KC's Moment

by Cliopatria

Amazon is taking advance orders for Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case by Stuart Taylor and our colleague, KC Johnson. Even on advance orders the book is selling very well (#265 when I last looked). It has jacket endorsements by New York Law School's Nadine Strossen, the president of the ACLU, and by Michael Kinsley, George Will, ABC's Jan Crawford Greenberg, and former Attorney General William P. Barr. Tuesday 4 September is the official release date, but Helen Reynolds already has a review up at Dr. Helen. KC's schedule is filling up with public appearances this fall in Pittsburgh, Durham, Boston, and Washington, DC.

At Acephalous, our colleague, Tim Burke, addresses the suggestion that KC's Durham-in-Wonderland fostered an anti-intellectual commentariat. KC's other critics occasionally argue that injustices are common in the American legal system and that time and energy is best used in defense of victims who are without resources to defend themselves. An outrageous case in point is the Jena 6. The only history blogger I know who's given them significant attention is elle, phd (and scroll down). Thanks to Manan Ahmed, check out their website and, below the fold, a YouTube that explicitly compares the Jena 6 to Duke's lacrosse players:

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Gareth Evans Jones - 8/31/2007

Almost every single claim about this case is disputed by some, with a few exeptions. Nooses were displayed, a school building was burned down, a student was beaten senseless, and six kids have been overcharged.

There is ample opportunity to shape the narrative around contested facts, or even to ignore others.

The WaPO, which covered itself in glory in the Duke case, wrote that the white student was injured as a result of a brawl. When the colors are right, I guess you call it a brawl when six students jump one, beat him unconscious, and then proceed to stomp him.

The MSNBC article goes out of its way to minimize the damage to the kid, not even mentioning he was beaten unconscious.

The authorities down there seem to have screwed it up at every turn, only making matters worse. Now the media are weaving their own narratives from a mixture of facts, pseudofacts, and ignoring of facts. By the time the media and the professional trouble-makers finish the bad job started by officials down there, I'm confident we'll have an even bigger tragedy.

Oscar Chamberlain - 8/30/2007

This case seems to be getting into the mainstream news media more. This MSNBC posting is pretty minimal, but I just saw a much more extended discussion on of the issues their network.

Nonpartisan - 8/29/2007

Good for him. As I said, having that kind of guts is rare these days and earns him mad props from me, even though I'm not quite a believer in the main thrust of his argument.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/29/2007

Actually, KC's appeared at Duke in forums before. At least one that I recall was sponsored by the law school's chapter of the ACLU.

Nonpartisan - 8/29/2007

The liberal political blogosphere has been very much abuzz about the Jena Six, with recommended diaries all over Daily Kos. But you're right, I haven't seen anything on any other history blogs.

As another side note, KC is doing a talk in Durham? That will be very fun (if they don't stone him out of the auditorium). He gets extra brownie points for having the balls to do that.