Duke Turmoil: Dukefire of the Vanities?

The more the saga at Duke unfolds, the more it reads like a Tom Wolfe novel, most especially that of Bonfire of the Vanities. Heres the latest tidbit from ESPN:

A bishop who led a prayer rally Sunday called for healing in the community inflamed by the racial tensions raised after a black woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by white members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team.

"This is not a racial protest," Bishop John Bennett told more than 100 people gathered in front of the house where the woman told police she was assaulted. "It should not be a question of, 'Where are the Afro-American churches?' The question should be, 'Where are the Christians?'"

Also from ESPN:

Mayor Bill Bell is black. So are Police Chief Steven W. Chalmers, City Manager Patrick Baker and a majority of the city council. Durham's population is almost as black as it is white.

So why is it that some blacks like Preston Bizzell, a 61-year-old Air Force veteran who said he's never experienced racism in his 30 years in Durham, believe justice here is swifter and harsher for a black man than a white one?

Bizzell sat on his bicycle recently and stared at the house where a black stripper claims she was sexually assaulted and beaten by three white Duke University lacrosse players. He's convinced if the alleged attackers had been students at historically black North Carolina Central University, and their accuser white, "that same day, somebody would have been arrested."