Duke case shows: Hurtful stereotypes come in all colors
They were a group of athletes, verbally brutalized, stereotyped, blasphemed, treated horribly by a sometimes insane system and arrogant, bullying media.
No, I'm not talking about the proud and wonderful women from the Rutgers University basketball team.
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| Life has changed forever for Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty. (AP) |
We have seen the justifiable outrage over the wronged Rutgers players who have displayed their intellectual prowess and stiff upper lip in front of an entire nation.
But where is the outcry?
Over the white guys.
Indeed, they have demonstrated an even tougher resolve after being called rapists and racists, and when sexual assault charges were dropped Wednesday afternoon by a legal system that suddenly grew a conscience, you practically heard crickets chirping.
We often think of ourselves in this country as so advanced when it comes to issues of race. Of course we have traversed far from the days of racial restrictions, marginalization, murdered men and shattered dreams.
Yet if you want to see how far we have not come, just examine the particulars of two important stories over the past 48 hours, stories that one day will be possibly seen as almost culture-changing, and certainly, as cautionary tales.
Donald Imus spews his hurtful and hateful words, using the airwaves as a verbal noose, and an army of people mobilize.
He played on pedantic and ancient stereotypes of blacks as unkempt and unattractive.
In the Duke case, there was stereotypical stereotyping as well. Many people, including myself -- and this is a hard admission to make -- quickly assumed the Duke kids were guilty.
Many of us, almost an entire country, played on stereotypes of white men as abusers of power, flaunting their wealth and credit cards and societal advantages, and stated: Yep, those bastards did it.
