Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Baker Letter--Slightly Modified

The Bowen/Chambers report clucked that “in the eyes of some faculty and others concerned with the intersecting issues of race, class, gender, and respect for people, the Athletic Department, and Duke more generally, just didn’t seem to ‘get it.’”

Among the faculty interviewed by Bowen and Chambers was Houston Baker. The two “investigators” didn’t seem at all concerned with Baker’s response to the affair, notably his call for the summary dismissal from Duke, without any due process, of 46 students. Indeed, Bowen and Chambers seemed highly sympathetic to Baker’s public letter: they even quoted from it in their report.

Below is a copy of the open letter penned by Baker on March 29, 2006—but with one modification. Every mention of “white” in the letter is replaced with “black”; every mention of “black” is replaced with “white.” I have put the modifications in bold so they are clear.

Does anyone believe that Bowen and Chambers would have praised a professor who wrote something resembling the letter below, containing 10 gratuitous, denigrating references to the race of the accused?

Awaiting the Restoration of Confidence: A Letter to the Duke University Administration

Television screens tuned in to MSNBC on the morning of March 29, 2006 broadcast a headline in bold red: DUKE RAPE? At the bottom right corner of the front page of The New York Times on the same day was an article about the rape allegations roiling Duke University. How is a Duke community citizen to respond to such a national embarrassment from under the cloud of a “culture of silence” that seeks to protect black, male, athletic violence and which apparently prevents all university citizens from even surveying the known facts? How can one begin to answer the cardinal question: What have Duke and its leadership done to address this horrific, racist incident alleged to have occurred in a university-owned property in the presence of members of one of its athletic teams?

The alleged crimes of rape, sodomy, and strangulation of a white woman at a party populated in some measure by the Duke lacrosse team reportedly occurred on March 13. University administrators knew about and had begun to respond internally within twenty-four hours following the incident. But Duke University citizens had no public word from our university leadership until President Richard Brodhead called a press conference on March 28. Two weeks of silent protectionism left all of us vulnerably ignorant of the facts. Receiving emails and telephone calls of concern from friends nationally and internationally, we have been deeply embarrassed by the silence that seems to surround this black, male athletic team’s racist assaults (by words, certainly—deeds, possibly) in our community.

It is virtually inconceivable that representatives of Duke University’s Athletic Department would allow its lacrosse team to engage in regular underage drinking and out-of-control bacchanalia. It is difficult to imagine a competently managed corporate setting in which such behavior would be tolerated (and swept under the rug), or where such a “team” would survive for more than a day before being tossed out on its ears by security. Moreover, in a forthrightly ethical setting with an avowed commitment to life-enhancing citizenship, such a violent and irresponsible group would scarcely be spirited away, or sheltered under the protection of pious sentiments such as “deplorable”—a judgment that reminds us of Miss Ophelia in Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, saying that slavery was “perfectly horrible.” Such timorous piety and sentimental legalism, in the opinion of the author James Baldwin, constitutes duck-and-cover cowardice of the first order.

There is no rush to judgment here about the crime—neither the violent racial epithets reported in a 911 call to Durham police, nor the harms to body and soul allegedly perpetrated by black males at 610 Buchanan Boulevard. But there is a clear urgency about the erosion of any felt sense of confidence or safety for the rest of us who live and work at Duke University. The lacrosse team—15 of whom have faced misdemeanor charges for drunken misbehavior in the past three years—may well feel they can claim innocence and sport their disgraced jerseys on campus, safe under the cover of silent blackness. But where is the white woman who their violence and raucous witness injured for life? Will she ever sleep well again? And when will the others assaulted by racist epithets while passing 610 Buchanan ever forget that dark moment brought on them by a group of drunken Duke boys? Young, black, violent, drunken men among us—implicitly boasted by our athletic directors and administrators—have injured lives. There is scarcely any shame more egregious than one that wraps itself in the pious sentimentalism of liberal rhetoric as though such a wrap really constituted moral and ethical action.

Duke University’s higher administration has engaged in precisely such a tepid and pious legalism with respect to the disaster of recent days: the actual harm to the body, soul, mind, and spirit of white women who were in the company of Duke University lacrosse team members as far as any of us know. All of Duke athletics has now been drawn into the seamy domains of Colorado football and other college and university blind-eying of male athletes, veritably given license to rape, maraud, deploy hate speech, and feel proud of themselves in the bargain.

Many citizens have weighed in, and one hopes all departments, programs, and concerned members of our university community will speak out forcefully for swift and considered corrective action.

But of course, it is not exclusively our academic administration that seems to have refused decisive and meaningful action. The most deafening silence - and, quite possibly, duplicity (which is to say, improbable denial) - has marked, in fact, Duke’s Department of Athletics. Where was Joe Alleva before Tuesday’s press conference called by President Brodhead? Where now is the commercial charisma of Coach K, who could certainly be out front condemning Duke athletes who call people out of their name from the precincts of university-owned housing? Why aren’t such stalwarts of Duke athletics publicly and courageously addressing the horrors that have occurred in their own domain? We remember the very first day of our new President’s administration - how he and Coach K shared the media dais, and the basketball magnate was praised for his bold leadership. It all seems rather like an Indonesian shadow play at this moment of crisis. All a show.

What is precipitously teetering in the balance at this point, during weeks marked by inaction and duck-and-cover from our designated leaders is, well, confidence.

It is very difficult to feel confidence in an administration that has not addressed in meaningful ways the horrors that have occurred to actual bodies, to the Durham community of which we are an integral part, and to our sense of being members of a proactive and caring community. Rather, gag orders and trembling liberal rhetorical spins seem to be behaviors du jour from our leaders.

There can be no confidence in an administration that believes suspending a lacrosse season and removing pictures of Duke lacrosse players from a web page is a dutifully moral response to abhorrent sexual assault, verbal racial violence, and drunken black male privilege loosed amongst us.

How many mandates concerning safe, responsible campus citizenship must be transgressed by black athletes’ violent racism before our university’s offices of administration, athletics, security, and publicity courageously declare: enough!

How many more white people must fall victim to violent, black, male, athletic privilege before coaches who make Chevrolet and American Express commercials, athletic directors who engage in Miss Ophelia-styled “perfectly horrible” rhetoric, higher administrators who are salaried at least in part to keep us safe, and publicists who are supposed not to praise Caesar but to damn the unconscionable . . . how many? Before they demonstrate that they don’t just write books, pay lip service, or boast of safe citizenship . . . but actually do step up morally, intellectually, and bravely to assume responsibilities of leadership for such citizenship. How many?

How soon will confidence be restored to our university as a place where minds, souls, and bodies can feel safe from agents, perpetrators, and abettors of black privilege, irresponsibility, debauchery and violence?

Surely the answer to the question must come in the form of immediate dismissals of those principally responsible for the horrors of this spring moment at Duke. Coaches of the lacrosse team, the team itself and its players, and any other agents who silenced or lied about the real nature of events at 610 Buchanan on the evening of March 13, 2006. A day that, not even in a clichéd sense, will, indeed, always live in infamy for this university.

A responsible, and in many instances appalled—and yes, frightened—citizenry of Duke University is waiting . . . and certainly more than willing to join considered actions by bold leaders to restore confidence in a great institution and its mission. Today I polled my class whose enrollment is predominantly women and white. All said that nothing had happened in terms of this university’s response that had left them anything but afraid. The shame of this is unconscionable. Still, these women will surely sleep better this evening than the white woman injured at 610 Buchanan Boulevard by the black lacrosse team’s out-of-control violent partying will ever again rest in her life.

Appropriately, Provost Peter Lange strongly, and publicly, criticized the original version of Baker’s racist screed.

One week after the letter appeared, however, 87 of his colleagues joined Baker in signing the Group of 88’s statement. To my knowledge, not one member of the Group has ever publicly criticized Baker’s letter. It seems, alas, that the Group’s oft-expressed concerns with racism only go in one direction.

70 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nifong must surrender his law license to the bar no later than 30 days from when he is served with the order. He also must pay costs associated with his June ethics trial.


It's official today, and Nifong owes the bar money.

Hope he owes a lot.

Anonymous said...

Provost Peter Lange stood tall with his reply -- the Lone Ranger, if you will.

When the Lone Ranger and his faithful Native American sidekick Tonto were surrounded by a mob of howling, angry NA's, you remember that the Lone Ranger said "Tonto, we are in big trouble now" Tonto replied, "What do you mean we, paleface?"

I suspect poor Peter Lange finds himself in a similar dilemma.

Anonymous said...

Baker's letter may have been the dumbest commentary anyone made about the entire affair. He is clearly a bigot. When this all happened it became very clear that it was OK to be racist in North Carolina....you just had to pick the right race.

I am not sure who the bigger disgrace is, Baker or Kim Curtis. I have no idea how the students, alumni, parents, and honest faculty at Duke tolerate her employment by the University.

Anonymous said...

"It seems, alas, that the Group’s oft-expressed concerns with racism only go in one direction."

Well, duh. It's not much of a discovery though, they're quite upfront about it. They'll give you a big long song & dance about "historical oppression" and how it's logically impossible for a black person to be racist or a woman sexist.

The issue is not noticing or proving the existence of the double standard, it's bringing it to the attention of parents, alumni, taxpayers and other normal people who fund its continued existence and application at all major universities.

Anonymous said...

Baker is nothing more than a punk. And now he's Vanderbilt's problem. (No wonder Gee bailed for OSU.)

Anonymous said...

only reverse racism i can think of: playing the rodney king tape backwards

Anonymous said...

We endured the pre-trial hearings and a two-and-half week criminal trial. We learned that her murderer abused alcohol and drugs, that he hated women, and he learned to hate whites at Lehigh.

One of the reasons he was in a rage was that he had just lost the presidency of the black student's association by one vote that night, that he had urinated in fraternity punch bowls, and that he had publicly masturbated in the library to show his contempt for that institution. They had him on a full scholarship.

We also learned that he had flunked out of Lehigh, was off-campus for a year, and readmitted in the fall of 1985, that he had a run-in with the campus police, that he had been fired for violence at a Burger King in Newark, New Jersey, one month before he was readmitted to Lehigh and given a job, can you imagine, in dormitory operations.


http://www.securityoncampus.org/congress/03141990.html

Anonymous said...

Too bad Baker didn't know the facts before he wrote this crap. He wouldn't have had to ask: "Will this woman ever sleep again?" He'd have known that she slept quite well, thank you, for several hours at the hospital, right after the horribly brutal assault-that-never-happened-except-in-her-drugged-and-drunken imagination.

The more interesting question is how people like Baker sleep at night after outrageously defaming innocent young students at his own university. Sadly, I suspect that Baker, like his heroine Crystal Mangum, sleeps just fine. It's impossible to be troubled by your conscience if you don't have one.

Anonymous said...

1:34: or playing the Reginald Denny tape in any direction, at any speed. (You remember him, don't you? He was the white truck driver who was dragged out of his truck and brutally beaten by a screaming, dancing group of black thugs in L.A. who were upset by the Rodney King verdict).

Anonymous said...

" Whose we, lone ranger"

Anonymous said...

Racists calling the kettle black.

Anonymous said...

This is the point, isn't it?

And this point has been illustrated so cleanly and magnificently in this post with just a slight modification.....a stroke of a key.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Speaking of Rodney King, I can't help but wonder if the AG didn't press felony charges against CM due to fear of violent backlash.

Basically, the AG backed down from a fight, which is what empowers the cult of victimhood.

Anonymous said...

I repeat, the real point is that in academia this double standard not only not a secret, it is widely accepted as right and just.

If the residents of the real world had a better idea what they're paying for, they'd be appalled. I hope this case helps make a little progress that way.

Anonymous said...

Is Baker a Communist?

Anonymous said...

KC, that is perfect! Of course the reality is that it doesn't work both ways. I was with some colleagues in DC this morning and waiting for a car, a dude saw us and crossed the street in front of our hotel (at 6:30AM) and asked us for some money so he "could go to detox". My colleague, a former USC football player and UC Berkeley law grad (who is a politcal liberal) said to the guy "you know what you should do? Go get a job!" I am starting to see folks who are getting fed up with the whining and one way propriety. So thanks KC for making the one way propriety case with the Baker letter. Duke has its hands full with the inmates running the asylum.

Anonymous said...

This isn't the first time races have been reversed to show the absolutely sick double-standard our culture uses when it comes to black vs white. In Florida in the 90's some college kid made a speech his University square, and what he said elicited screams of "RACIST" and "White Supremacist!!" As it turns out, The student had simply read the Black Student Union Manifesto, replacing the words "black" with "white."

Getting back to this article, note the hysterical, paternalistic tone of the writer towards blacks. I especially like the condescending part about how "unconscionable" it was that black women felt scared after the rape that never happened. Well yeah after a rape happens in the area, women usually get a little scared. But the situation only gets paternalistic and hysterical when blacks are the victim. When a white cheerleader was raped by four black guys at UT Austin back in the 90's there were no such hysterical columns in the paper. Instead, writers nervously downplayed race. I've seen this happen time and time again and it is infuriating.

BobC

Anonymous said...

Does Nifong have a defense committee?

Anonymous said...

"what he said elicited screams of "RACIST" and "White Supremacist!!" As it turns out, The student had simply read the Black Student Union Manifesto, replacing the words "black" with "white.""

Did he get punished for hate speech anyway? No, that question is not a joke.

Anonymous said...

What is status of the other Duke alleged rape of the white woman at the black fraternity --- which reportedly also included drugs and weapons charges? Mum's the word?

Anonymous said...

KC, You are getting close to saying what needs to be said. Independent of race there is a culture of the south (globally not just in the US) and a culture of the north. The culture of the north is respobnsible for 90% of the wealth of the world and it is being expropriated by the culture of the south. Does anyone give a rat's pitoot? I doubt it.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if the NC NAACP website is still playing host to the same libel. Wonder if it will take threats of a lawsuit for them to halt this criminal behavior against three innocent men.

Just revisiting the insane and odious logorrhea from Houston Baker makes my blood boil. Look at everything these crazy people have gotten away with.

They spend their lives looking at everything through the prism of race, yet when reality clearly shows them the total opposite is true, they just proceed with their base and disgusting methods.

One has only to check the daily police logs to see who commits crime with abandon....and most often, against whom.

The bizarre fabrications of these strange people are horrifying to view in the year 2007. They do not want to live in a world of equality and respect for everyone. Their goal is a life of emotional, psychological, and financial extortion from their ill-conceived fantasies of mass victimhood.

Let me say this: I have heard comments from people all over the political spectrum. Just about everyone has had enough of this blatant racist and destructive agenda----unrestrained black racism has about run its course.

Just think how loud and crazy Rev. Barber and his impotent NC NAACP janissaries would have become if the girl, Lauren Redman, who was raped, stabbed, gutted of her digestive system, and murdered by two black guys....if she had been a black woman and the murderers had been white.

We saw no white people rioting and screaming like loons in the streets when news of this brutality came to light.

(BTW, Byron Waring, one of the perpetrators in this case was just given the death penalty because of the heinousness and the brutality of Redman's murder.

Reading about this case harkened back to Bim Holloway--son of Karla--and how he murdered his victims......but you saw no white people or any other groups rioting in the streets when hearing of this brutality.)

These race hounds need to understand that our society puts up with a lot from the criminal element in the black community. If their brand of injustice continues, perhaps people in this country will cease their usual goodwill approach.....

.....realizing now, so clearly, that a majority of those who scream victimhood with fervor at every fabrication....are actually the victimizers.

I do wish there was a 21st century version of the guillotine in the public square. I would do all that I could to see that Richard Brodhead occupied the space first in line.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Ralph---I'm not sure if he was disciplined. I read about that case in Dinesh D'Souza's "The End of Racism" which came out (I think) in 1997. It is a shocking look into the double standards of the race pimps.

Debra--you are right people are sick to death of black racism. Nobody's going to take it anymore.

BobC

Anonymous said...

"To my knowledge, not one member of the Group has ever publicly criticized Baker’s letter."
If memory serves, wasn't there some sort of joint letter coming from some corner of academia criticizing Lange for his response to the Baker letter? Any one remember?

Anonymous said...

Racism IS a problem in our society. The racism such as that so clearly displayed by Baker and some of the other G88ers is the proble. There certainly is anti-black racism present, but not nearly to the extent as anti-white racism. This fiasco awakened some people to the race-hustlers that have been so busy destroying their own peoples' future; now, maybe more will begin to realize that Jackson and Sharpton and the NAACP are simply extremists exploiting the gullibility of white leftists.

Anonymous said...

Right after his march 29, 2006 letter, I sent an e-mail to Houston Baker which was written in a courteous manner to elicit further information regarding his position. I received a vitriolic reply accusing me of racism. Not being satisfied, I followed up with an extensive narrative of all those things in my past that represented and were consistent with racial tolerance and respect. He replied again with the statement that I was a "wonderful ranconteur." His tone had changed demonstrably -- he too was then courteous. We exchanged a few more pleasant e-mails and parted company.

When the AG announced the player's innocence, I again e-mail Baker on June 16, 2007:

"Dear Professor,

We corresponded last year after the opening salvos in what became known as the "Duke lacrosse scandal." I refer you now to those communications. I also humbly request that you publicly acknowledge the errors and inflammatory nature of your public statements. I fully understand that you could consider that request honored with no statement, whatsoever. Silence often says more than words.

In a larger context, the recent events and conclusions have damaged the perception and potential reception of rightful claims of young women, whether black, white, yellow, brown or red. Perhaps someone of your stature could find the wisdom to address past prosecutorial injustice (both in the present and historical context). Further, perhaps your singular position could aide efforts to avoid a repetition of a singularly agregious injustice. For all who find themselves availed of false allegations, you could use you position to advance justice.

With respect and best regards, I remain a concerned,

Tom Inman"

He has remained silent. I have heard nothing from him and now do not expect to hear from him. So I shall publicly apologize for having been taken in by a scoundrel and an intellectual cur of the worst order.

Now I refer you to the language of that person who (I now know) is a gutless parasite on the underbelly of the civil right's movement, when he called for the "...immediate dismissals of those principally responsible for the horrors of this spring moment at Duke. Coaches of the lacrosse team, the team itself and its players, and any other agents who silenced or lied about the real nature of events at 610 Buchanan on the evening of March 13, 2006. A day that, not even in a clichéd sense, will, indeed, always live in infamy for this university."

If anyone is silenced or has lied about the real nature of events, it was and remains Houston Baker. So, I agree that the ".. immediate dismissals of those principally responsible for the horrors of [that]spring moment..." is the appropriate sanction.

So I publicly ask that Vanderbilt University summarily dismiss the author of his own fate.

Anonymous said...

But you're forgetting the narrative - only minorities can be oppressed.

It isn't possible for blacks to oppress whites, so it isn't possible to write the letter as KC has modified it.

Only white, straight, protestant (okay, maybe Catholic too) males are capable of this level of oppression!

says David Jay

Anonymous said...

One could note that, in effect, Baker had asked for the Gang's dismissal as well. For they are clearly silenced (it's interesting that Duke's administration has placed them in that category) "about the real nature of events at 610 Buchanan on the evening of March 13, 2006."

Anonymous said...

This from a Durham resident in the H-S today. Wonder if he is a relative of the Pulitzer-prize-winning cartoonist/author Doug Marlette who was killed in an auto crash a few days ago?


BY GRAHAM HAYES MARLETTE : Guest columnist
Jul 10, 2007 : 4:57 pm ET

The main reason for my certainty [Letters, April 2006] of the lacrosse players' innocence back in April of 2006 is that the crime, as described, could not have taken place. Several key factors argued against even a remote possibility that anyone was raped.

The scene of "the crime that never was," 610 North Buchanan Blvd., was familiar to me. Several years ago, it was for sale and, as a realtor who markets Trinity Park, I remember my interiors. The bathroom facilities could hardly accommodate two adults in any posture and certainly not four hefty athletes sexually assaulting an equally hefty pole dancer while she was levitating four feet in the air, just to cite one of the accuser's many stories.

Then there were the dancers themselves. I listened to the 911 call made by Kim Roberts Pittman, dancer number two, in which she claimed to be "walking" by the house and in the same phone call she said they were "driving" by the house when some boys yelled out the "n" word at her black girlfriend. It turned out that either driving or walking, no one could read the house numbers "610". She had been in the house. She was lying.

Roberts-Pittman is a fascinating, if flawed, character in this morality tale. Quick, easy money was her goal, as in $400 an hour to dance exotically (which is a lot more than the American Dance Festival pays, located just across the street). Pittman attempted to contact an agent in New York to see if she could hustle some cash with "inside information" on the crime that never was, without success. No crime, no cash.

What if she had just told the truth in the first place? What if Pittman had contacted the prosecutor, the prosecuted, and their attorneys back in April of 2006, and admitted that the rape charges were "a crock" as she confessed on "60 Minutes" some five months later? The fact that she 'fessed up on 60 Minutes is a tribute to the special genius of the late Ed Bradley. He even got her to admit to using a racial slur herself as she referenced the lacrosse players' race and anatomy. "Little ___ white boys" she called them. Just imagine that if she had done the right thing at the right time she could have saved her community literally millions of dollars (some of which might well have gone to her) and untold agony among nearly every group, color and constituency.

Then there is the culture of team sports, a camaraderie and spirit foreign to the "cultural anthropologists" and their 88 colleagues at Duke, despite their professed expertise and interest in "cultures" and the study of human behaviors. The fact is that many of these academies believe that competition of any kind is harmful and they harbor a special disdain for top tier college sports, such as those played at Duke in all areas.

But among college athletes, especially those who play team sports, there is an underlying bond of sisterhood and brotherhood which would simply never allow a teammate to engage in a crime of violence guaranteed to ruin their lives, if they could possibly prevent it. At their best, athletes at Duke act and react the way the Duke women's basketball team did when an opposing player went down (Maryland vs. Duke, December 2006) with what appeared to be a very serious injury. Instead of usual huddle, the Duke women showed that their first concern was for the well-being of the opposition player.

Many of these student athletes are also accomplished scholars. If only the professorial class in academia had some grasp of this culture, there would have been no accusatory letter from the "group of 88" and the term "academic elite" would not have the pejorative resonance it suffers from today.

Finally, I knew they were innocent when a local pastor of my acquaintance pronounced them guilty from his pulpit. Nice guy, but he has never been right about anything. But the most important moral of this morality tale is this: seek the truth and the truth shall set you free. Bear false witness and follow a lie, then bury the lie, and you will be imprisoned by your own perfidy and you will be impoverished by your own greed.

The writer has been a real estate broker in Durham since 1985.




Debrah

Anonymous said...

G/d! How I love how Marlette dissed the little wirey anthropologist Orin Starn.

Starn's alloted over-a-thousand word diatribe last year--Childress told me that Bob Ashley was the one who chose Starn's column--was one that I recall so vividly.

He went after the lacrosse team and athletics, in general, like a jealous lover.

I still despise Ashley for the largesse extended to Starn at such a critical time in the progression of this Hoax.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Bem Holloway

born: 6/16/1977
admitted to prison: 11/17/1998
custody: close
sentence: 95 years, 4 months

Holloway was convicted November 17, 1998 in Wake County Superior Court for

DOCKET # 98032493 RAPE FIRST DEGREE

DOCKET # 98032554 RAPE FIRST DEGREE

DOCKET # 98032555 ROBBERY WITH A DANGEROUS WEAPON

DOCKET # 98032551 ROBBERY WITH A DANGEROUS WEAPON

DOCKET# 98032553 KIDNAPPING 1ST DEGREE

DOCKET # 98032552 KIDNAPPING 1ST DEGREE

DOCKET # 98032549 ATTEMPTED MURDER FIRST DEGREE

DOCKET # 98032548 BREAKING AND ENTERING

Anonymous said...

Debrah,

Surely, if that's true about the size of the bathroom, the police would have noted the inconsistency?

Noone could be so dumb as to not recognize the physical impossibility.

HUH?

Anonymous said...

Duke will not face the fact that many of the Gang of 88 are racist.

Anonymous said...

TO 3:29PM--

Only in Durham.

Debrah

mac said...

3:22
Mommy must be proud.

Anonymous said...

Kim was there to make some money - getting roped into this event was not her fault. I wish she had said "no rape occurred instead of its a crock." I wish she had said the same thing to Ed instead of " I don't remember it that way." She has stayed out of this deal as much as possible. Getting Nifong for the reduction in charges and penalty money, gives her a star in my book.

Anonymous said...

3:29
"Noone could be so dumb as to not recognize the physical impossibility."
Of course they recognized it, and knew those guys were innocent. They just didn't care.

"HUH?"
It's pretty simple really - the world has evil people in it.

Once you understand that, you'll understand the actions of the DPD, DA's office, and Duke Administration and BOT.

mac said...

Baker's letter sure does make the title of a book (as suggested by Inman) look sterling:

"The Duke Lacrosse Burning."

Inman, you nailed it!

Anonymous said...

Houston Baker's letter was one of the most hateful and venomous rantings I have ever read and KC's brilliantly simple modification of the letter was startling and irrefutable proof of the "racism " that does exist at Duke.

I sometimes think that the Duke fiasco will mark a turning point of sorts in race relations. Perhaps the race card was played once too often and people will begin to see that racism can cut both ways and hopefully will focus more on what is good for humanity.

I can hope.

Anonymous said...

I think you are absolutly correct 5"50 A lot of positive stuff has come out of this case. Millions for the families does not hurt either.

Anonymous said...

KC - Any word from Vandy on Gee's return to OS? Are they glad to get rid of him? Any word on Houston?

Anonymous said...

Houston Baker is flat-out racist. This is not an opinion, but a fact.

Anonymous said...

Wow. What a dramatic illustration that words mean something. They cannot be used as code words. So if I say racist, it should have the same meaning regardless of the race of the person who is the victim or the perpetrator.

The last big riot in Los Angeles was fueled by racist hatred, but the most of the victims were not able to advance the case that they were victims of racism. The perpetrators were not arrested for federal civil rights violations. Why? The perpetrators were Black and the overwhelming majority of victims were Korean. The blacks and their leaders expressed that they were furious with the Koreans because they had "taken over" south central LA.

So,we just have word-smithing. When it is declared that words have no literal meaning, it does not lead to productive discourse, but rather to the end of discourse.

Professor Steve Durlaf (can't find the quotation site) states that PC language lowers every person's effective IQ. The idea is that all statements of truths are connected
to other truths. So if you are willing to follow truth wherever it takes you, you'll make a lot more progress (when you are looking for a solution)than if you put a big "Can't Go There" sign in your head.

KC and others prove that daily.

Anonymous said...

I looked up "racist" in the dictionary and found Houston Baker's picture staring back at me.

He's right about one thing, though. March 13, 2006, will be a day of infamy in Duke's history forever. But not for the reasons he posits.

I guess he wasn't drunk when he wrote this letter ... no mention of farm animals.

Anonymous said...

My family has been from the Deep South since before the Revolutionary War. I think a lot of this happened because they were Yankees. If a "good ole boy" was one of the accused, the story would have played out much differently. It's not just that they were white, but white "carpet-baggers" with the funny way they talk and their "high-and-mighty" arrogance.

AJ

Anonymous said...

6:57 PM --

Come on, Bubba, everyone knows that when it comes to the funny way people talk, nothing can top a southern accent. Turning one syllable words into 3 and taking 5 minutes to say 10 words. It's the living embodiment of "stupid is as stupid does."

Arrogant? It just seems that way. Actually, southerners like you just have so much to be humble about.

Anonymous said...

re "Houston Baker is a flat-out racist"

What else would you call a professional AAAS man?

Antiwhite bigotry comes with the job description.

Anonymous said...

Here is good professor's email to
Ms. Dowd
>>> Quote:
LIES! You are just a provocateur on a happy New Years Eve trying to get credit for a scummy bunch of white males! You know you are in search of sympathy [sic] for young white guys who beat up a gay man in Georgetown, get drunk in Durham, and lived like ‘a bunch of farm animals’ near campus . . . happy [sic] new year to you . . . and forgive me if your [sic] really are, quite sadly, mother of a ‘farm animal.’

From: Don Yaeger with Mike Pressler's book:

....

Holloway, whose son had been convicted of rape and the attempted murder of three others, was rebuked by Patricia Dowd, mother of player Kyle Dowd. Dowd asked how “any woman could be so cruel and callous and judge a whole class of individuals without any facts?“ Holloway responded to Dowd’s letter by accusing her of having an “impoverished spirit and intellect.” She was joined by Duke Professor Houston Baker, who emailed Ms. Dowd.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said at 7:24...

6:57 PM --

Come on, Bubba, everyone knows that when it comes to the funny way people talk, nothing can top a southern accent. Turning one syllable words into 3 and taking 5 minutes to say 10 words. It's the living embodiment of "stupid is as stupid does."

Arrogant? It just seems that way. Actually, southerners like you just have so much to be humble about.


What we have here is a .... FAILURE to communicate. Y'all are the inmates; we are the wardens. Any more remarks like that and we'll transfer your Yankee ass to Gitmo. :)

Anonymous said...

Interestingly, Security on Campus was one of the organizations pushing the Lacrosse Hoax. I got an email from Catherine Bath there who insisted that my articles were too "right wing," and that the players were a bunch of rapists.

She refused to believe that the players were innocent. Such is the PC world of these people.

Anonymous said...

baker's letter and substituting the races is not really all that surprising. the surprising thing is that many folks on this board are shocked.

and its also surprising that we're all still soooooo worried about racism. i say racism is a good thing. whites need to turn against blacks now. after all, houston baker, julianne malvueax, those are the least violent of the black animal and look at the way they behave.

mac said...

Bill,
When did Bath send you an email?
Recently?

You're right: there is a lot of delusion in the PC world.

Anonymous said...

Baker knows he is a racist and wants to be one. Sadly, he does not appear to be proud of his ethnicity and has become the pathetic person that he is.

Anonymous said...

8:50

...is low rent....gimme a break "...whites must turn against blacks now..." I don't think anyone of any intelligence or knowledge would espouse such a black and white position. (Excuse the pun.)

When did representatives of the Aryan Nations moniter this blog?

Anonymous said...

Everyone remember Yankel Rosenberg? He was the rabbinical student murdered by a black mob. Why? Some elderly Hassidic accidentally killed a black boy in a car accident. So blacks--perceiving the accident as white racism--decided to riot and kill a Jew. Blacks, on average, hate Jews. That's a demographic fact.

Duke case is very similar to Rosenberg in that the prime mover was antiwhite, institutional bigotry.

Yes, there is institutional racism, right Baker? Houston, have I called you a low-IQ professional hack recently?

Anonymous said...

PROCEEDINGS OF THE MARCH 30, 2006 GANG OF 88 MEETING:

VOTING -

A. Men are bad. [Motion passes 57-0; 31 men abstain]

B. Rich men are really bad [Motion passes 57-0; 31 rich men abstain]

C. Rich white men are the worst. [Motion passes 78-10; 10 rich white men abstain]

D. Resolved: Stripper/whores always tell the truth. [Motion passes 88-0]

E. Resolved: Never apologize for "Listening Ad." [ Motion passes 88-0]

MINUTES -

The minutes of the last meeting (3/23/06) were read, including a unanimously agreed-upon motion to piss off rich white men and women with a "Listening Ad." Minutes approved after a second from Holloway.

COMMITTEES -

The Budget Committee reported 6 people showed up for the campus-wide Friday evening film and slide presentation entitled, "Burn, White Paternalistic America, Burn: The Goddess Interpeciest Perspective," and a total of $7.25 was dontated to the cause. Net profits after advertising, sound system rental and catering: /-$10,392.54/

Motion approving expenditure of $75.00 for going-away gift basket for Professor Houston Baker failed (2-86). Motion approving expenditure of $3.95 for Hallmark-quality card passes (47-41).

New Member (Brodhead, Richard) was voted on and approved (57-31). Welcome, Dick! Remember, Dick, the first rule of Gang of 88 is don't talk about Gang of 88.

PLEDGE -

The meeting ended with a recitation of the Pledge:

GANG OF 88 PLEDGE*

I Pledge Allegiance,
to the cause,
of the destruction of white Americans,
and to the hatred,
of rich mankind,
one agenda,
Diversity,
with hostility and vitriol for all.

*Not real pledge

_________________

K.C. Johnson taught fish to speak English. Oh, they pretty much keep THAT talent to themselves. From - THE BOOK OF JOHNSON, Ch. 110:31-32 (KJV). MOO! Gregory

Anonymous said...

This is a simple one. The letter seems to indicate very clearly that Houston Baker is a vile racist and bigot who should now join the ranks within public consciousness of the world's most severe and delusional white supremacists, anti-semites and other hate-for-hate's sake groups.

By the way, Vanderbilt University snapped up Baker in short order after his "leaving" Duke. I can only assume the reason for their hire is that they are also sympathetic to the most ignorant forms of rabid hate.

mac said...

9:54
Are you perhaps Tom Wolfe, watching the event transpire by the piano?

Brilliant!

mac said...

KC,

You can do a similar game with fortune cookies:
whatever is on the fortune, follow it with the line:
"in bed." It usually comes out funny.

"The world embraces talent with open arms"...in bed, etc.

Wonder if you could do that with
Grant Farred's comments, too, juxtaposing black with white,
or if he's so unintelligible that nothing would appear to change,
contextually speaking?

Anonymous said...

Re: Gregory @ 9:54

hahahahahahhahahahahahha

good one

I tip my hat!

Anonymous said...

I do not know if this is true but I think Baker knew he was leaving Duke at the time of the incident. Does he drink alcohol - lots of his stuff looks like it was written while drinking. As he was a major instigator in the letter, I don't think the others knew about his departure and went along to go along.

Anonymous said...

I just went back to Gregory's 9:54 post:

That is one of the more brilliant posts I have seen. It is truly hillarious.

Thank you for such penultimate wit.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant KC! The absurdity of Houston Baker so transparently exposed. Racism is racism. Duh...

Anonymous said...

bill anderson said...
Interestingly, Security on Campus was one of the organizations pushing the Lacrosse Hoax. I got an email from Catherine Bath there who insisted that my articles were too "right wing," and that the players were a bunch of rapists.

Bill, you should ask Msssss Bath what she thinks the Clerys meant when they testified before Congress that their daughter's black rapist/murderer (runner-up for Black Student Ass'n President!!) "learned to hate whites at Lehigh".

Gary Packwood said...

Debrah 3:11 offering Marlette Letter

BY GRAHAM HAYES MARLETTE : Guest columnist
Jul 10, 2007 : 4:57 pm ET

...Finally, I knew they were innocent when a local pastor of my acquaintance pronounced them guilty from his pulpit. Nice guy, but he has never been right about anything. But the most important moral of this morality tale is this: seek the truth and the truth shall set you free. Bear false witness and follow a lie, then bury the lie, and you will be imprisoned by your own perfidy and you will be impoverished by your own greed.
::
Great Paragraph.
Like to meet this guy.
Thanks Debrah for this.
::
GP

Anonymous said...

Debrah,

Someone asked you an interesting question on today's other thread, and she referred to you as "Debbie," which I know you hate.

A Concerned Citizen

Anonymous said...

Professor Johnson, now that DIW is starting to wind down, I see a future blog for you - one far more important than this one, which is very important.

Anonymous said...

Re: 6:57 on North-South relations.

I've long been of the opinion that the choice of targets was no accident.

White to get blacks riled up.
Rich to get poor and leftists riled up.
But that still won't get you any votes from southern conservative whites. The final key attribute that got Nifong a winning coalition was:

"Let's git some Yankees!!"

Anonymous said...

KC, I'm disappointed that your substitutions only addressed the black/white issue. Just as important in this case is the male/female dynamic and the pervasive influence of radical feminism. The phrases involving things like "(fe)male athletes' violence" might not have been as penetrating, but every time an analyst of this cases focuses on the black-white problems, a female-chauvinist on some campus somewhere is chuckling to herself.

On at least three points, gender feminism gave this case more "legs" than it should have had: (1) the inability of police to be publicly skeptical of a woman making dubious rape claims, (2) same for the medical center, and (3) the freedom of women to falsely accuse men without fear of repercussions.

Anonymous said...

I think this event has done away with point 1-2-3. If nothing else, we can thank this affair for that.