Comments and analysis about the Duke/Nifong case (2006-2014).
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16 comments:
assuming you have seen the reference to DIW in Kathleen Parker's latest column? Can be read at townhall.com
How ironic. Mikey used the term "hooligans" to describe a "youthful gang". The three indicted LAX players didn't constitute a gang but the 88 do.
Unfortunately, he used it to describe the wrong group@!
I don't want to fan the flames, but 'hooligan' has a very specific history iirc also in current sociological studies.
It originated in the UK as a slur against the mostly Irish and Scot -(Celtic underclass and working class) behavior at football games (Irish football)and later in the 20th century at soccer games such as at games of the Celtics and Rangers, rival teams in Glasgow. It was a class slur bound up with ethnicity. The similarity of 'hooligan' to common Irish names is clear but I will look up the cites if I can find them here quickly.
In recent decades, 'hooliganism' has been an object of study in the UK often driven by feminist analysis. Hooligan Wars (2001) edited by Perryman argues that it cannot be disconnected from patriarchy.
See
"Feminist accounts of football violence (eg. Campbell and Dawson, 2001) stress that football cannot be disconnected from other contexts and forms of violence, nor from the gender system which is complicit in the making of masculinities. For these authors it is a problem of the masculine 'spatial and sexual domination that is routinised in popular culture. They complain that although academics tend to say a lot about racism in football, few pay attention to the sexism which seems an integral part of football - and hooligan cultures. This argument comes from a new and challenging collection on the hooligan phenomenon Hooligan Wars, edited by Mark Perryman. "
So the critique, and the word, are very much connected to the 'helmet sports' comment made by one of the faculty at the time. They had an analysis and they just plugged the boys into their model.
Of course, sociology studies groups. Criminal trials are about the guilt of individuals, not groups.
I believe given the circles he and Cy run in, Nifong knew very well what he was saying and what it meant.
Williamson and Nifong are both correct that the English word hooligan has become associated with sports violence, especially in international soccer. So much so that other European countries, such as Spain, have incorporated the word as part of their sports vocabulary. Nifong's error is that the word is not used to describe the players, but rather the fans and followers. Now that we have all the information available, the word is clearly inappropriate for the lacrosse players, but it certainly would describe the potbangers. There is a truly chilling description of the potbangers going to 610 N. Buchanan to protest, and since the house was vacant, they continued on to the house of two lacrosse players who lived nearby. The potbangers promptly started banging on the front windows, and William Walcott and and K.J. Sauer were so scared they had to go out the back door to get away.
Here are Sauer's words: "K.J. comes running into my room. He's scared and frightened {. . .]. We went to the front and there were people banging on our windows, people screaming, 'Time to confess.' [. . .]. That was the most scared I've been in my whole life. We had to sneak out the back door." (133)
So who are the hooligans? Who should confess?
This topic really stimulated.......the hair on my balls! And that's as far as it went. Check please!
Chad
Des Moines,IA
Parker on D-I-W:
Jewish_World_Review
Debrah
Well, if you wanted to demonize them Nifong did pretty well. He stereotyped them for being both privileged rich kids and violent underclass at the same time.
Let me make a suggestion.
All of you with access to the e-mail system at Duke--Brodhead, Burness, Gang of 88...etc....should forward this Parker column to each one of the cowards.
Debrah
12:29 is correct. I'd add that the term is an obvious Irish slur, and aren't both Finnerty and Evans Irish? By extension, since the Irish are Caucasian, I'd guess that Nifong was making a not too subtle antiwhite slur for the benefit of his majority-black constituency.
Polanski
AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGG
It cut off just when it was getting good!!
I am having swelling of my edema just reading all this arcane lore, or maybe its just swellin'.
'Slur':
Most likely appealing to Duke lefties, not to the black community in Durham. The AA leadership isn't so ethnic minded and a lot of folks in the AA community have Scot surnames.
The Duke lefties who study 'helmet sports' would be the audience imho.
2:59:
Sit in a bathtub filled with ice cubes. Hope it helps.
TO 3:06PM--
I agree. People like the wirey little simpleton, Orin Starn--a "cultural anthropologist".
He was given an entire page by the Herald-Sun's editorial hacks to talk about "helmet sports" and to malign college athletics in general.
Orin Starn is a true lowgrade and wimpy bottom-feeder.
Debrah
Praise the Lord! Easely is putting Jim Hardin back in office.
Praise the Lord! Easely is putting Jim Hardin back in office.
There is at least one small thing that people in NC can take comfort in.
If this case is any indication of the state of affairs in NC, it would seem that there are far more brilliant lawyers (defense team, AG's staff, Bar prosecutors, Williamson to name a few) than contemptible, incompetent shmucks like Nifong working in the system.
The overall quality of the legal work done by the lawyers in this matter (excepting Nifong) has been thoroughly impressive.
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