In the aftermath of a social disaster

News & Observer ^ | 1/5/06 | Cathy Davidson

[LiteKeeper]

I have heard it rumored that the main qualification for teaching in the Duke Political Science Dept is one must be a Marxist. I am not kidding, just seeking confirmation. Anyone know?

[Howlin]

Bingo!!!!!

She is STILL not getting it!

[Fantasywriter]

I admire your analysis because it is so much more concise than mine. (You are dead right about the dysfunction; it is rampant in academia.) I will be interested to see if the professor replies to the email I sent her. If so, I may post her response. I doubt I'll hear from her, however; people like that seem to want to talk at us, not with us.

[Tokra]

We live in the midst of a social disaster where women's salaries for similar jobs are substantially less than men's (and, as of this year, starting to go down again, not up).

This is a bald-faced lie. "Similar" jobs include an engineer and a secretary working for the same company. Of course the engineer makes more - as would a female engineer make more than a male secretary.

There are many jobs now where women make MORE than men - University presidents is one, librarians is another.

Most jobs are paid by the job - the sex of the person filling the job has nothing to do with it.

These studies claim that since a secretary's job is "just as important" as the engineers job - she should make the same as the engineer.

That's like saying that a janitor at a hospital should make as much as the chief of surgery because the janitor's job is "just as important".

Not how these studies never say the "same" job - but only "similar" jobs.

Similarity is relative.

Liberals eat this stuff up.

[Swiss]

Interesting, The left always use the play "The Crucible" to show how the "innocent" was targeted in the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings of the 1950's.

Unlike then when the accused turned out to be guilty the Duke case is more like the frenzy of the Salem Witch Hunts.

[WildBill2275]

Cathy N. Davidson is trying to make her signing of the add (which I have not seen) appear to be a high noble act of someone who has a concern for social issues.

"We are in the midst of a social disaster where 18 percent of the American population lives below the poverty line and a disproportionate number of those are African-American. We live in the midst of a social disaster where 30 percent of our students do not graduate from high school...."

disproportionate.... The new word of moral authority used by the socialist elite.
Did she forget to mention that from a population with less than 15% minority representation, more than 50% of the federal inmates are minority?
Where are her stats on the percentages of the "30 percent of our students do not graduate from high school" who are minority that failed because her liberal friends have taught them how to be victims to avoid personal responsibility?

Cathy N. Davidson is running and hiding because she was ready to blame what she calls privilege for the misconduct of a black female college student and a white ethically challenged lawyer whom she would have had you believe were the good guys.
Now that the "rape" is gone, we see that the girl apparently tried to use race to extort money, and the DA tried to use "race" to get reelected!

Perhaps Ms. Davidson should do a "Root Cause Analysis" and try to determine the real cause for the social problem that so concerns her.
Why are so many minorities living in poverty?
Why is there a 30% High School drop out rate?
Why are so few High School graduates unable to express themselves in writing?
Maybe if she had the moral fortitude to address that instead of saying "the sky is falling" the problem would start to go away.

[freespirited]

We live in the midst of a social disaster where women's salaries for similar jobs are substantially less than men's (and, as of this year, starting to go down again, not up).

You are right. It is one of the biggest lies in the article.

When they do the same jobs and have the same education and experience, they make the same money. Men make more money than women overall because they work more hours, don't take time out to raise children and therefore have more experience, are willing to take jobs that require unpleasant duties like lots of travel, and are more likely to major in subjects that most people find difficult if not impossible to master (e.g. hard sciences and engineering).

That someone reciting such nonsense could be a full professor with an endowed chair is pathetic!

P.S. Notice, however, that she and the rest of the Gang of 88 did not feel compelled to plaster the University with a statement and other agitprop over this or the other alleged injustices she cites. For some reason, only the mere unsupported allegation of rape spurred these lefty racists to action.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

When all else fails, condemn the conservatives, LOL!

They save us as their last hope.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

people like that seem to want to talk at us, not with us

Bingo. When they ever do get into a debate, they rarely respond directly to any points raised by their critics, but either try to dismiss their critics with pejoratives ("hateful, ranting hooligans") or just repeat their demagogic talking points.

Without access to our tax and tuition dollars, these cesspools of neo-Marxism would for the most part simply dry up. But until we can somehow manage to make our higher education system more accountable to those who actually support it, the best thing to do with these people is to try to expose them to the public and hold them up to ridicule. It would really take the talent of a Dennis Miller to do justice to this particular "professor."

[MortMan]

That those women were women of color underscores the appalling power dynamics of the situation.

Bovine excrement. The players had requested white or hispanic strippers, IIRC. Therefore, the fact that the "performers" were black becomes irrelevant, except to the race baiting crowd. If the team had requested black strippers - then race may be a factor on part of the players scenario that played out ONLY in the false accuser's mind.

[reformedjournalist]

Well stated. After earning my living in broadcasting, I returned to grad school. For nearly 20 years I have taught as an adjunct because the faculty committee meeting is the most insufferable, useless and excruciating activity on earth. Dung beatles and tse tse flies have more redeeming social value.

Question for the prof: Did you and your enlightened cohorts vote for Nifong?

[freespirited]

Cathy N. Davidson is trying to make her signing of the add (which I have not seen)

Here is a link to a copy of the ad. I understand it has mysteriously disappeared from Duke U. servers.

http://listening.nfshost.com/listening.htm

[Tribune7]

Why doesn't she come out and say that it is really, really bad that people levy false charges and prosecutors run with them for cynical political reasons?

[Malacoda]

I've been teaching as an adjunct for six years, for the same reasons. I don't think I could handle the backstabbing ad maneuvering without snapping.

[freespirited]

That those women were women of color underscores the appalling power dynamics of the situation.

She is such an idiot that her words imply that black athletes could not have engaged the services of black strippers (or white strippers for that matter).

Furthermore, if Miss Benevolent Dictator here told Precious that she was doing away with the "appalling power dynamics" by prohibiting her from continuing to strip for a living, she would find that Precious isn't the least bit appalled by the arrangement, but rather darn happy that she can do something so lucrative.

[Continental Soldier]

I agree with you completely. Professor Davidson's essay is an embarrassing and self-serving attempt to rewrite Duke's cowardice in the lacrosse rape case. When charges against those young men were first filed and liberal activists and media saw the chance to further ingratiate themselves with minority interests, those Duke professors grabbed thier chance to ride the bandwagon and to put themselves visibly on the elevated plane of progressive social humanism. Basically, they were saying, in their ad and here in this essay, 'Hey! Look at us. Aren't we just the best and the brightest! See how we care!' Now it looks like Professor Davidson senses that the blood in the water might be hers and the accuser's and the district attorney's, and not the accused's. Why else publish this essay at this time, an essay that sneakily suggests that the Duke professors' true concern wasn't really about this one case, but about making America better? I have a hunch that the Duke administration and a lot of it's enlightened, elitist professors are going to be doing a lot of fancy dancing in the near future.

[Howlin]

Here is a link to the cached ad: Click here

And here is the ad:

---------------- The 'listening ' statement ---------------

We are listening to our students. We’re also listening to the Durham community, to Duke staff, and to each other. Regardless of the results of the police investigation, what is apparent everyday now is the anger and fear of many students who know themselves to be objects of racism and sexism, who see illuminated in this moment’s extraordinary spotlight what they live with everyday. They know that it isn’t just Duke, it isn’t everybody, and it isn’t just individuals making this disaster.

But it is a disaster nonetheless.

These students are shouting and whispering about what happened to this young woman and to themselves.

. . .We want the absence of terror. But we don’t really know what that means . . . We can’t think. That’s why we’re so silent; we can’t think about what’s on the other side of this. Terror robs you of language and you need language for the healing to begin. ¹

This is not a different experience for us here at DukeUniversity. We go to class with racist classmates, we go to gym with people who are racists....It’s part of the experience. [Independent, 29 March 2006] ²

If it turns out that these students are guilty, I want them expelled. But their expulsion will only bring resolution to this case and not the bigger problem. This is much bigger than them and throwing them out will not solve the problem. I want the administration to acknowledge what is going on and how bad it is. ³

Being a big, black man, it’s hard to walk anywhere at night,
and not have a campus police car slowly drive by me. ⁴

Everything seems up for grabs--I am only comfortable talking about this event
in my room with close friends. I am actually afraid to even bring it up in public.
But worse, I wonder now about everything. . . . If something like this happens to
me . . . What would be used against me--my clothing? Where I was? ⁵

I was talking to a white woman student who was asking me “Why do people --
and she meant black people -- make race such a big issue?”
They don’t see race. They just don’t see it. ⁶

What Does A Social Disaster Sound Like

You go to a party, you get grabbed, you get propositioned, and then you start to question yourself. [Independent, 29 March 2006]⁷

. . . all you heard was "Black students just complain all the time, all you do is complain and self-segregate." And whenever we try to explain why we’re offended, it’s pushed back on us. Just the phrase "self-segregation": the blame is always put on us. [Independent, 29 March 2006] ⁸

. . . no one is really talking about how to keep the young woman herself central
to this conversation, how to keep her humanity before us . . . she doesn’t seem
to be visible in this. Not for the university, not for us ⁹

I can’t help but think about the different attention given to what has happened from what it would have been if the guys had been not just black but participating in a different sport, like football, something that’s not so upscale. ¹⁰

And this is what I’m thinking right now – Duke isn’t really responding to this. Not really. And this, what has happened, is a disaster. This is a social disaster. ¹¹

The students know that the disaster didn’t begin on March 13th and won’t end with what the police say or the court decides. Like all disasters, this one has a history. And what lies beneath what we’re hearing from our students are questions about the future. This ad, printed in the most easily seen venue on campus, is just one way for us to say that we’re hearing what our students are saying. Some of these things were said by a mixed (in every way possible) group of students on Wednesday, March 29th at an African & African American Studies Program forum, some were printed in an issue of the Independent that came out that same day, and some were said to us inside and outside of the classroom. We’re turning up the volume in a moment when some of the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down while we wait. To the students speaking individually and to the protestors making collective noise, thank you for not waiting and for making yourselves heard.

We thank the following departments and programs for signing onto this ad with African & African American Studies: Romance Studies; Psychology: Social and Health Sciences; Franklin Humanities Institute; Critical U.S. Studies; Art, Art History, and Visual Studies; Classical Studies; Asian & African Languages and Literature; Women’s Studies; Latino/a Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; European Studies; Program in Education; and the Center for Documentary Studies. Because of space limitations, the names of individual faculty and staff who signed on in support may be read at the AAAS website: http://www.duke.edu/web/africanameric/

-------------------------------------------

Notes:
¹ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
² quote by Danielle Terrazas Williams, a first-year student in Duke's Ph.D. program in history, taken from Independent
³ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
⁴ Unattributed quote made by an African-Amerian male at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
⁵ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
⁶ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
⁷ quote by Audrey Christopher, a recent graduate of Duke, taken from Independent
⁸ quote by Audrey Christopher, a recent graduate of Duke, taken from Independent
⁹ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
¹⁰ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere
¹¹ Unattributed quote made at March 29th forum, or elsewhere

From THIS web site.

[Howlin]

[AmishDude]

It is time to put the humanities and social sciences out of their misery.

No tenure for underwater basketweaving studies.

[untenured]

We thank the following departments and programs for signing onto this ad with African & African American Studies: Romance Studies; Psychology: Social and Health Sciences; Franklin Humanities Institute; Critical U.S. Studies; Art, Art History, and Visual Studies; Classical Studies; Asian & African Languages and Literature; Women’s Studies; Latino/a Studies; Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; European Studies; Program in Education; and the Center for Documentary Studies.

All the usual academic suspects, IOW. (And why in heaven's name is it "Latino/a Studies," and not "Latino/a/GLBT Studies"? The department name is so exclusive!)

Notably, the ad says what they want if the players are guilty, but says nothing about what they want if they are innocent.