For a thoroughly sensible comment on the Duke lacrosse case, Stuart Taylor’s National Journal piece is not to be missed.
On the other hand, The Chronicle of Higher Education features an essay by Elizabeth Chin, who was visiting at Duke in the spring, teaching an anthropology course entitled “Girl Culture/Power.” She identifies herself as “a good liberal” and predictably couldn’t resist letting the lacrosse case run away with the course, summoning up all kinds of deep issues of race, class, and gender.
She writes, “I felt that I was facing at once the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity I had in my 15 years as a teacher. I had to figure out a way to keep the classroom a safe space for all the students, while allowing people on both sides of the issue to hear and understand each other.”
I suppose that it never occurred to Professor Chin to say, “This is an allegation of criminal behavior against three individuals. It is unproven and however it eventually turns out, has no impact on us. Let’s get back to the material on the syllabus.” To a “good liberal,” EVERYTHING has to be about race, class, gender.