The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • Times News Services
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Sports
    • NFL
    • NBA/WNBA
    • MLB
    • NHL
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Motorsports
    • Soccer
    • NCAA
    • Olympics
    • Outdoors
    • Other
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Military History
    • Life
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Themes
  • Communities
  • Marketplace
    • Autos
    • Jobs
    • Real Estate
    • Classifieds
    • Shopping
    • Dining Out
    • Education
    • TWT Store
  • Videos
    • Two Guys
    • Birnbaum on Washington
    • Liz Glover
    • Amanda Carpenter
    • Morning Briefing
    • Documentaries
    • Joe Giganti
    • Video Game Minute
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • National

    Obama honors war veterans

  • Politics

    EXCLUSIVE: GOPer Cao: Health vote may end career

  • National

    HUTCHISON: Right must understand barriers to success

  • National

    WILLIAMS: Legislative malpractice practiced

  • Sports

    Redskins the ugliest show on Earth

  • Politics

    Obama: 'No faith justifies' Fort Hood attack

  • National

    Michigan farm expert opens Marijuana U.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

Rape case divides Durham

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
  • Videos

More Stories

  • Who knew of Hasan's radical contacts?
  • U.S. soldier's body found in Afghan river
  • Obama: 'No faith justifies' Fort Hood attack
  • Lights return following Brazilian blackout

By

DURHAM, N.C. -- The case seems to fit the stereotypes so perfectly.

The purported rapists are white, the woman is black.

The men go to Duke University, the expensive private college with the championship sports teams and big television deals. The woman studies across town at chronically underfunded North Carolina Central University.

The men are lacrosse jocks, many of them recruited from tony Northern prep schools. She's a 27-year-old divorced mother of two who went to the Duke students' house to do some exotic dancing and make a little extra money.

It's so easy to see the incident at the shabby university-owned house -- just a mile from the iconic Gothic Duke Chapel -- in terms of powerlessness and privilege, town and gown, black and white. Many on campus and in the streets of this gritty working-class vertex of the famed Research Triangle are framing it just that way.

But not everybody is comfortable with that.

"I think along with the awfulness of the incident has come a real desire to condemn a lot of the Duke students because they are people of privilege, maybe," Durham resident Paul Montgomery said as he stood outside the Trinity Park house where the party happened. "I just hope people kind of take into account that there is ... more than meets the eye."

The white, three-bedroom house with the crumbling black shutters sits on the edge of Walltown, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood outside the school's low stone wall where many residents still refer to Duke as "the plantation."

On the night of March 13, a black woman made a tearful call to 911 to complain that a white man from the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. -- which was being leased by three lacrosse team members -- had shouted a racial slur at her and a friend. She told police that someone had recently defaced a neighborhood car with the letters "KKK."

"I'm just so angry I didn't know who to call," the woman sobbed in rage. "They didn't harm me in any way, but I just feel so completely offended, I can't even believe it."

1234Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Commenting is disabled for this entry.
If you feel there is still something worth mentioning about this entry please contact the author or the site admin.

Ask a Question

You Report

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?

Top Stories

Most Read

  1. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate
  3. D.C. sniper executed in Virginia
  4. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  5. EXCLUSIVE: Rare virus poses new threat to troops
More Top Stories »
  1. Families meet as sniper's execution nears
  2. Airport rules changed after Ron Paul aide detained
  3. Deer dies after leap into D.C. zoo lion exhibit
  4. Federal Reserve opposed as big bank savior by odd allies
  5. Court refuses to halt sniper's execution

Most Shared

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. Michigan farm expert opens Marijuana U.
  3. EDITORIAL: End Clinton-era military base gun ban
  4. KELLNER: New Apple mouse really is 'Magic'
  5. Airport rules changed after Ron Paul aide detained
More Top Stories »
  1. DeMint tries to ban 'permanent politicians'
  2. EXCLUSIVE: Warner: Obama misplayed health care debate
  3. Kennedy's disability plan could snag health bill
  4. End of America's moment
  5. D.C. sniper executed in Virginia

Most Commented

  1. PRUDEN: Fatal reluctance to see evil
  2. 'Fuzzy math' could drive health bill cost higher
  3. Defense nominee won't reveal potential conflicts
  4. EDITORIAL: Too scared to recognize terrorism
  5. Kennedy's disability plan could snag health bill
More Top Stories »
  1. DeMint tries to ban 'permanent politicians'
  2. Obama: 'No faith justifies' Fort Hood attack
  3. Jihadists in the military
  4. D.C. sniper executed in Virginia
  5. Airport rules changed after Ron Paul aide detained

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin and Melanie Morgan

Blogs & Columns

  • POTUS Notes

    New Dem talking point on Obama approval doesn't wash

  • The Back Story

    12 arrested at Pelosi's office

  • Belief Blog

    New Vatican constitution released

  • Out of Context

    Foods that might kill libido

  • Technology

    Facebook wins round against phishing spammer

  • On the Fly

    United lifts some 'award' blocking

  • Redskins 360

    Horton placed on IR

  • Tara's Two Cents

    On their way to summer vacation..

  • SNOBlog

    Beyond 'Woody'

Videos

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.