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Both the women basketball players at Rutgers and the men lacrosse stalwarts at Duke were victims. The former were victimized by racism and sexism, the latter by reverse racism and sexism. The former were assaulted by a media culture which seeks to tear down the barriers of political correctness and the latter by paragons of such correctness --academic faculty and administrators. The former were victims of their black skin and their role as women athletes, the latter of their white skin, thick necks and huge muscles ("farmyard animals," one Duke professor called them).

Rutgers women were deprived of the respect that men used to owe women. The Duke men were deprived of the presumption of innocence. Both teams were used: the women by a "shock jock" who has built his audience by such abuse, the latter by a prosecuting attorney seeking re-election. Both were savaged by perverted world views --the first saying that it is an exercise of freedom to use language about black women that many black men use in their music, and the second saying that white men, especially athletes, are always guilty. Media networks, making money off obscenity and scatology, were responsible for spoiling the victory of the Scarlet Knights (a gender problem in that image!). Corruption of justice in North Carolina and the weakness of Duke University spoiled the season of the Blue Devils --and drove away players and coach.

Don Imus is gone, but Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Neil Boortz, Glenn Beck and their lesser imitators still thrive by serving up the raw meat of bigotry and ignorance that certain segments of the population need to navigate the complexities of American pluralism. Black musicians still thrive by using exactly the same image of black women as did Imus. The media giants (including record companies) will continue to make money by exploiting the lowest level of taste they can get away with. Academics will still despise athletes, especially white ones.

April 20, 2007

BY ANDREW GREELEY