The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenagers accused of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. The case had everything: race, sex, lies about sex, hysterical women, a rush to judgment and the assumption of guilt. It was a landmark case because it tried to use prejudice and mob rule as a substitute for a fair trial. And when the “victims” turned out not to be a victims, the bigots who rushed to judgment were not satisfied. They “knew” that black men always wanted to rape innocent white women whenever they could.
The similarity is startling. The ante-bellum South was obsessed with the belief in oversexed black men. Fast forward to today where feminists of all sexes are obsessed over what they claim is “rape culture.” The fact that violent crime, including rape has dropped dramatically in the last two decades is irrelevant. Men are beasts and women are victims and truth is a irrelevant. It’s bad everywhere, but especially bad in college where men are believed to be mass raping women. It’s so bad that coeds are holding vigils to “take back the night.” No less an authority figure than President Obama insists that “one in five” college women are raped before graduation. Others say it’s even worse: that the real number is“one in four.” If that’s true, it makes a college campus more dangerous than Mogadishu.
Enter Rolling Stone magazine with a rape fantasy even more graphic that Fifty Shades of Gray. And just as true. An innocent young coed … brutally raped, on broken glass, for three hours, by seven white, rich, Southern, privileged men and one beer bottle. All this on the campus founded by a slave-owner and run by an administration that didn’t care what happened to innocent womanhood.
Eric Owens: Erdely hoped her wildly implausible 9,000-word, agenda-driven excuse for journalism would emphasize “the larger theme of a university culture and social scene indifferent even to the most brutalized victims of rape.”
With all the right buttons pushed, UVA’s administration headed by Teresa Sullivan swung into action. The first thing was to ban all fraternity activity. The story was so plausible to the feminist culture on campus that there were no questions about the plausibility of the story. Like the residents of Alabama in 1931, the people in charge were ready to believe. Like night follows day there were protests, vigils, candles, demonstrations, vandalism and an academic lynch mob. And Teresa Sullivan, who survived being fired by the university’s board just a few years ago, decided that her position was to be the leader of the mob. She knew that the way to remain in her cushy position was to feed to prejudices of the feminists. She knew her audience, because no matter what the press may say, UVA is in every way representative of American academic bigotry and bias. Those mobs, those demonstrators, the people trashing the frat house didn’t have to be created. They were already there, like the racists of 1931 Alabama, hoods and nooses at the ready, to take down the despoilers of innocent maidenhood. And even as the story was falling apart, the truth didn’t matter. Because there’s a large truth, the fable of a campus rape epidemic where every untoward glace, awkward fumble, every drunken hook-up is evidence of the heteronormative patriarchy holding the womyn down.
Sullivan told The Washington Post that the suspension of fraternity and sorority activities would remain in place until Jan. 9, as the university pursues a wide-ranging discussion on sexual assault and campus culture.
Law Professor Glenn Reynolds: “So the story’s a hoax, but the punishment remains because conversation. Sullivan’s response has been disgraceful.”
We sent an e-mail to Sullivan’s office asking for a statement from her. We have yet to hear back.
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