Mark Anthony Neal talks about rape, race and the culture of masculinity

Scholar and writer Mark Anthony Neal has been a tireless black feminist advocate for years now, urging a critical examination of the ways in which racism, classism and patriarchy pervert our culture, perpetuate violence, and particularly, degrade the quality of African American life. In recent weeks, Neal, an Associate Professor in the African and African American Studies department at Duke University, has been part of a group of thinkers who are trying to deepen the dialogue surrounding rape allegations involving the Duke University lacrosse team.

Most recently, that effort includes a collection of blog essays on Neal's site and the Duke African American Studies site by noted and emerging writers including Wahneema Lubiano, Bryan Profitt, Dhasan Ahanu and Neal himself.

This morning, Neal spent a few minutes talking with me about the recent developments in the case, and the results he's seen so far from the efforts to have the larger conversation about understanding and ending sexual violence. In this first post, Neal talks about the ways in which race, class and sexual stereotypes have affected the media coverage of the case. He also comments on the fact that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, is being charged with pushing the case to get votes by his opponents in an upcoming primary re-election bid. Nifong is white; his opponents are a black man and a white woman.

Neal suspects that indeed, Nifong might have been more aggressive in pursuing this case because it suited his political interests. His own interest, however, is to draw attention to the ongoing problem of rape,, and to challenge a culture that has, for centuries, discounted sexual violence against black women. Neal cited Erin Texeira's recent AP story, Duke Rape Scandal Reopens Old Wounds as an example of the kind of press coverage that he would like to see more frequently.

When Neal talks about these issues in his classes, he's been surprised by some of the turns the conversation has taken. For example, some of his black male student athletes protested former boxer Mike Tyson's rape conviction and three-year prison sentence."If we want to believe that Mike Tyson is not guilty, then no man who's convicted of rape is guilty," Neal argued. We also talked about the ways in which young men and women act out "notions of masculinity" that can sometimes result in sexual violence, as well as what he sees as the real challenge before the Duke University administration.

To close, I asked Neal a personal question -- when his two young daughters are young women, how does he hope the world will have changed?

As for the case itself, Rachel continues to keep up with the headlines and provoke lots of discussion.

(cross-posted at BlogHer)
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