Duke, Rutgers Ironies

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THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS - 17 April 2007, pg 11A

DUKE, RUTGERS athletes get real

The air is so thick with irony and hypocrisy these days, it's hard to find oxygen to breathe.

On the same day that North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper declared the three white Duke University lacrosse team players innocent of the alleged rape of an African-American stripper, MSNBC canceled its simulcast of the Don Imus radio show for a racial slur against the mostly black Rutgers University women's basketball team; CBS Radio fired Imus the next day.

Two athletic teams -- one mostly white male, one mostly black female. Two examples of race and gender colliding. One rogue prosecutor, one rude shock jock.

Obviously, there's no comparison between the two cases in terms of consequences. While the Rutgers gals suffered hurt feelings and Imus lost his show, the three Duke men potentially faced 30 years in prison and District Attorney Mike Nifong faces ethics charges.

But the two episodes do share the complicating and distorting factors of race, sex and politics.

And, of course, they share the opportunistic involvement of those two rogue race-baiting reverends, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Both not only came to the aid of the Rutgers basketball team, but grabbed the microphones before the accused Duke players had their day in court.

In Imus' case, neither was willing to accept the radio host's apology for his unfunny racist remark aimed at the basketball players, and both worked successfully to get him off the airwaves.

In the Duke case, we will succumb to suffocation, I suspect, if we hold our breath waiting for Sharpton and Jackson to apologize for feeding the racist frenzy that condemned those three young men whose lives were nearly ruined by innuendo, lies, an out-of-control prosecutor and a complicit media.

Despite the obvious double standard among those who purport to work for racial harmony, the convergence of these two events may be the tipping point in our national debate about race, sex and speech. Let's do cut close to the bone, but, lest we become enamored of our virtue, we should acknowledge a couple of facts:

First, despite protestations to the contrary, it's hard to believe MSNBC and CBS dropped Imus only because of his remarks. The two networks fired him, at least in part, because the show's advertisers pulled out. Does anyone really doubt that Imus would be on air today if the cash were still flowing?

Second, Duke administrators and trustees, who are now demanding a complete investigation into Nifong's behavior, are a year late and a conscience short. With notable exceptions, administrators and faculty behaved abominably and should be considering an investigation into their own hearts. What a contrast to the support Rutgers gave its students.

Those who have performed most honorably throughout this disgraceful season of sexual spin and racial one-upmanship are the athletes from both teams. Mature and dignified during their respective news conferences, they've put the grown-ups to shame and offer reason to hope that the rising generation of young Americans will put this corrupt house in order.

Meanwhile, as North Carolina's attorney general said: "A lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people."

Kathleen Parker is a syndicated columnist for the Orlando Sentinel. E-mail: kparker@kparker.com

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There are 88 Faculty members that should be fired today!