Mike Nifong and Duke Lacrosse: The Forgotten Racism that Started the Whole Thing

In the midst of all the talk and writing about how Nifong needs to be disbarred, held criminally and fiscally responsible for the consequences of his illegitimate and dishonst prosecution, I haven’t heard much about WHY Nifong did what he did.

This whole thing started because a black woman (who worked as a stripper and probably didn’t live the lifestyle of the privileged) accused rich white young men of rape. And the whole thing happened just weeks before an election where Nifong needed to carry the black vote to win.

It’s now obvious all those on the inside of the investigation new very early on (within a day or so) there was no basis for the accusations. Yet Nifong pushed ahead. Why? Because he wanted to look like he was looking out for the black community.

Nifong has a very low opinion of black people. At least, he doesn’t believe the black folks in his community have the ability to think or reason. He demonstrated this by filing charges against young men he knew were innocent because he believed he was more likely to look good to his black constituents than if he didn’t charge them.

Certainly those black constituents couldn’t reason. They couldn’t be fair. They just couldn’t see how a black woman whose story had exactly zero consistency or one iota of support could be lying. At least, that’s what Nifong thought.