"Falschbeschuldigungen gedeihen auf Rassismus und Sexismus gegenüber weißen Männern"

Über einen Vergewaltigungsprozess an der Duke-Universität, der in den USA zu den am heißesten diskutierten Themen gehörte, hierzulande aber weitgehend ignoriert wurde, habe ich hier und hier bereits berichtet. Es gab nicht nur eine massive Vorverurteilung der angeblichen Täter, die inzwischen freigesprochen wurden, es wurden offenbar auch entlastende Beweise zurückgehalten; dem leitenden Staatsanwalt Mike Nifong wurde inzwischen die Lizenz entzogen, und er verbrachte wegen Missachtung des Gerichts selbst einen Tag in Haft.

Jetzt stellt sich der Miami Herald die überfällige Frage, ob die Ursache solcher Skandale in generellen Vorurteilen unserer Gesellschaft gegen weiße Männer liegt, die nicht nur, aber insbesondere an unseren Universitäten gepflegt werden:

Dozens of the activist professors who dominate campus discourse gleefully stereotyped and vilified their own students - and not one member of Duke's undergraduate faculty publicly dissented for months. Duke President Richard Brodhead repeatedly and misleadingly denigrated the players' characters. He also acted as though he had no problem with Nifong's violations of their rights to due process. (…) The defendants -- who endured the ordeal with courage and class - and their teammates were smeared nationwide as depraved racists and probable rapists.

To be sure, it was natural to assume at first that Nifong had a case. Why else would he confidently declare the players guilty? But many academics and journalists continued to presume guilt months after massive evidence of innocence poured into the public record. Some professors persisted in attacks even after the three defendants were declared innocent in April by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper - an almost unheard-of event. (…)

This shameful conduct was rooted in a broader trend toward subordinating facts and evidence to faith-based ideological posturing. Worse, the ascendant ideology, especially in academia, is an obsession with the fantasy that oppression of minorities and women by ''privileged'' white men remains rampant in America. Its crude stereotyping of white men, especially athletes, resembles old-fashioned racism and sexism.

Can this trend be reversed? The power of extremist professors will continue to spread unless mainstream liberal academics, alumni and trustees stop deferring to them and stop letting them pack departments with more and more ideologically eccentric, intellectually mediocre allies. As for the media, the case shows the need for editors and watchdogs to remind journalists that they are supposed to be in the truth-telling business, and that truth emerges from facts and evidence.