News
Pro-Palestine Encampment Represents First Major Test for Harvard President Alan Garber
News
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Condemns Antisemitism at U.S. Colleges Amid Encampment at Harvard
News
‘A Joke’: Nikole Hannah-Jones Says Harvard Should Spend More on Legacy of Slavery Initiative
News
Massachusetts ACLU Demands Harvard Reinstate PSC in Letter
News
LIVE UPDATES: Pro-Palestine Protesters Begin Encampment in Harvard Yard
To the editors:
In her column, “Stripper Ergo...Rape?” (Apr. 12), Ashton R. Lattimore makes a commendable effort to address the disturbing cultural tendency to “explain” the crime and blame the rape victim. But the Duke lacrosse situation is not, thus far, a Jane Doe case. Lattimore’s concern—that the media firestorm has played a major role in discrediting the alleged victim, an exotic dancer—has been substantially outweighed by the thorough vilification of the ostensibly rich, white, privileged team members and the elitist university they represent.
Never have I heard a Duke student utter, “Well, she is a stripper.” Blaming the victim and using her occupation to destroy her credibility cannot be condoned. But typecasting 46 individuals as unsurprisingly racist rapists and juxtaposing them with a diligent student, single mother of two? Not an unrelated evil.
JANE CHONG
Durham, N.C.
April 12, 2006
The writer is a freshman at Duke University.
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.