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Back in September, when the alleged-then-retracted Hofstra gang rape was front page news, I made the following observations about it:
If a woman is raped by a man she’s been intimate with before, or raped in the course of a sexual encounter that began as consensual, or raped in circumstances in which her judgment may be called into question, she can expect to be disbelieved, shamed, and attacked, and that expectation may lead a rape survivor to alter her story to make it more palatable to police, or to a jury, or even to her friends and family.
I don’t know what happened that night, and I expect that I never will. I’m not accusing any of the five men who were named of anything, and I’m not saying that the fact that they were accused means they must have done something wrong. I don’t know, and I’m not interested in speculating.
I do, though, want to say clearly that the question of what happened isn’t a binary one of “she told the truth, and they’re guilty” vs. “she lied, so they’re innocent.”
It’s possible that she lied and that some or all of them are guilty.
Yesterday the historian KC Johnson stumbled across that post, and concluded from it — I swear I’m not kidding — that I’m a “campus ideologue … trained to believe that women never lie about rape.”
We know for a fact that Danmell Ndonye lied about rape, because she told two contradictory stories about an alleged rape. My entire post was premised on the obvious fact that women sometimes lie about rape. In a comment on that post — a comment Johnson quoted from — I said that Ndonye’s “allegation should not have been taken as proof that she was the victim of a sexual assault.”
But apparently I believe that women never lie about rape.
And that willful misreading isn’t enough for Johnson. He goes on to pull the last sentence of my post out of context, snip away the crucial italics, and offer it as my “startling claim” that “it’s possible that [Ndonye] lied and that some or all of them [the falsely accused men] are guilty.”
As I said in a (long trapped in moderation purgatory) comment at Minding the Campus, the Manhattan Institute blog where Johnson’s post appeared, there are two factual claims in my blockquoted passage above: first, that “a rape survivor [may] alter her story to make it more palatable to police, or to a jury, or even to her friends and family,” and second, that it was possible — not likely, not probable, just possible — that Ndonye’s original lie was a lie of that kind.
Johnson finds these suggestions preposterous.
And I find that deeply depressing.
Postscript: Four days after my original post on the Hofstra case, the Nassau County DA decided that she would bring no criminal charges against Ndonye. Under the terms of an agreement between Ndonye and the DA’s office, Ndonye stipulated that she had not been sexually assaulted or sexually abused by the men she had accused. The DA was later quoted as saying that she was convinced that what happened that night was consensual, and I have no reason to doubt her assessment.
October 14 update: It took two Twitter messages, an email, and a week’s wait, but the folks at Minding the Campus have finally posted the comment referenced in this post, as well as a link to this post.
Here are the last week’s @studentactivism Twitter highlights. (The week before last’s, which I posted last night, are here.)
RT @dlcox1958: Fun Facts: 24 member UC Commission on the Future has 0 staff, 2 students, 4 faculty.http://bit.ly/42fvYQ #ucwalkout
Via @angryasianman, “Squinty eyes” student govt campaign poster parody sparks controversy at Tufts:http://bit.ly/3yw7tc
My post from last week on teaching feminism has been cross-posted at @samsanator‘s blog: http://bit.ly/4jrSX
My full campus-by-campus roundup of the #UCWalkout. (More news on UC coming at the blog today.)http://bit.ly/walkout3
RT @queerunity Gender is in between your ears (brain), sex is in between your legs. #transtuesday
Don’t forget Iran’s students: thousands marched in Tehran yesterday and today. http://bit.ly/2YDVQ5 #iranelection
Two Polanski facts to remember: He admitted in court that he knew she was 13, and she told police he anally raped her.
Also, it shows feminism works! RT @AmandaMarcotte: 85% drop in rape rate since the 70s shows convicting rapists is an effective deterrent.
Get your http://studentactivism.net updates on Facebook!http://bit.ly/3VSfvI
Pitt students, arrested and tear-gassed in their dorms at#G20, demand action: http://bit.ly/10KX5S (please RT)
Fascinated by #nestlefamily Twitter war. (Mombloggers at Nestle retreat vs critics of Nestle 3rd world formula mkting.)
By the way, this #nestlefamily-inspired post by @phdinparenting is amazing: http://bit.ly/wuDfB.
Want to know why formula is dangerous to at-risk babies? Read the WHO FAQ:http://bit.ly/rtLrK
Okay, here’s the coolest thing ever to happen ever:http://bit.ly/lusWj (via @PostBourgie) Gotta love the Nate Silver shoutout, too.
Powerful comment from a Pitt alum on my #G20 protest post:http://bit.ly/10KX5S
RT @peterrothberg: Great piece I edited by @adibranco on the “Student Sex Column Movement.” http://bit.ly/qUZ2P
Nestle is no friend to kids. Its marketing practices kill kids. If people are angry at #nestlefamily bloggers that’s why.
I’ve asked @nestlefamily more than half a dozen questions in the last two days. They’ve answered zero. #nestlefamily
A review and link roundup on the #UCSCoccupation, still going strong after seven days: http://bit.ly/2lpri1
UC Santa Cruz students end building occupation after seven days: http://bit.ly/zKR2J #ucscoccupation @occupyucsc
Ta-Nehisi Coates on the dilemmas posed by white racists’ love for @CoryBooker http://tr.im/ArRL (via @AdamSerwer)
“Even Cochran didn’t have the nerve to say ‘Did you see OJ play against New England?'” -Chris Rock on Polanski’s defenders
Hat tip to @jaclynf on that Chris Rock/roman Polanski quote, by the way. http://bit.ly/Uc2fU
Was the UCSC occupation the longest sit-in since the sixties? I look at the history. #ucscoccupation http://bit.ly/OQcPi
Amazing #nestlefamily wrapup from @EvilSlutClique: http://bit.ly/2ihofP. Everything I’d have said, but said better.
RT @forstudentpower: Progressive/radical students in New England/Midatlantic: register for the SDS Northeast convention! http://bit.ly/ocn1N
RT @forstudentpower: “I tweeted the law and the law won” –#G20 activist monitoring police scanners arrested by FBI:http://bit.ly/1fD3OL
RT @lissnup: Students in Iran being disciplined, suspended, expelled, beaten, arrested, imprisoned. Student Activists of the World Unite!
Fifteen great questions for Nestle from @phdinparenting:http://tinyurl.com/ybaxbc3 #nestlefamily
RT @stu4ca: Save California’s universities | Judith Butler in guardian.co.uk http://bit.ly/ixOEq
Fantastic. RT @jsmooth995: Great story of Stevie Wonder sitting in with local band in SF: http://tr.im/AFBt Video here:http://tr.im/AFBP
Great line, via @restruct: Dear Male Geeks: A woman is not a Rubik’s cube that turns into a fleshlight when you win.http://bit.ly/2CJd5
Texas student gvt, pressured by parents & alums, upholds homecoming court ban on same-sex couples: http://bit.ly/4cRa2L
The student senate of the University of North Texas last week rejected a bylaw amendment that would have allowed same-sex couples to run for king and queen of homecoming.
Student government regulations at UNT do not bar LGBT students from running for homecoming king and queen, but they do provide that the court be elected as a male-female couple. The proposed bylaw amendment would have eliminated that restriction.
The bill, which had been introduced a week earlier, generated a strong negative response from UNT parents and alumni.
Debate on the proposal lasted for an hour, and at times grew heated. The final vote was five in favor of the change, ten opposed, and eight abstentions.
One student who voted against the bill said that he had been swayed by threats from alumni to end charitable donations to UNT, and from parents of students who had gone so far as to threaten to force their children to withdraw from the university.
Student government interns conducted an informal poll of two hundred students before the vote, and the UNT student newspaper, the NT Daily, said the results were “generally negative.” Comments on the Daily‘s coverage of the vote have, however, been mostly supportive of the defeated amendment.
(Thanks to @ericstoller on Twitter for the heads-up on this story.)
I was off the grid last weekend, so I didn’t have the chance to post that week’s Twitter highlights. Here’s the best of the week before last, starting with the evening of September 20th…
North Carolina CCs adopt a new policy on undocumented immigrant students — their 5th in 9 years:http://bit.ly/u7C0H
#MadMen just gave a shout-out to the Dublin House, one of my favorite old obscure NYC bars.
Binge drinking at college keeps growing. Is it time to rethink the 21-year-old drinking age? http://bit.ly/Q5tEO
Bahrain: Student activist expelled for leafleting about students’ rights and educational quality. http://bit.ly/10wrVD
Men march against sexual assault at Penn State:http://bit.ly/Yg9OW
On the Hofstra rape case and telling the truth about sexual assault: http://bit.ly/1vB5aV
If you find yourself saying something is “not about race,” guess what? It’s partly about race. That’s how race WORKS.
RT @NUS_President The Irish national student Union led by @petermannion continue to fight uni fees: http://www.usi.ie/
Brick City is riveting. RT @glamorousvandal: what the fuck are you watching if you ain’t watching #BRICKCITY
U of Kentucky students march against anti-student housing law: http://bit.ly/GCpzp
Interview w/Speaker of CA Assembly on state’s budget freefall & her own campus activist past: http://bit.ly/B8qFX, via @ucLActivist323
(1 of 2) Good piece via @NiemanLab: Twitter as tool of cultural diplomacy. But why assume intercultural dialogue is international? http://tr.im/zpjs
(2 of 2) Part of the beauty of Twitter is that it fosters “cultural diplomacy” among neighbors, not just among strangers.
I’m going to have to write about this piece. RT @HappyFeminist: Teaching Feminism When You’re Not a Feminist http://bit.ly/ZfAFk
This post from @theapants, “PC nitpicking on mixed race folks and the language of fractions,” is 100% awesome:http://bit.ly/108PUf
Via @queerunity, a link to Too Asexy for My Shorts, a worth-reading blog by an asexual (ace) woman.http://bit.ly/4oN4Km
My answer to the question “how do you teach feminism if you’re not a feminist?” http://bit.ly/4fOl4x
UC Davis students’ naked protest against tuition hikes & budget cuts in advance of 9/24 #UCWalkouthttp://bit.ly/3r5Gb7
RT @baratunde right now. @OurBrickCity is on Sundance Channel. srsly. watch this show. every night this week.#JustDoIt
UK educator compares classrooms to strip clubs, calls ogling female students a “perk” of teaching. http://bit.ly/qFAZu
RT @Monique_Teal #DREAMAct Day of Action is TODAY! Not too late to join an action near you: http://dreamactivist.org!
I’ve updated the Speaking Engagements page on the website for folks who may be interested in bringing me to campus:http://bit.ly/mrMcC
What’s going on with tomorrow’s #UCWalkout:http://bit.ly/c7Zam (please RT & post additional links)
RT @glsen: Amazing NY Times mag story about LGBT middle school students and the benefits of GSAs http://bit.ly/ygDel
UC wants to raise in-state fees 45% in a year, to $11,000+? #UCWalkout! http://bit.ly/c7Zam
Plans for the UC walkout, campus by campus:http://bit.ly/ucwalkout (Please RT!) #UCwalkout
Kansas students fight gory antichoice propaganda w/fabulous sex-positive sex ed: http://bit.ly/zAXcO (via @ChoiceUSA)
Finding lots of great folks on Twitter via the #UCwalkoutstory–check out @NewFacMajority, the activist adjunct group.
Um, WOW. #UCwalkout, Berkeley: http://twitpic.com/iyy8d(via @jonchang)
New post — reports from the UC walkout.http://bit.ly/ucwalkout2, #UCwalkout
Okay, I’ve written 56 tweets and 14 blog updates (and taught three classes) in the last 16 hours. Time for bed. Goodnight all. #UCwalkout
RT @soulrebelJ: If anyone tries to convince you to commit violence based on your beliefs, they’re probably the police. Just say no.
Reports on yesterday’s #UCwalkout protests, rallies, and occupations: http://bit.ly/walkout3 (Please RT!)
RT @rootwork, @iwasaround @G20IMC: Police Attack Students at University of Pittsburgh (Video)http://bit.ly/2ZKx9x #g20
I’m still looking for more news on the windup and aftermath of the campus occupation that ended yesterday at the University of California at Santa Cruz, but in the meantime I want to clear something up.
In an article published yesterday in City on a Hill Press, a UCSC student newspaper, one of the students sitting in at the Graduate Commons building said that UCSC had just “broken a record for longest student occupation of a building to take place in America post-1960s.” A couple of days ago, an occupation spokesperson made a slightly less extravagant version of the claim, saying that the Commons sit-in was “one of the longest student occupations in many, many years.”
So is it true? Was the UCSC occupation the longest campus building takeover since the heyday of student activism in the sixties?
Well, no. Here are five that were longer, one of which — the UNC sweatshop sit-in pictured above — happened just a year and a half ago:
- At Harvard in 2001, a sit-in demanding that university employees be paid a living wage lasted for three weeks.
- Another living wage sit-in, this one at Washington University in 2005, lasted for eighteen days.
- In May of last year, students protesting the University of North Carolina’s ties to sweatshop garment makers occupied the lobby of their administration building for sixteen days.
- In 1989, students occupied the administration building at Wayne State University for either eleven or twelve days in response to racist incidents on campus.
- The Afrikan Student Union at Ohio State University occupied the offices of the campus president for eight days in 1998 in protest of proposed changes in the Office of Minority Affairs.
Claims that a certain protest was the biggest, or longest, or most dramatic, since the sixties are common, and almost always wrong. They’re common because we think of the sixties as being the last time there was a real student movement in the United States, and they’re wrong because their conception of the history of American student activism is wrong.
I knew about a couple of the campus protests listed above before I sat down to write this post, but most of them I uncovered by Googling. They don’t add up to anything like a comprehensive list of the last few decades’ multi-week campus sit-ins. They represent a small slice of a story that’s mostly gone untold in recent years — the story of American students’ persistent ongoing local campus organizing. I mention them not to mock the UCSC folks or belittle their protest, but because the more activists know about past struggles, the better equipped they’ll be to take on the future.
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