May 12, 2006

Out of Ugliness, a Beloved Community

By WILLIAM H. CHAFE

In one horrific evening early this spring at Duke University, the tensions of race, sexuality, town-gown conflict, and class inequity came together in an explosion that laid bare the fault lines that threaten our capacity to act as a human community. Like Hurricane Katrina, the Duke lacrosse fiasco is important not just because of what it involved, but also because of what it reveals — and what it makes possible.

The question is how to respond. Do we hem and haw over the

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