Let me begin by apologizing to Durham residents for the transgressions of my fellow students. To be clear, my apology is not for the alleged crimes of the Duke lacrosse team-I can apologize only for what I know to be fact.
Instead, I apologize for the elitism that too often shapes and strains the Duke-Durham relationship, for the racism that too many use to justify their silent condescension and for the economic and social inequalities that seemingly provide us the opportunity to do so.
I write today not to defend, condemn or even seriously mention the lacrosse team, but to support the budding dialogue on the Duke-Durham partnership and add to it my own experiences and hopes.
I urge caution--too many individuals are tying the underlying problems involved in Duke-Durham relations so completely to one yet-unproven incident. This coupling creates the very real possibility that meaningful engagement between the Duke and Durham communities will never take place.
If the allegations turn out to be false, the push for genuine dialogue will lose any and all sense of urgency. For this reason, I'm almost as troubled by the potential repercussions of the players being found not guilty as I am by the possibility of being forced to accept my classmates as rapists. Both situations victimize our community
I came to Durham from Burlington, a city just down the interstate and very much like Durham. Before Duke I attended Hugh M. Cummings High School, a predominantly black school. Cummings, like Durham-Hillside and Southern, has, arguably, never been given a fair chance at success and is now under threat of closure for denying students their "constitutional right" to an equal education.
And for three years now, I've lived within Duke's walls. I've come to believe that Duke and Durham, like my two homes, while dissimilar, are not incompatible.
In nearly every community, there are pockets of bigotry-groups of individuals who operate on fear and assumption. Anyone who defends every student at Duke as tolerant and socially mindful is lying.
The truth is, many students come to Duke never having known economic or racial diversity. Traveling the world, touring its lands and peoples, is no substitute for the lessons and familiarity of daily interaction. Of course, then, there is an abundance of students ill-prepared for the interactions Durham requires of them.
Compounding the situation is the sense of competitiveness that any elite university inspires. We as students, for our entire lives, have been told by our parents, our schools and our friends that we're the rightful leaders of tomorrow. Most freshmen at Duke are interacting with others who are equally if not more qualified for the first time. Finding and focusing on differences-perceived advantages-can easily become a large part of one's life.
These circumstances create large and numerous barriers, no doubt. A community, though, should be judged as much for its efforts to overcome its barriers as for the barriers themselves.
Duke, I promise you, is not a lost cause-far from it. I believe much of Duke genuinely cares for the well-being of Durham. Even before heinous headlines detailed rape, sodomy and strangulation, students, administrators and faculty were demanding more from the student body.
Since I've been at Duke, several instances of racial insensitivity have arisen on campus and every time, students have responded passionately. These efforts have mushroomed in the weeks since the allegations.
Students expressing elitist and racist sentiments are not being allowed to avoid confrontation. Students who care are seeking out the disdain that has for too long plagued the Duke-Durham relationship. Duke's walls will no longer be allowed to act as a buffer between students' actions and community responsibilities.
My point in telling you this is not to make excuses or to ask that Durham stop its criticisms of our campus. I ask only that in the coming weeks, months and years, as students and administrators work to gain your trust, that you not dismiss our efforts as merely self-serving.
Though you, as Durham residents, have every right to judge us for our past failings, I ask that you judge instead the sincerity of our efforts to improve.
We as students can protest, sponsor campus-wide dialogue and pass resolutions to our hearts' content, but any meaningful change requires that we be allowed to work together with you.
Daniel Bowes is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Monday.
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