Addressing Alleva

"I have seen no culture of racism in any of our sports teams." -Athletic Director Joe Alleva

Obviously, Alleva doesn't read The Chronicle. Around this time last year, on the front page of this newspaper, I recounted a racist experience I had with members of the lacrosse team. As I was walking to a barbecue hosted by my African-American fraternity, I passed by a group of lacrosse players and a middle-aged woman (wearing Duke lacrosse warm-ups) just in time to hear them make a racially insensitive remark. One student, after hearing that my fraternity was barbecuing, said that he already knew what we were cooking: fried chicken and watermelon. Everyone, including the woman, laughed.

Naturally, I was outraged.

Sharing my story with others, I heard about other racist incidents-a player on facebook.com in black-face, for example-that the team was involved in. Even after this event and others were published in this newspaper, no one from the athletic department took notice. What is even more maddening is that yesterday, in line for a Pauly Dog, two lacrosse players (easily identifiable because of their apparel) and one female student commented on how funny it was that this incident occurred during sexual assault awareness week.

There is nothing funny about this situation or the kind of casual racism that fuels it. We shouldn't forget that these alleged rapes are not the first racist incident at Duke that has been noted by the national media. As long as people like Joe Alleva stay willfully blind, it won't be the last.

Brandon White

Trinity '07