Sex and the Single Soldier

KWEISI Mfume, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is adamant in insisting that he has not accused the Army of racism in its investigation into sexual abuses at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds training base. Not yet, at least. Yes, NAACP branch leaders in Maryland have come out and said it-that it is more than mere coincidence that the sergeants charged with rape and sexual misconduct are black and the women accusing them are white-but not Mfume. He knows that though race may trump most other concerns, its polemical value is limited when it comes to charges of sexual abuse. What good is going to that well now that Johnnie Cochran has poisoned it?

Thus the low-key performance by Mfume at a dramatic press conference March 11: he didn’t indulge in the sort of rhetorical theatrics some of his peers relish so. Instead, he quite literally stood back to allow the compellingly artless testimony of the witnesses. Out they came: five young, white Army women. One after another, the women complained that military investigators had pressured, cajoled, coerced, and intimidated them in an effort to get them to cry rape.

EF

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Eric Felten

Eric Felten writes the "Downtime" column for the Washington Examiner.

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KWEISI Mfume, head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is adamant in insisting that he has not accused the Army of racism in its investigation into sexual abuses at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds training base. Not yet, at least. Yes, NAACP branch leaders in Maryland have come out and said it-that it is more than mere coincidence that the sergeants charged with rape and sexual misconduct are black and the women accusing them are white-but not Mfume. He knows that though race may trump most other concerns, its polemical value is limited when it comes to charges of sexual abuse. What good is going to that well now that Johnnie Cochran has poisoned it?

Thus the low-key performance by Mfume at a dramatic press conference March 11: he didn’t indulge in the sort of rhetorical theatrics some of his peers relish so. Instead, he quite literally stood back to allow the compellingly artless testimony of the witnesses. Out they came: five young, white Army women. One after another, the women complained that military investigators had pressured, cajoled, coerced, and intimidated them in an effort to get them to cry rape.