While 46 of 47 Duke lacrosse players were white, all 47 of them were male.

It should be also be noted that Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva was also the standing Duke A.D. when the University welcomed Shelden Williams to a basketball scholarship. Duke chose to extend Williams a scholarship in the face of substantial allegations he had participated in a gang rape. Williams, a four year starter and First Team All-American with the Duke men's basketball team, is black. He is also, obviously, male.

Williams was kicked off of his high school basketball team after facing serious and credible allegations he participated in a gang rape. Williams was not a minor at the time of the alleged crime.

The public pressure generated in no small part by William's potential future at Duke is widely believed to have discouraged the victim from prosecuting.

By maintaining the scholarship to Williams despite the serious nature and credibility of the allegations, Duke AD Joe Alleva and Duke University directly participated in the intimidation of an alleged rape victim. In other words, Duke supported an effort to further the injustice to a rape victim in order to further the success of their athletic achievements. By not withdrawing Williams' scholarship Duke helped scare the rape victim away from prosecuting.

Being a neighbor of Durham I have no doubts racism is a huge issue on Duke's campus. Race is a huge issue everywhere in America, particularly at Duke, where the institution regularly and formally insists on increasing the height of the walls around its campus, opting to withdraw from the largely black community around it rather than particpate and contribute.

But like Duke's ever-rising Gothic faux walls, rape is also a looming issue. The ugly side of "Animal House," the archetypical intoxicated and violent male forcibly expressing a lack of any respect for the most sacred of a woman's rights, happens with a frequency seemingly exceeded only by the silent struggles of its victims. The date raper. The drunk troller. They are everywhere it seems and rarely challenged for horrors of their ways. What is particular to Duke with respect to rape is the institution's history. Duke has a history of protecting its male student athletes, white or black. Whether by omission or by comission, Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva and Duke University itself protects and harbors alleged rapists to the point of interfering with the process of justice. This, I assure you, is no mere "boys will be boys" approach.

While it is debatable whether Duke University institutionalizes racism, it is clear that Duke has a history of institutionalizing misogyny in its most horrific form.

When I was at Cornell ten years ago little rich frat boys ran amok off campus on a regular basis, date raping women, holding unabashed beer fests that anyone could get into, physically, emotionally and sexually abusing their intitiates and occasionally falling down drunk into gorges and dying. It was a big debate then and it still is now. And the administrations' response was the same as Duke's -- it's off campus. It's ALL off campus.

How can these supposed bastions of liberal mindedness drop the ball so spectacularly?

There's a simple reason. Because the Board of Trustees and the big donors (often one and the same) are almost always white guys who were in frats or on the lacrosse team or whatever and think it's all really great fun. And if the schools get rid of the Greek system (heaven frickin' forbid) or seriously impinge on their right to party until they puke on neighbors' lawns then the schools lose their financial and lobbying support. These Duke lacrosse boys are going to grow up and some of them are going to reach positions of power or wealth (or inherit those positions) and they in turn are going to start helping to bankroll the university that gave them such an exciting, date rapin' time and it's never, ever going to end.

Sorry, but this story was shocking to me ten years ago and there was a lot of noise and talk back then about doing something about these shameful university traditions (which are not relegated purely to fraternities). It's endemic to these places, it really is.

And then when oh when will we address the very real issue of culpability of a (choose one): mother of two, college student, young woman, "exotic dancer," stripper, whore...someone who knowingly and willingly offered her services as an ongoing concern on her part, who entered an event she was booked for and expected to be paid for--whether it was 2 guys or 40, she went in there knowingly breaking a lot of laws. She does not get a pass because she's a mom. In my eyes she's already a horrible mother, because that can't be the one and only option she has to make money to raise her children. (Um, where's dad? another topic for another time) She does not get a pass because she's black. Remind me again where color predicts stupid. Aha, you don't believe that, do you? OK, she's held accountable for her actions like any adult, college student, parent ought to be. Oh, she doesn't get a pass because she's a woman, either. What does a "sex worker" (gotta love that term) expect in terms of behavior when she introduces her sexuality, sans clothes, and quite possibly the addition of sex (for money, of course) to a couple or a roomful of drunken men? No, really, people. When you women see a Chippendales Show, do you politely applaude their athleticism, the lithe way they incorporate movements to good music? Do you, in short, behave in a civilized manner? If not, then I politely encourage you to stfu already.

No one deserves to be assaulted, raped, battered, treated like anything less than a mature human. No one. But really, why are we surprised this is happening, has been happening, continues to happen? While we all do some much-needed work on the piggish and thuggish nature of men's uncivilized behavior, could we take a few moments to acknowledge the truth: it doesn't happen without women willing to dance, strip, fellate and fuck for money. Call it a frat party, call it a strip club, call it the "sex industry." If women simply chose self-respect instead of whoring and all its variations, the world would be a much better place, especially for that gender.

Now the first response that equates being a prostitute with some feminist goal of empowerment will be the first self-identified fucking moron, the traitor to the cause.

Let's see whom it will be.