Like worms that come to the surface after a spring rain, so do conservatives always appear to defend young, wealthy white men who are accused of rape, as in the case of William Kennedy Smith, Alex Kelly, and now a goodly portion of Duke University's lacrosse team. The wagons have circled, my friends, and you can all but compose the soundbites yourselves: these are fine young men from good homes who would never do such a thing, the morals of the "victim" must be questioned, it's a shame that so many lives have to be ruined for what was most likely a misunderstanding, and, my personal favorite, let us not apply such a inflammatory term as "rape" to what amounts to nothing more than a "youthful indiscretion." The mud in the case of the Duke students is especially thick and slimy, being that the alleged victim is a black stripper, hired to entertained the accused at their frat house. Rush "Mr. Class" Limbaugh referred to her as "ho" during a broadcast, which is to be expected, but as this post at Alas! A Blog1 shows, there are more rational-minded people who are going so far as to dissect the 911 calls made the night of the incident to disprove the accusation. Everybody wants to play Special Victims Unit, which is a fun game to be sure, except that a lot of it seems to be done merely to prove the commonly held belief that rape is a largely meaningless term that women throw around when they get the notion to fuck up some innocent guy's life. The fact that Duke, a privately run institution, chose to punish the alleged attackers by ending the lacrosse season early is especially creating a tizzy, with complaints that their rights to be innocent until proven guilty are being violated, rendering them victims of the vast racist conspiracy against young white men.
David Yeagley of FrontPage wrote an especially ugly, venomous tirade on the case, managing to espouse an astounding number of cliches, including:
~~Strippers aren't good mothers. While he doesn't say this specifically, he does curiously put the word "mother" in quotes when describing the alleged victim, as if there's some question there.
~~White men are at the mercy of lying, opportunistic blacks all the time.
~~Because some of the young men in the frat house were under 21 and drinking, they cannot be held responsible for their actions.
~~Despite being outnumbered forty to two, the alleged victim and a friend, who apparently left before the attack took place, should have been in full control of the situation, simply because they were older.
~~The fact that the alleged victim left the frat house at one point and then came back proves that a rape didn't take place.
~~None of it matters anyway, because you can't rape a stripper.
Given how often Yeagley mentions the alleged victim's race (the word "black" is used fourteen times in an eleven paragraph article, and never to describe the color of somebody's clothing), and referring to her as "a party girl" who is "not a person of note," "expected to do tricks for clients," and "showed less maturity than a six year-old," it seems like he has a personal beef to get out of his system here. Perhaps somebody got stood up on prom night, quite possibly by the president of his high school's Black Enterpreneurs Club.
One wonders how much pity Yeagley will maintain for the poor oppressed Duke students when he catches wind of an e-mail sent after the incident by one of the accused, Ryan McFadyen2, in which he claims that the next time he is the presence of strippers he will kill and skin them "while cumming in my duke issue spandex." But hey, boys say stupid things, he probably didn't mean anything by it.
Please be forewarned, the Smoking Gun link contains a graphic police report of the incident, and may be triggering to sexual assault victims.
1. With thanks to Pandagon for providing the links.
2. Who, if I can make my own racist, sexist judgment in the spirit of David Yeagley, looks exactly like the type of person I'd expect would do this kind of thing.
He's(Yeagley) the same guy who went hysterical over Janet/Justin debacle two years ago. He said among other things:
"Jackson and Timberlake should therefore be charge with a mass felony, and immediately convicted, and fined, and sentenced to appropriate jail time. The penalty should be in accordance with the number of people affected. Now, is it only the people in the Houston stadium that saw it, or also all the people of the state of Texas, or all the people in the United States and in the world who saw it on TV? Well, this is clearly beyond calculation"
"Around white societies, some "black" people apparently have doubts about their sexual desirability. They still feel unaccepted, and unwanted, so in the name of "equality," they're determined to assert their bodies as sexually desirable. They want to force themselves in everyone's face, like it or not.
That's what Janet Jackson's recent episode at the Super Bowl was all about. She broadcast her private body part in the most dramatic way, in the world's face. Moreover, it was a white man, Justin Timberlake, that played the partof desiring her "black" body. Therefore, the message was loud and clear. "See?! Everyone wants my body! Especially the white man! I just proved it!'"
He blamed Janet for the situation then. Now the recent rape victim is his target. Who's next on his hit list? He has written an article on his blog regarding Paula Abdul. He's nuts but millions of Americans held the same views as does Yeagley. Check out the many conservative blogs to see for yourself.
Have a nice day!
Stephanie B.
Posted by: Stephanie B. | April 12, 2006 at 03:42 PM