After a series of explicit and offensive comments were posted on an online Duke community forum, some black students are seeking a way to address the anger and pain these messages caused.
Nearly 100 students packed a Carr Building classroom Sunday night at a forum about the issue that was sponsored by Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Fraternity, Inc., and the Black Women's Collective.
The forum followed more than a week of postings to the now-closed Vent feature of DevilNet-a web site affiliated with The Chronicle-which disparaged several black students by name and included several hundred less specific but similarly vicious comments.
After a list of the "Top 20 Brown-Skinned Fresh" was posted to the Vent Nov. 25, the commentary elicited follow-up lists and obscene comments. Many of the postings discussed the sexual practices of black freshmen, both individually and as part of dorm cliques.
Trinity senior and DevilNet editor Jeff Horwich said ordinarily, DevilNet would remove lists or any other postings which contained derogatory comments about particular individuals, but he was out of town through the period of controversial postings and his staff did not immediately act on the messages in his absence. The Vent was temporarily shut down by DevilNet operators Dec. 3.
At the forum, after Horwich and several administrators addressed the students, organizers asked all audience members who were not involved in the incident to leave, including administrators and media.
A student who stayed for the ensuing discussion, which lasted for about an hour, said participants discussed ways to build relationships between freshmen and upperclassmen.
"It was an open forum," said the student. "People talked about their feelings on the situation. The underclassmen expressed their fears and the upperclassmen were there for them as guidance."
The discussion contained none of the explosive exchanges found on DevilNet; the ground rules for the entire forum included "no rehashing personal vendettas of DevilNet" and "no bashing individuals."
"There was no disrespectfulness," said the student. "It was a civilized, mature discussion which should have happened a long time ago."
Trinity senior and Kappa Alpha Psi member Rasheed Wiggins said Monday that the end of the discussion focused on male-female relationships.
"We tried to see some of the problems and come up with solutions," he said. "We talked about deeper issues of self-respect and deeper issues of community on campus."
Earlier in the night, Wiggins opened the public part of the forum by stating that the purpose was not to dwell on the DevilNet controversy.
"A lot of the things on DevilNet came from issues in the greater community," he said. "Hopefully this will be a building block for our community."
Horwich followed, explaining DevilNet's role in the controversy. DevilNet is "sorry to have played a role in this," he said. "This caught people off-guard. Obviously, a posting like that should come down." He said the Vent has specified rules for what was inappropriate in a posting.
Horwich intends to repost the Vent sometime in the near future.
After Horwich's remarks, administrators supplied some guidance.
"When I was informed about DevilNet and visited the site last week, I was as appalled and anguished and shocked as many of the others are," said Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson. "Sometimes out of crises like these come educable moments."
Dickerson also said that she had received calls from colleagues at other universities who asked her about the DevilNet situation. In an e-mail message Monday, she declined to elaborate on this statement.
Director of Medical School Admissions Brenda Armstrong and Bertie Howard, director of the Center for Africa and the Media, urged students to remember history.
Armstrong, Women's College '70, sternly told students to consider the sacrifices of those who had paved the way for them at the University.
"I will ask you as somebody who went into the Allen Building [to protest the administration]... I ask you to get on point and put this pettiness aside."
To ease student concern, Vice President for Institutional Equity Myrna Adams told the crowd that the events surrounding DevilNet illustrate larger problems that confront members of the black community.
"Some of what you're experiencing is a normal part of adapting to a university which was not designated for you," she said.
"When we are experiencing the problems of this age and this time at this University, we turn on each other. If we don't learn to deal with this now, it's only going to come out later, because this is a lifelong issue for black people in America."
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