NCCU's "Campus Echo" Responds to Exoneration of Hoax Victims With Call to Arms
In a frighteningly militant response to the end of the Hoax, North Carolina Central University student columnist, Solomon Burnette calls for black men, women, and children to wage the war against white people in the current issue of the Campus Echo. With a "reminder" that the time to fight is now, Burnette suggests that "fear of physical retribution" is the only deterrent to "legally, socially and economically validated" murder, beatings, and rape by whites against blacks. Despite the comprehensive investigation conducted by the special prosecutors of Attorney General Roy Cooper and regardless of the resultant unequivocal exoneration, Burnette attempts to summon hate to match his own with his call to arms.
that the players should be prosecuted "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past." Burnette's hate speech reminds one of New Black Panther Party Chief of Staff Min. Hashim A. Nzinga who assailed the innocent Reade Seligmann with a venomous, "Justice Will Be Done Rapist" as he attempted to enter the Durham County Courthouse and the words of a yet unidentified New Black Panther Party member who threatened Mr. Selgimann with, "Dead Man Walking" on the way out of the courtroom.Burnette's spew:
Death to all rapists
On March 13, 2006, some forty affluent white men solicited the presence of two black women on (former) plantation property for the explicit purposes of racially denigrating, disrespecting, and exploiting them.
“Tell your Granddaddy thanks for making my cotton shirt,” they were reported to have said.
The women were, according to all accounts, called “nigger” and told to penetrate themselves with broomsticks (see Abner Louima). One of these women said that she was raped by three of these inebriated white men. People in power and those without disbelieved her. This is sickening.
I am not surprised at the outcome of the case. As a son of Africa, I know that American law is not worth the paper it is written upon. We all saw L.A. Gestapo beat Rodney King only to be acquitted. We were dismayed when the assassins of Amadou Diallo, who laced his area with a forty-one shot spectrum, were also acquitted. These injustices reflect the current disequilibrium in the American justice system.
We black people (while we may be able to bribe judges like white people) cannot expect justice from the American legal system, period.
Why are black people so apt to view this situation through a legal system created to perpetuate our repression?
The ‘facts’ of the case should not matter to us because even if we are unsure of sexual assault, these supremacists have admitted to sexually, racially and politically denigrating these women. Strippers or not, this must be addressed.
History has shown us that the (in)justice system cannot and will not address these issues because it is built upon them. So upon whose shoulders should the responsibility of retributive correction fall?
White people still murder us with impunity. White people still beat us with impunity. White people still rape us and get away with it.
The only deterrent to these legally, socially and economically validated supremacist actions is the fear of physical retribution.
Black men, stand up. Black women, stand up. Black children, stand up. We have been at war here with these same white people for 500 years.
The time to fight, whether intellectually, artistically or physically, has always been now.
The decision of the Campus Echo to publish Burnette's violent message of hatred and top it with a headline calling for death undermines the efforts of NCCU Chancellor James Ammons' call for closure and healing while praising the University communities patience and calm.
Outgoing North Carolina Central University Chancellor James Ammons said, “The Attorney General’s Office made an assessment today that brings closure to the Duke Lacrosse case.”Throughout the Hoax, Chancellor Ammons has been the antithesis to Duke University President Brodhead. While Ammons offered a much needed voice of calm and demonstrated great love for his students in a sincere, if unpolished, manner, his counterpart Brodhead sold out his students with a mellifluous voice and articulate words. Substance over style has defined the difference. Sadly, the Echo's decision to publish Burnette's hate filled diatribe works against Ammons' continued efforts while seemingly validating the worst that has been said of the local racial landscape. Demonstrating poor judgment, at best, the Echo's willingness to confirm the exaggerated impressions created by Chan Hall and the rabid participants of the April 10, 2006 "Pep Rally for Indictments" can only serve to further diminish the world's view of Durham and NCCU.
“Now that the investigation has concluded, let the healing begin and the growth continue.” Wilmington Journal
"There is a lot we can learn from this, and I am just really proud of the NCCU family and [that] the larger community remained calm, even though there was a temptation to do otherwise," Ammons said in an interview with the Campus Echo, the student newspaper."The chancellor praised members of the university family for their patience in the days when many were jumping to conclusions about the guilt or innocence of the lacrosse players, who were accused of rape." Black America Web
