I know I’m supposed to be putting up some kind of “wrap-up” post, but somehow it’s just not happening. In the mean time, stuff like this comes up, so why hold back? Duke’s African and African American Studies Department is getting a new chairman from Harvard—the devil incarnate, er, I mean, J. Lorand Matory. According […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse case, Duke University, Karla HollowayIt’s time for me to stop the endless picking apart of KC Johnson’s blog, Durham-in-Wonderland (DIW). In fact it was probably time a few months ago. I’ll never reach the level of the poor sap who’s spent years defaming Brian Leiter, but I might end up on par with the one who got a bad […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse case, Duke UniversityIn the middle of my last post I promised a list of some of the bullshit I’ve come across in Durham-in-Wonderland (DIW). It’s only, what? three weeks later? not quite a month? Anyway, here it is, a collection that lends credence to Harry G. Frankfurt’s comment that the “normal habit of attending to the way […]
Also tagged bullshit, Duke lacrosse case, Duke University, Karla Holloway, Kerry Haynie, Mark Anthony Neal, Richard Brodhead, Wahneema Lubiano, Wiegman-Lubiano-HardtThe discourse in and around the lacrosse case is full of misrepresentation, manipulation, disembling and distortion. Thanks to commenter RRH and philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, I realize that a great deal of it can be described more accurately as bullshit. The word really captures the spirit of KC Johnson’s anti-academic crusade, but he’s not by any stretch the only offender. Prosecutor Mike Nifong and his minions generated loads of it, and the faculty at Duke contributed more than their fair share, too. What was needed was more bullshit detectors and fewer producers.
Also tagged bullshit, Duke lacrosse case, Duke University, Karla Holloway, liestoppers, Mark Anthony Neal, potbangers, Tim Tyson, Wahneema LubianoBack in 2004 the Duke Conservative Union (DCU) looked up the political party affiliation of 178 Duke faculty members in the humanities and then took out an ad in the Duke Chronicle announcing that the vast majority were registered Democrats. Only 8 were registered Republicans. A day later the paper ran a lengthy piece with […]
Also tagged Alan Kors, culture war, Duke lacrosse, Duke University, Erin O'Connor, intellectual diversity, Michael Gustafson, stupid conservative tricksHere’s a quick follow-up to my last entry. KC Johnson has just posted to Durham-in-Wonderland his own rebuttal to Robert Perkinson’s review of Until Proven Innocent. There’s some substance to it, including a few paragraphs about the Hunt and Gell cases that go beyond the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I rhetoric of his recent feud with Tim Tyson. But […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, Robert PerkinsonFor some reason a few days ago my blog came to the attention of the Liestoppers forum. The referrer links prompted me to take a look at their new digs for the first time since the old forum imploded a couple months ago. Those forums were a copious record of the grim and wacky world […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, liestoppers, Robert Perkinson, William AndersonA few weeks ago I wrote about Tim Tyson’s answers to a reporter’s questions about the lacrosse case, and about KC Johnson’s response (the interview with Tyson, originally on a News & Observer blog, made it into print a few days later). Among other things I was disappointed that Tyson wasn’t willing to think more […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, Tim TysonThe word of the day is “tribalism.” I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Kenya, where there’s no way to avoid the word—certainly not after the post-election violence at the beginning of this year. In a New York Times op-ed a few months ago, Roger Cohen takes the idea of tribalism on a whirlwind […]
Also tagged Alan Kors, Barack Obama, culture war, Duke lacrosse, Duke University, Erin O'Connor, thefire.org, tribalismIt’s interesting to see how bits of news reverberate through the blogosphere. Thanks to some saved searches in my Google reader, I’ve seen a number of lacrosse-case stories make the rounds. The bigger ones have generated some lasting buzz—the motion from Duke’s side to shut down the Duke Lawsuit website, the surreal news the accuser, […]
Also tagged Duke lacrosse, Duke University, Tim Tyson