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I think it’s a mistake to assume that the Duke law faculty is somehow unique in their reaction. The events would unfold as they did in pretty much every town of higher learning in America, for all the reasons Tom Wolfe gave us in “Bonfire of the Vanities.” The fact is that the racial narrative Nifong seeks to confirm with his prosecution is the very narrative that these academics have built their careers around. If rich white athletes didn’t gang-rape a poor black stripper, their raison d’etre evaporates. In order for them to remain affirmed as the power-holders of our age, someone’s got to hang, and the facts aren’t going to matter to much when those are the stakes.