The Chronicle has a multi-faceted look back at the lacrosse case, ten years later. The discussion with Richard Brodhead (who declined to be interviewed for the upcoming 30 for 30 documentary) was particularly revealing.
Four quotes, none of which Brodhead appears to have been asked about for the article.
“We can’t be surprised at the outpouring of outrage. Rape is the substitution of raw power for love, brutality for tenderness, and dehumanization for intimacy. It is also the crudest assertion of inequality, a way to show that the strong are superior to the weak and can rightfully use them as the objects of their pleasure.”
Brodhead, today:
“I am certainly at ease in my conscience with the role that I played.”
“I don’t spend my time looking back on this.”
“This was distracting.”
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Brodhead, April 2006 (in his first public appearance after the arrests of Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty):
“If our students did what is alleged, it is appalling to the worst degree. If they didn’t do it, whatever they did is bad enough.”
Brodhead, today:
“I am certainly at ease in my conscience with the role that I played.”
“I don’t spend my time looking back on this.”
“This was distracting.”
————
Brodhead, April 2006 (in an internal e-mail to his top advisors, apparently suggesting an appropriate prism through which to view the case):
“Did you ever see the movie with Edward Norton and the [C]atholic elementary school?” The movie, Primal Fear, featured a guilty Norton tricking his lawyers into believing his innocence.
Brodhead, today:
“I am certainly at ease in my conscience with the role that I played.”
“I don’t spend my time looking back on this.”
“This was distracting.”
————–
“We are eager for our students to be proved innocent” at trial.
Brodhead, today:
“I am certainly at ease in my conscience with the role that I played.”
“I don’t spend my time looking back on this.”
“This was distracting.”
———
Two notes:
There’s no indication from the article that Chronicle reporter Gutham Hathi ever asked Brodhead about these quotes, or whether he continues to stand by them.
The only people quoted in the article, which reflects on Brodhead’s performance, are Brodhead, his current or former advisors, and a Durham resident active in a neighborhood association.
Academic Wonderland 