If you haven’t heard about the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, this shit is FUCKED UP! 46 members of the Duke Lacrosse team took DNA tests after some of the players were accused of raping a womyn who was hired as a dancer for a private party.

Rape is a tool of oppression - a tool of power-over. It is used as a tool to enforce a gendered hierarchy, for sure. But this case reminds us that it is so much more. It is also used to enforce hierarchies of race, class, ability, and age. Rachel, of Rachel’s Tavern, has a great post reminding us that this is an “incident that reveals how racism, sexism, and classism intersected to make this young woman particularly vulnerable to a sexual assault.” And another about “the discrepancies between how White men’s crimes and black men’s crimes are covered in the popular media.”

Rachel and Blackamazon (and several others that i haven’t gotten to yet) have made it their persynal mission to get the word out about this case and to bring justice. (Update: looks like Alas put together a pretty good round-up of blog postings on the topic.)  I’d like to join that mission. As someone who is moving in two months to where this all took place, i can’t possibly imagine ignoring it. So online and offline, you’ll be hearing me talk about it.

[tags]Duke Lacrosse Rape Case, rape, Duke, racism, classism, sexism[/tags]