Duke Basketball & the Ruling Class Mirror

They have been the most hated program in America for forty years. That hatred is trying to tell us something

It was a moment that lasted an eternity. In unexpected twist of fate, UConn guard Braylon Mullins found the ball in his hands and shot a deep three as time was expiring. As the ball traveled in the air for what felt like an eternity, thousands of basketball fans held their collective breaths. When the shot dropped, they jumped for joy. Why? Because UConn, a powerhouse in its own right, had vanquished Duke.

While the sport of college basketball has continued to change in recent years, there is something that has remained a constant: a lot of people hate still Duke basketball. Duke itself has had its own transitions, but the animosity towards their basketball team has remained — and arguably gotten stronger. Beyond the basketball, Duke represents something visceral in us — an embodiment of wealth, class, and privilege that we want to see fail more than anything.

A School for the Elite

There is a cluster of schools in North Carolina that have been prominent in basketball at different times since the 1980s. The…