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T H E I N D E P E N D E N T D A I LY AT D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2019 DUKECHRONICLE.COM
ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEENTH YEAR, ISSUE 47
‘A weird tradition’ Film on city’s desegregation Meet Cammy, the basketball baby doll premieres at the Carolina RECESS
By Ben Leonard
Managing Editor
By Christy Kuesel Recess Editor
In 1971, civil rights activist Ann Atwater and KKK leader C.P. Ellis struck up an unexpected friendship that led to school desegregation in Durham. Now, their story is coming to the big screen. “The Best of Enemies” held a red carpet premiere at the Carolina Theatre Tuesday, with many of Atwater’s family members and the film’s star Taraji P. Henson in attendance. Following Brown v. Board of Education, Durham school remained largely segregated, until a Durham district court ordered the desegregation of local schools in 1971. Bill Riddick invited Atwater and Ellis to co-lead a charrette, involving 10 days of town meetings to resolve issues related to the court order. By the end of the meetings, Ellis publicly ripped up his KKK membership card. “Ann was able to put her differences aside and see C.P. Ellis as a human,” Henson said. “She was able to tap into his heart, and by doing that, she changed his heart.” Atwater and Ellis realized their similarities and started a lifelong friendship. They proposed major changes to the Durham school curriculum, including more instruction on how to deal with racial violence and an expansion of the choice in textbooks to include AfricanAmerican authors. The film is based off Osha Davidson’s book “The Best of Enemies: Race and Redemption in the South” and Diane Bloom’s documentary “An Unlikely Friendship.” Davidson’s book was the required summer reading for Duke freshmen in 2011. The producers honored the story of school desegregation by hosting a screening for 600 Durham school students Tuesday morning, the film’s first public audience. Director Robin Bissell, who previously worked as the producer on “The Hunger Games” and “Seabiscuit” first heard of Atwater and Ellis’ story after Ellis’ death in 2005. “The Best of Enemies” marks his writing and directorial debut. “It taught me a lot about where hatred comes from and how to get through the hatred,” Bissell said. Atwater died in 2016, but she knew Henson would accept the role and the movie would be made prior to her death. Her reputation as a powerful, caring civil rights activist lived on at the premiere. See FILM on Page 7
If you’re inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, you can’t help but notice it. No, it is not Zion Williamson’s gargantuan frame whizzing by. It’s not even head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s hefty golden ring(s). It’s an old baby. Duke’s line monitors who run the arena’s student section have passed down the baby doll with blue horns and a rip in her leg for decades. Cameron, nicknamed “Cammy,” has been used in cheers that millions have seen on ESPN and viral videos. Opposing players take notice and wink. Jack White stops by to give her a kiss. Antonio Vrankovic even headbutts her. “It’s nice she gets so much love for being such an ugly child,” said senior Alexa Moses, her current mother. Cammy gets passed down from line monitor to line monitor every year, Moses said—and certain characteristics make for a suitable mother. “You have to be really enthusiastic because people like seeing the baby,” Moses said. “You have to be okay with little kids and parents wanting to take photos with it. I’ve really enjoyed it.” Time has left its mark on Cammy—leaving a tear in her right knee, that line monitors have unsuccessfully patched, and a slightly frayed white Duke bib around her neck. She’s been through a lot, including getting slapped in the
Sujal Manohar | Photography Editor Senior Alexa Moses, a line monitor, is the baby’s current mother.
head in a ESPN clip that went viral. The clip from Duke’s game against Tennessee State in 2016 shows Cammy’s exmother, then-junior Sara Constand, slapping Cammy in the head. “Are we really just gonna sit here and pretend like this woman was not just slapping the s*** out of her baby?!,” read a tweet caption for the video, which has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times in the one tweet alone and has made the rounds on YouTube as well. “I was hitting her head solely because it
is difficult to clap and hold her,” Constand, Trinity ‘18 and former co-head line monitor, wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “Many of the Duke chants involve clapping, and if you don’t have free hands it’s easier to make a sound using the plastic of her head.” Just after the Tennessee State game, Constand was driving home for winter break when her phone rang at 7 a.m. It was a friend from high school. See BABY on Page 9
OPINION
New Zealand and the moral imperative to defeat white supremacy
Editorial Board The Chronicle
On March 15, a white supremacist carried out a massacre across two mosques in New Zealand, leaving 50 dead and many more wounded. The gunman was met with “Hello brother,” as he entered the door of a Christchurch mosque before opening fire on worshippers inside, stripping them of their humanity. For Muslims across the globe, Friday prayers at local mosques offer a sanctuary for practicing their faith among a loving community. A faith that western media outlets, American political leaders and even those within our own Duke community scrutinize, misrepresent and attack. New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, called the attack “an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence” that added to a growing list of mass murders stemming from white nationalism. This
organized, premeditated slaughter of innocent individuals in their place of worship is only the latest manifestation of white supremacy ideologies making headlines. Last Friday afternoon, the fascist terrorist was delusionally intent on fighting so-called “white genocide” by targeting a population he saw as a threat. Muslims being viewed as a violent invasive community is the result of decades-long large scale campaigns of vilification targeting both the faith and its people by some of the most powerful international actors—including American political leaders like President Trump. From college campuses to the national political stage, when marginalized communities push back against white supremacist rhetoric, they’re often met with cries for free speech and the insistence that anti-immigrant sentiments are nothing more than opinions in the marketplace of ideas. However, the past few years especially have been ample evidence for the magnitude
of ramifications these right-wing ideologies have. The consequences of tolerating white nationalism has included the murders of fifty Muslims in a New Zealand mosque, nine Black worshippers in a Charleston Church, six Sikhs in Wisconsin, a woman in Charlottesville, and eleven Jews in a Pittsburgh synagogue. To separate the racist, xenophobic and sexist ideals at the foundation of white supremacy from white supremacy’s role in the murder of millions through the centuries is nothing less than inexcusably disrespectful to the countless victims. The normalization of white nationalism and white supremacy we are witnessing unfold before us must be taken as a serious, existential threat to humanity. It is our obligation to call out politicians, media outlets and institutions that—under the guise of free speech—give it a platform. See EDITORIAL on Page 10
DukeEngage director steps down
Paddleton portrays realistic platonic romance
Opinion: Housekeepers deserve better
After more than a decade at the helm of the program, Eric Mlyn is walking away. PAGE 3
Kerry Rork reviews the film’s “truly intimate male friendship.”
Columnist Tim Kowalczyk pens open letter to President Vincent Price about the seven-day schedule. PAGE 11
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