Let me open up this post by saying that even your hero, BILLY SUNDAY, can be wrong sometimes. Even I can get caught out there talking sideways because I do it so often. People’s feelings get hurt and I don’t usually feel any kind of way about it because people are too sensitive. Well, last time I got it twisted, but just like WHITNEY HOUSTON and cooked crack – I’m back biatches!
Shit is about to pop off something serious in Durham, N.C. The district attorney filed charges against two of the lacrosse players from Duke University. So I guess those dudes really did bust homegirl up something proper. The question that bugs me now is why did it take over a month to file charges? And what part of the game is it where niggas get to turn themselves in?!? If it had been some brothers from the local community college or the HBCU (I know, same difference) would they have been chilling for a month or would they have been that thing hanging from the tree called ‘strange fruit’?
There have been mountains of misinformation regarding this story from mainstream media outlets and from the word-of-mouth sources. This is what has given me all kinds of conflicting feelings about this story. I feared a repeat of one of the most controversial cases that had come through New York State almost twenty years ago. The alleged rape of TAWANA BRAWLEY had a disatrous effect on the fight for civil rights here in New York. The two lead activists in that case, C. VERNON MASON and ALTON MADDOX would end up disbarred from their law practices when the dust finally settled. Those two lawyers had devoted their careers to expose police brutality and corruption in New York and New Jersey. The zeal and determination that they used in pursuing the TAWANA BRAWLEY case would be used against them.
With that recent history as a backdrop there is also the recognition that the alleged attackers are athletes from one of the nations most venerable institutions. These kids may or may not be from wealthy families, but there is a greater deal of money at stake when people want to preserve the prestige of a Duke University. The Duke alums whose contributions allow the school to recruit and grant scholarships to the country’s best athletes care more about their image than even national championships. Please understand that the politics that are swirling around Durham have a gravity that can’t be measured. If the facts of this case show that these players are guilty they will be disappeared by the Duke University machinery. Their families will watch their children suffer the greatest ignominy for a white. They will be barred forever from raising their class status.
In the end of all of this madness, whether she is vindicated or further victimized, I hope that this woman does not return to the lifestyle that could have nearly killed her. More than any of us needing to have our personal agendas satisfied there are two kids that need their mother.
In the end, that’s all that matters.
