Could you give me the name of a few good black students on campus to talk to? You know, to get their perspective on this whole racial problem."
Sitting with my office phone tucked between my cheek and shoulder, I stopped furiously typing e-mails. The question coming through the line was so ridiculous I sat dumbfounded for a few seconds before answering.
It boggled my mind that this person needed to call me to find black students' names. As though there is only a tiny, difficult-to-find handful of them. (In fact, as of Thursday, it looks like 40 percent of the Class of 2010 will be students of color). As though there are only certain "good" black students whose perspective is worth anything. As though I could serve as a portal to some hidden black community.
I wanted to yell, "Are you kidding me? Give you names? Find them yourself! Go stand on the quad for five seconds, and you'll see plenty of black students. Seriously."
But instead, I offered the reporter (TV network of employment to remain unidentified) a few names, mainly Black Student Alliance representatives who I knew wouldn't want to talk to a journalist. And even if they did talk, I knew that the BSA reps' "perspective on the whole racial thing" (read: the lacrosse rape scandal) wouldn't end up on TV. Forget that the comments would reflect reality; they would just be too tame for the sensationalism the network was likely trying to achieve.
The reporter wanted to hear that racial tensions were at an all-time high because of the rape allegations. That black and white students had come to blows in Alpine. That BSA was planning to boycott classes and stage angry protests in conjunction with the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Or something of that unrealistic ilk, anyway.
The request for black students' names would become a norm in my conversations with the national media during the two months I spent covering the lacrosse scandal. The question reflected two things: laziness and irresponsibility.
On the one hand, the people who asked for names were just too mired in getting ready to appear on TV to actually come to campus and find black students. On the other hand, however, their hope that I would give them names of students who would offer incendiary comments was unethical and feckless. The fact that the students whose names I provided and who did respond never made it to the final cut on TV only augmented my certainty that many of the people covering the lacrosse situation had (and I suppose have) no grasp on, or respect for, reality.
The media are largely gone from Durham, at least for the time being. Networks packed up their cameras, crews, trucks and makeup bags last week, with no seeming concern that their insistence on casting the rape scandal as a black versus white battle has left an unduly sour taste in the national public's mouth when it comes to its understanding of Duke and Durham.
Many people thousands of miles away undoubtedly now think of the community as one boiling over with hate and anger, where elite, white Duke tries to keep poor, black Durham under its Ivory Tower thumb.
I am not saying that Duke and Durham don't have their shared problems when it comes to race. There were three cross burnings in Durham last summer. Allegations of racial slurs uttered on campus were lodged against the Duke lacrosse team a year ago. I, like many students, have borne witness to some racial divides among students, between students and minority employees and between students and Durham residents. I have also seen fellow students act in an insensitive, even bigoted manner, at local restaurants and bars.
But the fact of the matter is that the situation is not as terrible as the national media decided (collectively for the most part, it seems) to portray it. I have seen worse racial divides in the Eastern North Carolina town where I am from, and I have heard of worse incidents of bigotry from friends at other schools. Yes, there are improvements that must be made in Durham and at Duke when it comes to race relations. And even though such improvements are necessary on many college campuses and in many Southern communities, maybe Duke and Durham have issues more severe than some of their counterparts.
Nonetheless, we are far away from the nasty chasm some reporters have wrongly said is the reality in the Bull City. If anything, rather than report what is true, some members of the media have only created the crack that could become a racial chasm if the rape scandal and its wake are not met by a determined, united and optimistic local community.
As a member of the press, I was ashamed to see professional outlets in essence create controversial news for what I can only assume was the sake of ratings. When the trucks, crews and makeup bags return for the next round of lacrosse coverage, I can only hope that my counterparts will have seen the light and report what is real, showing Duke and Durham for what they are-flaws, strengths and everything else in between.
And I sure hope they don't ask for names.
Seyward Darby is a Trinity senior and editorial page managing editor for The Chronicle. Her column runs every Thursday during the summer.
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