Alleged Rape of NCCU Student: (Duke Scandal)

[BLUTANG]

please excuse the rambling...

I am not an advocate of violence against women OR blaming the victim, but maybe i'm falling victim to the tricks of the media. I just feel "funny" about this whole thing.

Let me start by saying i graduated from NCCU in 2001, i also took courses at duke & LIVED in durham during my college years. I was an ACTIVE member of the student body at NCCU and I have partied on Duke's campus, at the row of houses by the wall... I know the area well.

I also know the area well enough to know YOU DON'T GO TO NO PARTY BY YOURSELF. No offense to durham natives, but it's not the safest place in the world (i'm from pg and sayin somewhere ain't safe... ) So even if you're performing for "duke students" you STILL need to be cautious... just like you didn't know there are ~40 men there, you didn't know IF the "party" was really for students or not. There are boarding houses and other private residences all up and down that street... just cause it's close to campus DOES NOT mean you are dealing with students.

I feel bad for even typing this, but there is a difference between a "dancer" who "performs" at a club, and a "dancer" who "performs" for private, off-site events. I spoke with a guy friend who still lives in Durham and he said would assume you take ONE male with you... someone who can watch out for you (he doesn't even have to be big) or in a worst case scenario - someone to be your one SOBER witness.

Although no one deserves to be beaten, battered, or humiliated - we all need to be careful and make better decisions.

IF the events occured as the victim claims, i feel the responsible parties should be punished SEVERLY, and pursued as a violent act as well as a hate crime.

either way, there needs to be some sort of "peace offering" between duke and the city of Durham. I was trying to explain to my bf that although Durham has two universities, it is NOT a college town (as compared to chapel hill or college park, etc). Unspoken tensions have existied long enough, and whether people ACKNOWLEDGE it or not - race matters.