitation.

How does preaching white guilt and culpability to a middle class audience solve the core problem?

Anonymous said...

There is one nice thing about Barber speaking at Duke:

The settlement just tripled from Duke for LAX players.

Anonymous said...

Have always been amused by this statement by Mark Anthony Neal:

"...I don’t want to get into the business of policing black women’s sexuality, which is just as dangerous."

Dangerous? Yeah, they would probably give you 'five side the head', Marc. Or their pimps would do worse...

MrRabbit said...

sigh....relative to those malefactors that can neither apologize or repent..it's a character issue...it takes character to admit error and wrongdoing....Al Gore was right....a leopard cannot change his stripes, nor a zebra change his spots.

Anonymous said...

Regarding whether Devon Sherwood left before the party, there are two versions of the same GMA interview story. One on the GMA site, which claims he stayed through the party, and one on the WTVD site, which does not include that claim.

I believe the WTVD version is correct, as this is consistent with what Devon's father said.

GMA version:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=2617301&page=1

WTVD version:

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=triangle&id=4712335

I have e-mailed to ask for clarification of which version is correct or why one is different, but received no answers. Perhaps K.C. can get a response?

LTC8K6

Anonymous said...

GMA version:

'Stunned'

Sherwood was at the party the night of March 13, and stayed through the dance, but then left with other underclassmen, he said.

"It was kind of boring to be quite honest," he said. "We were just sitting around. And there was nothing to it. It was very boring. I was itching to get out of there, because it was. I'd rather be going to sleep personally to tell you the truth."

WTVD version:

'Stunned'

Sherwood was at the party the night of March 13, but left early.

"It was kind of boring to be quite honest," he said. "We were just sitting around. And there was nothing to it. It was very boring. I was itching to get out of there, because it was. I'd rather be going to sleep personally to tell you the truth."

To me it's pretty clear that Devon was not there for the dance and he is talking about the party being boring. Why the GMA version has that extra line is beyond me. Devon was bored by the party and left early as far as I am concerned. He never saw any dancers.

LTC8K6

Anonymous said...

Once again Duke digs deeper into the pit.

Nils Admirari said...

Comes now the Reverend Doctor Barber in his prideful raiment.

The meditations of his heart and the words of his mouth are not acceptable.

He is not 'free' to preach unrighteously against women and men honester than himself.

Thus does the Reverend Doctor Welles minister to his congregation.

What a consolation.

What a light

Anonymous said...

Does anyone here think that Barber and the powers that be at Duke University want a trial in order to give Reade, Collin, and David an opportunity to be exonerated? No, they want a trial because they are hoping that a Durham jury will ignore the exculpatory evidence and find them guilty out of pure racial and class hatred.

This tells me that the defense was right in asking that the conduct of the people at Duke be a factor in seeking a change of venue. Richard Brodhead may SAY that he wants the other charges dropped and that Nifong's conduct "is on trial, too." By permitting Duke University to be the forum from which someone declares that demanding that the state look at the evidence is tantamount to being a "lynch mob," Brodhead is showing his true colors.

No, Brodhead and all of the other administrators and powers that be at Duke are STILL wanting these young men railroaded into prison. I doubt that Brodhead cares about the truth. A guilty verdict would let him and Duke off the hook, and it would make the black community in Durham happy.

Thus, as far as I am concerned, anything that Brodhead says about innocence or dropping charges is a lie. By having Barber speak at Duke, the university tells all of us where it really stands.

Anonymous said...

Let me add that this is NOT a free speech issue. Duke University is involved in a criminal case, and time and again has shown that the powers that be do not care a whit about exculpatory evidence. All they want is a conviction, and they are hellbent on pursuing it in any way they can.

Anonymous said...

You're hearing more of this "mob rule" theme. Barber says the AG shouldn't succumb to it. Cash Michaels has made similar comments.

What exactly did they call it when hordes of protesters were out banging pots, making threats, and screaming for indictments? Or all the other parties who were denouncing the lax players? Now that was the real mob rule, and Barber and Michaels were a big part of the mob.

The hypocricy is off the charts.

The AG has a chance to look at the evidence and make a dispassionate and fair decision. Something that, heretorore, hasn't happened in this case.

Anonymous said...

Fanatics of any leaning do not base their positions on fact, and they never have. Once a cause of any kind, whether once meritorious or not, moves beyong reality into convenient fiction and generalized emotional rhetoric, it loses any legitimacy it might have claimed and becomes a dark haven for the lunatic fringe elements.

Anonymous said...

Any one have Broadheads' e-mail?

This needs to be sent to him...Oh yeah....the Dukie Lax players...ALL of them... are getting richer by the day..

Anonymous said...

The other big lie: this woman was forced into 'the sex industry' to put food in her babies' mouths and go to school.

The Raleigh/Durham area has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. The FA lives only minutes away from RTP with hundreds of companies that offer fair pay and good benefits to high school graduates of all races.

I personally know that a young black woman who wants to work can easily get a job to support her family and continue her education.

The fact is: the FA chose a life of drugs and illicit sex to the detriment of herself, her children and the community.

The NAACP continues to promote these myths that make this not only Durham in Wonderland but The Kingdom of Lies.

MGM

Anonymous said...

To 5:53

While I agree with you generally about competition in the "marketplace of ideas" and while I understand that universities for many decades have embodied that generalization into "academic freedom," the freedom of the teacher to teach and publish freely, I doubt what is bothering most commenters on this thread is the principle of free speech.

Rather it is: (1) individuals who use their positions at Duke to make statements that can easily be construed as institutional statements against the lacrosse players, and (2) the general silence with which most of the faculty and the administration greet these anti-player statements.

As for the first, the dean of the Duke chapel is an employee of Duke. Perhaps he does have full discretion as to whom he invites to preach, and perhaps that is as it should be. (That depends in part on whether you believe preachers are teachers rather than propagators of myths.) But he intends that his decision will be taken as representative of Duke as an institution, not just a personal decision. Or to take a comparable example, the signing of the 88 ad by the "English Department." The English Department is a formal part of the university, not a teacher enjoying academic freedom. (Who paid for the ad by the way, the 88 individuals or the university through one of its departments?)

In any case, there have been numerous voices at Duke in praise of "noise" directed against the accused and their teammates, friends, and parents. There have been very few voices at Duke (the Provost and the members of the Economics Department are examples) that have decried that praise as morally bankrupt nonsense.

There can be no marketplace of ideas if the only ones who are able and willing to speak are those who continue to incite a lynching.

JeffM

Anonymous said...

As a parent of a child who will be going to college in 2 years and who will likely be qualified intellectually and financially for Duke I can tell your her mild interest has devolved into ABD (Anywhere But Duke).

Anonymous said...

To: LTC8K6: Regardless, Devon was at the party, did stay for the dance and left shortly thereafter as did many of the players. End of story.

Anonymous said...

Let's reframe Barber's comments.
There is racism on campus: directed against white males.
There is sexual exploitation of minority women: primarily by black males.
There is an injustice that must be addressed to remove blood from our hands: the entire PC attack on innocent parties.
There is "something that happened that night": false accusation and possible attempted extortion.
There were racist remarks: initiated by one of the dancers.

So, what Mr. Barber is suggesting is, rip out the heinous racist PC cancer from the body of Duke and cast it into the pit.

How can anybody disagree with that?

Anonymous said...

"Reverend" in the black community has long been a ticket to the political pulpit. It confers an often-inappropriate air of legitimacy to assorted rants and raves that have nothing to do with the church. There are good, legitimate pastors, and there are the other kind (Jackson and Sharpton come immediately to mind who make a mockery of the title.

Anonymous said...

The second dancer brought race into this with her 911 call, which was a lie.

Anonymous said...

"To: LTC8K6: Regardless, Devon was at the party, did stay for the dance and left shortly thereafter as did many of the players. End of story."

I have seen nothing save that GMA story that makes that claim. Devon himself never says it at all. WTVD's version of the same story omits the sentence.

I'll stick with the version that makes sense and is consistent with what we already heard. Devon did not stay for the dance. Devon is not describing being bored by the dance, but by the party before the dance.

When I see evidence that Devon saw the dance, I'll believe it.

LTC8K6

AMac said...

Duke Lax Mom 7:31am --

May I speak frankly? Alas, the criminal case is dead. The Conventional Wisdom has moved on. Civil suits are in the air. What stance should our Progressive coalition of rush-to-judgment faculty, pundits, and Nifong-voting Durhamites do now?

Thank you for bringing up 'something MUST have happened.' It is key.

Recall the Rock of our philosophy: Never apologize.

As late as the fall, we'd hoped for a "jury nullification" Gulity verdict. A misdemeanor plea-bargain would have been almost as sweet (why'd she have to choose families that had the means to fight back?).

With December's Meehan conspiracy revelations, we had to make a strategic retreat to "let them prove their innocence at trial." Fortunately, we'd already floated this position. While a "Not Guilty" verdict would be disappointing, the fact that the case had made it to trial would itself be proof that "something happened."

We are realists: of course the State's prosecutors won't commit professional suicide by pursuing the case. So it's important to spend the next few weeks showing that dropping the case is morally wrong. That it's being done to privilege white innocence, ignoring the racist, hateful, sickening things that the wrongdoers did against the hapless black mother and honor student. 'Something happened.'

As you know, our hearts are always in the right place. Thus, we must never apologize! Like Walter, we regret, sort of, the process involved in making an omlet (even though quipping 'three-egg omlet' reliably wins smiles at the right sort of cocktail party!).

Duke Lax Mom, I hope this helps you to understand that Rev. Barber's timely remarks deserve our full support. You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege.

M. Simon said...

There is a reason some women go into a life of drugs:

Heroin

The short version: child abuse. Probably sexual molestation.

Another coroboration:

Addiction Is A Genetic Disease

When this sort of thing is done to a person, sometimes the person never gets their moral compass working right again.

M. Simon said...

So why isn't the good Rev. speaking out against the child molestors in his own community?

Anonymous said...

I find it neccesary to again point out that Shelden Williams #23 hit the rafters last night at Duke. Williams was kicked off his high school basketball team for participating in an alleged rape. The incident was broken up by his high school coach. Charges were not filed after the alleged victim chose to not cooperate. What ever happened, it was bad enough for the coach who walked in on it to dismiss Williams for the season. Keep in mind he kicked off of his own team one of the best players in the country during his senior campaign. No one banged on pots, marched, demanded justice or anything else when Williams was still welcomed to attend Duke.

Anonymous said...

Barber has to be set straight about his lies and attacks on Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans.
The woman he is defending is not dumb. She had resources and all the access in the world to education, free health care, and welfare of every type. Then she stripped for big money which she pocketed without having to pay taxes on it.
Crystal Gail Mangum is a common whore who has lived off the system like most of the AA in Durham.
That foolish hag is a VICTIMIZER and her plans to bleed some white men of more big bucks has failed.
Fatass Barber needs to be set straight now!

Anonymous said...

"Put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. " - Proverbs 23:2

M. Simon said...

10:37AM,

I believe she was a victim of sexual assault as a child.

Which would explain a lot of her behavior.

Depending on her genetics - sometimes such assault victims never get their life on track.

Anonymous said...

It's a big joke that the black community is in dire straits. Just take a look. I've never seen so many overweight and out of shape people in one group.
What? About 12-13% of the population?
At least 75% of them are overweight or obese. And they need more help from society?
Get off your duffs and work!

Just taking a look at the N&O this morning I see that Duke University is giving another big freebie to Durham's black community. Apparently, so many of them are fat and have a very high incidence of diabetes.

St. John's , along with a dozen other African-American churches, "is participating in a research project at Duke University aimed at improving the health of blacks suffering from diabetes. The project, funded with $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, is intended to reduce complications from diabetes. Its plan is to establish social support groups within churches, hold educational forums, and teach participants how to get the most out of their doctor visits."

Can anyone believe this? After getting the food free, someone must tell them how to eat it?

This is insane. Duke should cut off all money for such programs. And the NIH can use its funds in better ways for those who take some responsibility for their own behavior.

You want to avoid Type 2 diabetes, morons? Stop eating like hogs and stop eating greasy fattening foods anytime you want.

Geez.

Anonymous said...

AMac...are you joking...support Rev. Barber...?

Support the lies and half truths out there...sure...

Wanting to believe it does not make it so. It is about the facts.
Period!

Anonymous said...

In his comments on the case, the NAACP chair continued his organization’s practice of lionizing the accuser, wondering, “What about a society where young ladies even have to consider sexual occupation for financial sustainment, or to use those things as a flawed attempt to gain self-esteem?”

How else are young "ladies" like Precious ever going to earn $400 for 2 hours work?

But the Rev should be well acquainted with "sexual" occupations", given that he is such a race pimp.

Anonymous said...

The continuing mystery has been, how could DA Nifong think he would win at trial without DNA evidence or a credible complainant? Now, amac (9:51) may have solved it by suggesting that DA Nifong may have believed that he could settle these cases with misdemeanor pleas--as he did with so many other cases over the years.
gk

M. Simon said...

10:56AM,

The problem is that a diet suitable for hard outdoor work is a health hazard for less strenuous occupations. However, such diets get embedded in the culture.

Culture needs to change. The fastest way is education.

You know if the Rev had stuck to education and bigotry free justice, there would be no complaint.

He should join the anti-railroading society. Because, if they would pull this on white boys look at how much easier it would be to do to blacks. Who is going to come up with even a retainer for top lawyers?

Well any way. We should help our brothers get back on track. It would be the Christian thing to do. Funny thing is I'm Jewish.

AMac said...

Geez. It's one thing to hold a person accountable for the things that they have said or done. Or the statements they have chosen to endorse.

And it's reasonable to talk about behavior (etc.) in common. If 90% of black Durham voters but not white Durham voters chose Nifong, that's significant, and worth discussing.

Some commenters here are moving farther afield. Slamming "black people," as if there is some Borg-like Collective out there, somewhere.

I don't see that uniformity and unanimity in the white people I know/have known, work with/have worked with, live near/have lived near. Or the Asian-Americans. Or the foreigners.

Or the African-Americans.

Yeah, there are inter-group differences. And there are intra-group differences.

Being angry isn't the same thing as being insightful.

-------

anon 11:01am --

I should have added

[/sarcasm]

as the last line of that 9:41am comment. It doesn't always come through...

Anonymous said...

Here's more information on what the NAACP is all about--from the N&O:

NAACP Planning Downtown March

"Ready for HK on J? That's the code word for a rally planned by the state chapter of the NAACP on Feb. 10. The event will start with a gathering at the Progress Energy Center at 11am, followed by a march through downtown to the Legislature Building on Jones Street (in Raleigh).

There, organizers want to lobby legislators on a 14-point agenda that includes pushing for a living wage, providing health care to all, allowing for public financing of elections and allowing collective bargaining for public employees.

HK on J is short for Historic K (Thousands) on Jones Street, organizers said."


Can anyone believe this? Who has the time to mill about on the streets demanding more free stuff? That's all you ever see them do. Asking for an even freer ride. Just look at what they are marching for. The AA community's only goal it seems is structuring a life free of financial responsibility. These people make me heave.

That's Barber's NAACP. A tax-exempt group that endorses political candidates when it wants, attacks those who do not yield to their extortion, and continues to have the time to march for more free stuff because almost none of them hold real jobs.

Anonymous said...

It is indeed depressing that the NAACP is using LEGITIMATE societal concerns as motivation to ignore the evidence in the case and act like a redneck lynch mob from the 1930's.

This is such a bad case (from the prosecution standpoint) that it would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Anonymous said...

Why would ANY of the Duke 3 plea bargin, AMac ,when NOTHING HAPPENED!

Plea bargins are for those that are guilty of something and want a lesser punishment of some kind.

Hey AMac...SHE LIED!!! Nifungus lied!!! DPD lied!! Barber spreading lies..

Nothing gets accomplished or changed when you refuse to see the truth!!!

WOW!!!

Anonymous said...

Sam Wells' lecture to the Duke community for its manifold sins of isms reminded me of the late (and unlamented) Hewlett Johnson, the notorious Red Dean of Canterbury.

Johnson advocated a bizarre theology he called Christian Marxism. The name explains it all. Sometimes I wonder if the Dean of Duke Chapel is cut from the same cloth.

Anonymous said...

what about the ninth commandment:thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor?I guess that can be set aside too.

Anonymous said...

To 11:14
People regularly accept plea bargains frr things they never did. I pled to an equipment violation, rather than fighting the stupid speeding charge I could have won.

DA Nifong was very accustomed to bargaining down cases with defendants who would save much money by avoiding trials, and could well have believed that the Duke 3 might have wanted to go that route also--particularly with some exculpatory evidence unavailable.
gk

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, by choosing families financially capable of defending themselves against false charges, CGM lost any opportunity at civil suit rewards and Nifong lost his "easy out". The 3 would NEVER have pleaded to lesser charges not only because NOTHING happened but also because it would have been a foot in the door for Precious winning the false rape charge civil lawsuit lottery.

Anonymous said...

11:14 said Why would ANY of the Duke 3 plea bargin, AMac ,when NOTHING HAPPENED!

It happens all the time to people who have few resources and who would be bankrupt after being in jail for a very short period without a plea bargain. They are left with very little bargaining power. Money is king.

Michael said...

The thing that would complete the picture is Linwood Wilson and his quartet singing after the sermon.

Anonymous said...

m. simon

Can you spell a p o l o g i s t?

Hint: There is a clue in my question.

Anonymous said...

In what parallel universe are these Duke administrators and faculty living,

my god you're right!Duke has become a PARALLEL UNIVERSITY!an alternate reality where the laws of our universe don't make sense.

Anonymous said...

M.SIMON---Good points, however, every individual must learn to adapt and work for their own personal health. When you are used to getting everything done for free---just because---all incentive is lost.

In the photograph of the paper, the woman was a fatass sitting at a table stuffing her face.

********************************

AMAC means well, I'm sure. Eveybody understands that not all people of any group are the same. It's just a shame that the AA community almost shatters that statement by the reality of their behavior. No other group on this earth behaves like such a monolith. No one needs to look further than this lacrosse case.

AMAC thinks he knows black people. Has he ever been engaged to a black person? Has he ever known a black person intimately? On a 24/7 everyday basis?

If not, then all this feel-good touchy-feely crap is just what it is. No one can cover up for what has happened here in this case. It reveals some very ugly truths.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
Just for the record, did anyone protest tonight when Duke retired the number of Shelden Williams?


Anonymous (and KC and all his readers) will be heartened to know that in fact, there was a fair amount of booing at last night's game--all aimed at President Brodhead.

When Brodhead took the podium to congratulate Shelden on his accomplishments, he got a resounding boo from the crowd, mostly the students of course. It probably would've gone on for a while but the crowd didn't want to ruin Shelden's night.

AMac said...

anon 11:14am --

My 9:41am comment was meant to be a sarcastic exercise in unbridled cynicism. I apologize for not being clear enough on that point.

You wrote, "Nothing gets accomplished or changed when you refuse to see the truth!!!"

Unfortunately, "truth" as it is understood by many of the Enablers of the Hoax has little to do with the common definition of the word. "Fake but accurate" is a slogan from a different scandal, but the enablers' catchphrase--"something happened"--is a handy application of the concept.

--------

anon 11:50am --

To address your straw men: no and no.

Anonymous said...

9:41 AM

Thank you for not waiting and showing us all why Bill Andersons article Goebbels Justice is so important.

Anonymous said...

That he is astonished the world's oldest profession still thrives in Durham, NC is priceless.

Anonymous said...

To 3:14AM Sebastian---

I see that a few people burned the candles at both ends last evening....as did I.

You're very sweet and I loved your book and the film that it inspired. :>) (wink, wink)

Too hot!

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Please Duke students, do not go to Durham to view the march of the NAACP. For those of us who lived through the 60s riots, it is not pretty. Truck driver Denny would also tell you "it is life threatening."

Anonymous said...

Forgive me if J. Edgar Hoover's impressions of MLK don't impress me.

Anonymous said...

The African-American community will fight to the death to keep the real information on Martin Luther King's life hidden. Sure, he did some great things for the civil rights era, but never anything on the level that is touted.
Just look at his progeny to see from where those apples fall. All four of them are worthless. Still fighting to make a fortune off MLK's papers which were subsidized by the government originally.
Now the King family wants the government to pay millions for them so they can become multi-multi-millionaires---something already paid for.
That's the mentality. Pure dependence and extortion. The MLK tapes and papers must be made public, like other public figures.

Anonymous said...

Everyone please read this. I can tell you for a fact that Barber was invited to preach BEFORE the events of last Spring. He WAS NOT invited for any lacrosse-related reason.

Anonymous said...

any one (4.56)

Re Yale

"Obviously, Brodhead learned no lesson the first time around and has, consequently, played a large part in ruining not just one life, but now three more lives."

Actually I think he learned a lesson the first time around: that there is no downside to railroading innocent people in order to keep things calm.

Let's see if he is proved right...

Anonymous said...

The guy building my stairs is a "Reverend", and Ian Paisley (of Ulster Northern Ireland fame) got his "Reverendship" from a Greensboro, NC correspondence off a matchbook cover.

-This guy attended Duke Divinity, so he's of a different educational calibre - but the Title does no impress me. - They are by and large politicians wraped up in a robe - like the NAACP isn't political ?

Anonymous said...

2:06 PM
"He WAS NOT invited for any lacrosse-related reason."

So everything he said can now be discounted? I believe his sermon still stands.

Anonymous said...

Correction: The NAACP USED to be a respected institution. That is no longer true (and has not been true for some time now).

Anonymous said...

please do not make broad comments about the behavior of black women. there are black women who were raised in a two parent household, went to college and are productive hard working citizens. Crystal is an individual. SHe is not all black women. Also I really dont care about MLK's legacy I care about truth. Even Dyson who is a liberal black man exposed the truth about KIng's plagarism, ect. I understand how this case probably did more confirm some stereotypes about blacks in your minds but remember they are not necessarily true. barber is one of the dangers when politics and religion mix. i do want preachers to speak about issues, but not from the pulpit.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Nice language...helps how?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Debrah is new black panther. Her racism has taken a turn toward imitating a new black panther to see what she can incite. Maybe Charlie Manson in her mentor.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

3:33pm
Get over yourself

Anonymous said...

I watched the first trial of the Alpha Sigma Psi hazing incident (a nonevent in my view.) The black people - everyone involved was black except for the female white Judge- were all high class, exceptional and intelligent. Anyone would be proud to have them as friends. The folk in Durham appear to be poor and uneducated. This is sad, but we also have poor and uneducated white folk.

Anonymous said...

Sorry - Kappa Slpha Psi

Anonymous said...

New Black Panthers...Why don't you direct your energies into something positive. 'The whiteys' have directed our energies into a unified force.... Why can't you do that? Why get angry at the blogs?
You have powerful people...voices need to be heard...Why do you think we were successful in taking Nifong down..because we banded together for injustice...
You are directing you anger at the wrong people...we GET injustice...WE do not beleive in it ...FOR ANYONE OF ANY RACE!
STOP ranting and use your voice for something useful...band together and be heard!!!
Remember, we are not just fighting for the Duke 3 but for EVERYONE...yes you too... WE have a Constitution that MUST be followed...FOR ALL!!!!

Anonymous said...

Having been a JAG, I can tell you there are a fairly limited number of explanations as to why CGM's military career was as short-lived as it was, and very few of those explanations cast a favorable light on her character.

As this thing implodes (to the literate world), she will be a second-time false accuser. If there are no repurcussions visited upon her, than I can draw only one conclusion: it is not illegal to file a racially-motivated false accusation against certain groups of defendants in Durham County.

If the shoe were on the other foot, does anyone doubt there would be calls to classify the FA's perjurious statements as a "hate crime"?

Anonymous said...

Re Brodhead at Shelden Williams' ceremony.

IMHO, Brodhead has truly done something when he gets booed from fallout of a sexual assault case while standing next to Sheldon Williams.

Anonymous said...

New Black Panthers are racist( Much overused word, but they really are)thugs. They have done more to make white, browns, etc hate and distrust black people than anyone.

Anonymous said...

Those that condemmed the defendents of racism, arrogance, and lies, are in fact guilty of those sins themselves. I suspect that the 3 young men's families and their legal counsel are sitting quietly and recording the various comments, speechs, letters and TV appearances by the likes of the NAACP, the group of 88, and the various hate mongers spewing garbage like Rev. Barber. I would bet that KC's blog is being read every night by the families and their attorneys and will be of great help in the future. I for one enjoy reading the hate and lies being spewed by these people, as the defamation cases become that much stronger every time they open their mouths. Rev Barber chose his forum to defame the defendents in Duke Chapel - how could it be any more ironic. Unfortunately the act of "throwing the first stone" in Duke's historic and sacred house of worship seems lost on Brodhead. It won't be for the plantiff's civil attorneys.

Orange Lazarus

Anonymous said...

It makes me wonder what Mr. Barber thinks of the black man that was killed, and his friend wounded, in New York, as they exited a strip club, after a night of drinking, the night before one man's wedding, to the illegitimate mother of his children. (that's quite a run-on sentence!)

Anonymous said...

8:02 PM Orange
"...legal counsel are sitting quietly and recording the various comments, speechs, letters and TV appearances..."

If this isn't in the end one kahuna of a hate crime, I dont' know what is.

Anonymous said...

TO 4:25PM----

Since KC has seen fit not to delete this libelous post....let me just say to this idle derelict:

Be very glad that I do not know who you are.....since you choose to post this way without signing your name. It is Tuesday and you wrote that post yesterday afternoon. I haven't even been on this website until now.

How dare you. This is the result that we must bear when we sign our names. Being stalked by psychotic misfits.

I sense that this post was left by Jim Clyne (aka) JC (aka) RP (aka) Roman Polanski (aka) Ted Koppel.....and so many people he tries to impersonate.....however.....

.....there are a few other cowards on this board who ideologically are still in the abyss of the archaic Leftist 60's crowd....and try to cause discord by this kind of libel. One of them could now be posing as a New Black Panther.

Again, this is pure libel and harassment and I only wish I knew how my attorney could find you.

I wouldn't be surprised if the psychotic Jim Clyne is at his idle tricks again.

Debrah