The leaders of several black student organizations met Thursday night to discuss the implications of the recent controversy surrounding Duke Student Government President Joshua Jean-Baptiste, as well as the negative light with which they said the situation has been portrayed.
About a dozen people attended the meeting in the Bryan Center, during which they formulated a list of topics that they hoped students will address in further campus discussion regarding the incident and campus race relations.
"If we can take pride in having a black student government president... we have a responsibility to say something in light of his present situation," said junior Nate Jenkins president of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and meeting organizer.
During the discussion, the students addressed three of the recently published Chronicle articles written about the altercation involving the DSG president. They said the articles did not offer a complete description of the events leading up to the early Sunday morning arrest of Jean-Baptiste and two other students on assault charges. For example, they questioned why sophomore Tushar Kirtane was the only witness whose account was published in The Chronicle.
"There are two conflicting stories: one in The Chronicle and one that is playing out on the streets," said senior Brandilyn Dumas, president of Duke's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Many roundtable discussion attendees voiced their concern that, for those students who were not previously knowledgeable of the details of the arrests, the portrayal of the event in The Chronicle may be the sole influence on how students think about the incident and can strongly sway general opinion about Duke's black community.
"As a result [of the one-sided portrayal of the incident] a misunderstood portion of the community was defamed," said senior Abena Antwi, co-president of the Black Student Alliance.
Reached later Thursday evening, Chronicle Editor Dave Ingram defended the newspaper's coverage. "We recognized from the beginning of this story that it requires special attention, because of the stature of those involved and the potential racial sensitivities, and we have striven to report the most complete, balanced stories possible," said Ingram, a senior. "We hope to report further as more details emerge."
Many students argued that all the facts surrounding Sunday night have not yet been gathered and revealed to the University public. However, everyone at the meeting declined to comment on how the actual events that occurred early Sunday morning differed from how they have been portrayed in several local newspapers, as well as on the Tom Joyner morning radio show. Many meeting attendees attributed their not commenting to a respect for the fact that the case is still before the courts.
Jessie Pinkrah, a senior who attended the meeting, said it is unfortunate that Jean-Baptiste's DSG work has been overshadowed. "Regardless of who's to blame [for Sunday's events], everything that has taken place this last semester and a half [during Jean-Baptiste's presidency] has been disregarded," she said.
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