Web Letters: Two Angry Men

Where do the lacrosse players go to get their reputations back?

There was an alleged rape in February 2007 at an off-campus Duke party given by an African-American fraternity. The suspect was black and the alleged victim was white. Supposedly three different types of drugs and a gun were found in the house.

Larry Moneta, Duke VP, only said that college students experiment and sometimes find themselves in the wrong places.

End of story.

No Newsweek cover. No TV shows. No satellite trucks.

The lacrosse team had a 100 percent graduation rate. Most of the statistics about their alleged rowdiness are, to quote Disraeli, "damn lies." The player arrested in DC was cited for trying to break up a fight, not start one; he then got a trial with seventeen federal attorneys and staff prosecuting his misdemeanor (a first for DC). The player quoting American Psycho was spoofing a text that all of them knew because it was required reading. Nobody took this seriously any more than they would have taken someone quoting Bluto from Animal House seriously.

But justice these days depends on stereotypes. No rich white preppie kid can be considered innocent; and if his victim is a minority, then we all know he is guilty even if the facts insist otherwise.

The drama of Scottsboro was revived for a year's run in Durham in 2006, and audiences appreciated it just as much as before. Proving, once again, that under the skin we really are all just the same.

R. B. Parrish

Scottsdale, AZ