Duke hatred is an act of mindless convenience

After several years without the opportunity provided by the Final Four, the blogging and mainstream media communities have released their pent-up anger on the Duke Blue Devils. To me, at least, the level of contempt has reached high-water/lowbrow mark, and I'm not just talking about the insipid, unprofessional Indy Star illustration.


Some bloggers look as if they might be intelligent in their daily lives. Others are simply reading from the same playbook that untaxed minds have been writing for years.


So in the landfill that is the independent, empowered world of Everyman, it was refreshing to read this from SI's Stewart Mandel. Among the highlights: "One of the great sociological mysteries in sports today is why so many white basketball fans resent the fact that Duke has so many white players. Someone with a more advanced academic degree than mine might have to explain that one."


I don't have a more advanced academic degree -- B.A. will have to suffice -- but I've got a theory on why some white fans claim to hate Duke: because it provides cover. Such critics believe detesting Duke immunizes them against from future charges of racism that others may level at them. 
"I can't be a racist," they seem to say. "I hate Duke because they're disproportionately white. I must be progressive.
"Now join me as I revel in my faux kinship with people of color. Go Lions-Bears-Boilers-Bears-Mountaineers-Bulldogs!"


The university at large takes a huge and unjustified PR hit because its basketball team has "too many" white guys. Because most people are unwilling to check the facts, they assume that the entire student body is disproportionately white and -- of course -- contemptuous of others. Here's the deal about Duke: It is not a majority-white institution. No single racial group claims a majority of the populace. Whites are only the plurality (47 percent). 
In short, Duke has  one of the most diverse student bodies in all of American academia. 
This is so inconvenient. 

STUDENTS Enrollment (full-time) Fall 2009
Undergraduate		6,400
African-American Asian-American		10% 22%
Hispanic/Latino Caucasian Foreign N.C. Residents Other/Unknown		7% 47% 7% 15% 8%