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-- The Saga of Harvard Professor Gates Jr. & The Myth of "Post-Racial" America
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The Saga of Harvard Professor Gates Jr. & The Myth of "Post-Racial" America

Even before this incident occurred today, I'd been noticing a curious increase in racism in America over the past several months.

I read the Washington Post daily and had been seeing increasingly racist posts in the Comments section of all its online stories. I remember thinking: in an age of Obama, why would racism suddenly be getting worse in this country?

Now, out of the blue, we get this story. It's on all the main sites, but the account below offers a personal angle.

http://www.theroot.com/views/what-d...,0&hpid=artslot

quote:

What Do You Call a Black Man with a Ph.D.? Ain�t nothing post-racial about the United States of America. I say this because my best friend, a well-known, middle-aged, affluent, black man, was arrested on his own front porch after showing his identification to a white police officer who was responding to a burglary call. Though the officer quickly determined that my friend was the rightful resident of the house and knew by then that there was no burglary in progress, he decided to place my friend in handcuffs, put him in the back of a police cruiser and have him fingerprinted and fully �processed,� at our local police station. This did not happen at night. It happened in the middle of the day. It did not happen to a previously unknown urban black male. It happened to internationally known, 58-year-old Henry Louis �Skip� Gates Jr. I am writing about this event because it is an outrage, because I want others to know that it is an outrage, and because, even now, I have not fully processed the meaning of it. Here�s what I understand to have happened: The officer in my friend�s case was really motivated by a simmering cauldron of anger that my friend had not immediately complied with his initial command to step out of the house. In hindsight, that was the right thing to do since I think my friend could have been physically injured by this police officer (if not worse) had he, in fact, stepped out of his home before showing his ID. Black Americans recall all too well that Amadou Diallo reached for his identification in a public space when confronted by police and, 42 gun shots later, became the textbook case of deadly race-infected police bias. Skip is one of the most readily recognized black men in America and the most broadly influential black scholar of this generation. And yes, in the liberal, politically correct cocoon of �the people�s Republic of Cambridge,� a famous, wealthy and important black man was arrested on his front porch. The ultimate charge? �Disorderly conduct.� Whatever that means. Even before the charge were dropped Tuesday, I knew in my bones that this officer was wrong. I knew in my bones that this situation was about the level of deference from a black male that a white cop expects. I say this even though I did not see the events themselves unfold. What I do know with certainty is that the officer, even by his own written report, understood that he was dealing with a lawful resident of the house when he made the arrest. That same report makes it clear that at the time of the arrest, the officer was no longer concerned about the report of a �burglary in progress� involving �two black males.� No, by this point we�re talking about something else entirely. Maybe this �situation� had something to do with Harvard University and social class. It is possible that one element of what happened here involved a policeman with working-class roots who faced an opportunity to �level the playing field� with a famous and successful Harvard professor. But even if class mattered, it did so mostly because of how, in this situation, it was bound up with race. Imagine the scenario. An influential man, in his own home, is ordered to step outside by a policeman. Naturally and without disrespect he asks �Why?� or perhaps �Who are you?� The officer says words to the effect, �I�m responding to a burglary report. Step outside now!� To which, our confident man, in his own home, says, �No. This is my house. I live here. I work for the university, and the university manages this property.� The response prompts the officer to demand identification. �Fine,� our resident says, and he pulls out two forms of identification from his wallet. The officer now knows with high certainty that he is dealing with the legitimate resident of the home. Does he ask, �Is everything alright, sir? We had a report of a burglary.� No, he does not. Does he say, �I�m sorry, sir, if I frightened you before. We had a report of a burglary, and all they said was �two black men at this address.� You can understand my concern when I first got to the house?� No, he didn�t do that either. He also could have disengaged by walking away. But no, he didn�t do that either. This officer continued to insist that my friend step outside. By now, it is clear to my friend that the officer has, well, �an attitude problem.� So, as I suspect would happen with any influential, successful person, in their own home, who has provided authoritative identification to a policeman would do in this situation: My friend says, �I want your name and badge number.� The cop says nothing sensible in response but continues to wait at the door. The request for the officer�s name and badge number is pressed again. No response. Social scientists have plenty of hard data showing that African Americans, across the social-class spectrum, are deeply distrustful of the police. The best research suggests that this perception has substantial roots in direct personal encounters with police that individuals felt were discriminatory or motivated by racism. But this perception of bias also rests on a shared collective knowledge of a history of discriminatory treatment of blacks by police and of social policies with built-in forms of racial bias (i.e., stiffer sentences for use of crack versus powder cocaine). In the age of Obama, however, with all the talk of post-racial comity, you might have thought what happened to Skip Gates was an impossibility. Even the deepest race cynic�picture comedian Dave Chappelle as �Conspiracy Brother� from the movie Undercover Brother�couldn�t predict such an event. But, I will say that when I moved into the same affluent area as Gates, I wondered whether someone might mistakenly report me, a black man, for breaking into my own house in a largely white neighborhood and what I would have to do to prove that the house actually belonged to me if the police showed up at the door. I remember joking with my wife that maybe I should keep a copy of the mortgage papers and deed in the front foyer, just in case. I do now. And it is no longer a joke. There is no way to completely erase and undo what has been done. And there is, indeed, a larger lesson here about the problem of racial bias and misuse of discretion by police that still, all too often, works against blacks, especially poor blacks. If Skip Gates can be arrested on his front porch and end up in handcuffs in a police cruiser then, sadly, there, but for the grace of God, goes every other black man in America. That is one sad statement, and it should also be enough to end all this post-racial hogwash. Maybe events will prove my cynicism and anger unwarranted. Perhaps the officer involved will be fully held to account for his actions. Perhaps Gates will hear the apology he so richly deserves to hear. Perhaps a review of training, policy and practice by police in my fair city and many others will take place and move us closer to a day of bias-free policing. If you�re inclined to believe all that will happen, then I�ve got a shiny, new, post-racial narrative I�d be happy to sell. Lawrence Bobo is the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University.

One other thing. Much has been made recently of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings being a sign of "the decline of white men," the dwindling white majority which will no longer be the majority by 2028. By then, other ethnicities and races will take over, in what's called "the first post-white generation" in America. Yet, is it really true that, as many liberals are excited to predict, this will herald a new culture where whites lose their privileged status in this country?

I'd be more interested in the actual event if the article wasn't designed to make you feel that whites are the scum of the Earth and Blacks are perfect beings

quote:

this will herald a new culture where whites lose their privileged status in this country?

A people who is a majority have more leading a privileged life than minorities?

WHAT A TWIST

Beautifully orchestrated.

The Root happens to be Dr. Gate's own website.

I'm not police supporter, but I have to believe that Gate's somehow provoked the police because he thought they were being racist. In fact, if you ever watch Gate's on television, it becomes clear he thrives on racism because it legitimizes his existence. If he can't discuss how blacks are discriminated against in the US, then he has no role in life.

Even though he thrives on racial conversation, racial profiling is very real. I used to have a best friend who was black and the stuff he told me was mind-boggling. My opinion is that if you're not black, you really don't know what it's like to always be under suspicion for everything.

quote:

Originally posted by HardTranceProd Even though he thrives on racial conversation, racial profiling is very real. I used to have a best friend who was black and the stuff he told me was mind-boggling. My opinion is that if you're not black, you really don't know what it's like to always be under suspicion for everything.

my girl is black. she says if you don't want to be treated like a criminal don't look like a criminal. someone who looks like a thug will be treated like a thug. it's pretty simple. A black dude who wears clothes that fit, and doesn't hang out on the street will not run into any problems.

quote:

Originally posted by jerZ07002 my girl is black. she says if you don't want to be treated like a criminal don't look like a criminal. someone who looks like a thug will be treated like a thug. it's pretty simple. A black dude who wears clothes that fit, and doesn't hang out on the street will not run into any problems.

^^^^^^
THIS.

And now let's hear the President's opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by jerZ07002 my girl is black. she says if you don't want to be treated like a criminal don't look like a criminal. someone who looks like a thug will be treated like a thug. it's pretty simple. A black dude who wears clothes that fit, and doesn't hang out on the street will not run into any problems.

Black women don't face the same scrutiny as black men, though. So your girlfriend's thoughts don't really tell the whole story.

Let me tell you, I work in a room with five "brown" guys (some American-born, some foreign-born) where I'm the only white guy in the cubicle. We get along well, but being part of that group, I'm privy to their internal conversations about their everyday lives as non-whites. I've never had this experience before, and it's pretty fucking eye-opening.

quote:

Originally posted by HardTranceProd Black women don't face the same scrutiny as black men, though. So your girlfriend's thoughts don't really tell the whole story. Let me tell you, I work in a room with five "brown" guys (some American-born, some foreign-born) where I'm the only white guy in the cubicle. We get along well, but being part of that group, I'm privy to their internal conversations about their everyday lives as non-whites. I've never had this experience before, and it's pretty fucking eye-opening.

her dad is also a cop (a black cop), who says the same exact thing. Sure, black girls are treated differently, but that's because, for the most part, they act differently (i.e., they don't act like criminals). 5% of the black male population isn't in jail because they are black, it's because 5% of black men get caught committing crimes (a significantly higher percentage than any other demographic group - including black females, who are in jail at a .3% clip). It's pretty fucking simple, black men who looks like criminals are treated like criminals. Because there are more black men who look like criminals, more of them complain about being treated like criminals. for the most part, they are treated the way they look and act. White guys that look like thugs should be treated like thugs also.

Are you seriously insinuating the professor looked like a "thug" ? I have never had a professor in college, of any ethnic / racial background that looked like a "thug." Jeez. Way to miss the point of the post / article.

quote:

Originally posted by shaolin_Z Are you seriously insinuating the professor looked like a "thug" ? I have never had a professor in college, of any ethnic / racial background that looked like a "thug." Jeez. Way to miss the point of the post / article.

way to not read the relevant posts leading to my last post. try reading posts 5 & 6. i never suggested he looks or acts like a thug. i was responding to a general statement about 'racial profiling'.

quote:

Originally posted by jerZ07002 way to not read the relevant posts leading to my last post. try reading posts 5 & 6. i never suggested he looks or acts like a thug. i was responding to a general statement about 'racial profiling'.

I did, and?

quote:

Originally posted by shaolin_Z I did, and?

here's my position on the man and the situation, which was stated in my first post:

quote:

I'm not police supporter, but I have to believe that Gate's somehow provoked the police because he thought they were being racist. In fact, if you ever watch Gate's on television, it becomes clear he thrives on racism because it legitimizes his existence. If he can't discuss how blacks are discriminated against in the US, then he has no role in life.

nowhere did i say he acts/looks like a thug.

In my college all these white kids take 'criminal justice' as their major.. i asked them why you all guys take this course.. they say they want to be a cop in future and beat some black ass.

un-fucking-believable -- this soap opera isn't going away but actually getting bigger.

Obama makes his SECOND statement on this today:

That's Obama's strength and weakness at the same time; he speaks too much.

Obama shouldn't have interjected himself into this situation. It was public enough, he shouldn't have opened himself up to the scrutiny. It really wasn't necessary to add the power aspect to the complaint. I heard about this long before Obama made any comment.

That said, both of these individuals acted like retards from what I've seen and read. It's one thing to come in with guns up on a B&E, but another to drag out the homeowner if he's offering to provide proof of ownership. But did he offer that? I haven't seen a statement either way, though I realize I haven't been following this a ton.

This story gives me sick feelings.

quote:

Originally posted by ******** However they were responding to a B&E report - question is how did they know - did he have an alarm system? If so didn't he know the result of breaking into his home?

I think his neighbor called it in.

I do want to mention some more thoughts I had on this matter.

Generally, according to scientific research, when human beings see a stranger, they are hard-wired to categorize (pigeonhole) that stranger according to three criteria: age, sex, and race.

Curiously, all the talk about race in this incident has obscured another stereotype very much in play here: age. Everyone, from the media to President Obama, has used the age argument in discussing the case: Gates was a "middle-aged" or "old" man with a cane, which surely would lead one to believe that it's highly unlikely he could be capable of burglary. In effect, Obama and the media themselves encourage the very stereotyping they seek to demolish; however, one stereotype is arbitrarily seen as toxic, the other as acceptable and useful. What gives?

Speaking of arbitrariness, why are so many people eager and willing to believe the naive-sounding view that race is "only" skin-deep? To claim that, yes, the pigment of one's skin was shaped by the ecological conditions experienced by that person's ancestors, but, NO, the minds under that skin were not in the least, seems like an extraordinarily sweeping statement, with a huge burden of proof.

I'm not a racist, I'm a realist who's interested in the truth. To me, the claim above is suspicious and runs counter to my own experiences. Evolutionary forces are unlikely to act on just one aspect of an individual; they probably sculpt the mind as well as the body. I've interacted with many different ethnic groups, and for any given ethnic group, in my experience, all of its members did have something in common that I recognized, including my own group (Jewish). Whether it was personality, world view, behavioral oddities--sometimes it took longer to discern, but it was there.

I'm not making any value judgments here. I'm merely saying that there are, in fact, patterns of personality and behavior linked with race and ethnicity. The world is a surprisingly predictable place.

Mr. Gates overreacted, which caused the officer to get annoyed and spoil his day.

If I were a police officer responding to a call of B&E, and the first thing the dude at the door says to me is "You're only here because I'm black, and you're racist!", then I'd probably want to ruin his day as well.

That being said, the officer should have returned his ID, said "Sorry for bothering you sir, have a good night." and went about the rest of his day.

Black female cop in Cambridge police dept. who voted for Obama says she is appalled at his remarks, and will not vote for him again.

I didn't see this thread when I posted a new one. I deleted that and here is it's content.

quote:

Obama hopes Gates, policeman can work things out over beer The scholar, the officer who arrested him and the president will have a casual meeting with the aim of defusing tension over the incident earlier this month. By Peter Nicholas 8:49 PM PDT, July 27, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- It started out as a casual suggestion: three guys working out their differences over a beer. But President Obama's offer to play host to the cop and the professor entangled in a debate over racial profiling now has the imprimatur of high-level diplomacy. White House aides are downplaying expectations that the beer summit that Obama suggested last week will produce a resolution. * Arrest of Gates also shines a light on 'disorderly conduct' laws * Henry Louis Gates Jr. * Obama seeks to defuse furor over his police remark It's set for Thursday, an administration official confirmed Monday night. Both Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department and Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. have agreed to come. That means Obama is on the hook to achieve some kind of agreement. Bilateral get-togethers between Obama and a host of foreign leaders in recent months have gotten less attention. The image of the president trying to use a beer-drinking session to mediate an ages-old, highly volatile dispute has given new definition to diplomatic mission. Obama offended Cambridge police when he said that they had acted "stupidly" in arresting the professor on a charge of disorderly conduct at his home July 16 after a reported possible break-in. Gates and Crowley have left open the prospect of suing one another. And none of the three has apologized, although Obama came close last week when he said his choice of words was poor. What does the president expect from the meeting? White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in an interview that it might be the first step toward a rapprochement. "A lot of this is going to happen between them [Gates and Crowley], without the president, going forward," Gibbs said. "You had a situation where, for whatever reason, both individuals couldn't step back. And at least this will provide an opportunity to show people that that's possible -- and hopefully start a bigger dialogue." The beer summit will be monitored closely. Many black leaders believe Obama was on target with his initial comments. They don't want the moment to pass without a fuller discussion of racial profiling. "His first response was appropriate, which was that the police officer's behavior was stupid, not that the officer was stupid," said Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington office of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. "I don't believe that [Obama's] assumption is that, 'We all overstepped a little bit, and now it's all good and let's have a beer and how's your family,' " Shelton said. "If that were the intention, this is an incredible opportunity that would have gotten away from us. The issue is bigger than that. The behavior of that police officer still needs to be dealt with, and the issue of racial profiling still needs to be addressed." Law enforcement agencies will be watching closely for any sign that the president will favor his friend Gates over Crowley. New details of the arrest emerged Monday in the form of the 911 call that first alerted police to a possible problem at Gates' home. A dispatcher asked the caller about the race of the two men seen pushing through the door. The caller, Lucia Whalen, did not identify either man as black, although she said one might be Latino. She also told the dispatcher that she had seen suitcases near the door and that the episode might have been an instance of someone having "a hard time with their key." Gates had been returning from a trip to China and could not get his front door open. Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said that "she never used the word 'black' to describe the man, ever. Not during the 911 call. Not afterward." Police ultimately dropped the charges against Gates, but the arrest became national news. In fact, when aides helped the president prepare for his news conference July 22, they told him the incident had become a prominent story and could come up as a question. So Obama was ready. But he escalated the situation with one word he would quickly come to regret: "stupidly." Gibbs said: "I think if he would do it again, he would change a word." Obama's conciliatory statement two days after the news conference helped defuse the issue, Gibbs said. But even had the president chosen to cast the actions of Cambridge police differently, an uproar may have been unavoidable, he said. "Whenever you get race and politics, it's like catnip," Gibbs said, sitting behind his desk in his West Wing office. "All you need is a spark -- and cable television is happy to do that." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...0,5578765.story

When he first commented on the case and said police acted "stupidly" I thought it was just a dumb mistake. Commenting on racial issues so bluntly was never Obama's M.O. So he just let his mouth keep talking when he should have STFU.

However, I floated the possibility it was intentional. Health care was getting a lot of criticism. Maybe he did it on purpose to take the heat off health care and give the press a red herring? They've done things like that before.

Now this is just WTF. He is hosting a meeting with these two? After trying to walk back his comments earlier, he is again jumping right into the mix. If at least partially intended to divert media attention while health care closes in the last few weeks before August recess, I'd say it's got a good chance of doing that.


The only relevant reply before I deleted the thread:

quote:

Originally posted by Shakka In the sense that his press conferences and questions asked are entirely scripted, I'd say perhaps Josh is right about it being planned. At the same time, I think it's more likely that it was just a poorly thought out comment said without the aid of TOTUS. Who knows. it's overblown. The police report on The Smoking Gun was funny.

Thanks for deleting your thread and merging it with this one--I was wondering why you made your own!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3219306...cs-white_house/

"The Beer Summit"

quote:

WASHINGTON - Three guys, sitting around a picnic table, having a cold one. Beer diplomacy? The "teachable moment" the president promised? Or just a way for the White House to get people to quit talking about the president's comments on a racial brouhaha in Massachusetts? When Barack Obama meets Thursday with the black professor and white policeman at the center of a national uproar over race relations, he is aiming for a show that will get positive news coverage and then go away. "There's no formal agenda other than cold beer," press secretary Robert Gibbs said Tuesday. That's not quite the teachable moment on racial profiling that Obama talked about last Friday when he moved to undercut the controversy that had knocked him off message. Pressed about that, Gibbs said Obama never promised to solve everything with one meeting, and that doing so is not entirely the president's job anyway. The broader point: The White House wants to show Obama as a reconciliatory force and then try to get people focused back on his plans for health care overhaul. By now, most people know the backstory: Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard scholar, was arrested after police responded to a report of a possible break-in at his home in Cambridge. They found no burglars, but Sgt. James Crowley took Gates into custody, accusing him of disorderly conduct in his protesting of police behavior. The charge was soon dropped. Then Obama inflamed matters by saying the police had "acted stupidly," though he conceded he didn't know all the facts about the case and was a little biased anyway because Gates was a friend. Once the story began pushing all other news to the margins, Obama acknowledged he could have chosen his words better. And he invited both men for a beer. Private meeting, but with pictures To be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, the event will offer upbeat footage for the nightly news. A pool of White House reporters will be able to see the men together and capture that image, but the meeting itself will be private. Unclear is whether the president, the professor or the policeman will make any public comments. "I think it'll be a poignant moment," Gibbs said. It will be a classic White House intervention, said Kevin Sullivan, former communications director for President George W. Bush. With little risk. "Given what I know about Dr. Gates and what I've heard about Sgt. Crowley, I think there's zero chance that either one of them would come to the White House at the invitation of the president and embarrass him in any way," said Sullivan, who now runs his own communications company. The more quickly an administration can deal with whatever crisis has knocked it off stride � particularly one it helped create � the faster it can get back to emphasizing what it wants to talk about. To help things along, the White House is throwing in an everyman factor. It's called drinking beer, which has remained steady for Americans during the recession. Polls showed Bush was the guy people wanted to have a beer with when he ran against Al Gore and John Kerry. But Obama, not Republican rival John McCain, won that vote among people polled in 2008. Now he's found at least two people to have a beer with him � on camera � although turning down the president isn't a likely option. The emphasis on the beer-drinking part of the deal hasn't thrilled drug prevention advocates, but there has been no outcry about it either. For Gates, the White House visit will be a return encounter. He spent time interviewing Bush last year for a documentary on Abraham Lincoln. The teetotaling Bush told him: "People say, 'Have you seen Lincoln's ghost.' I say, 'Well, I quit drinking in 1986, so I haven't seen the ghost. But his presence is felt all throughout the house.'" And what of the deeper racial questions that have been raised? "The unfortunate part is that the teachable moment has already occurred," said Cedric Herring, who directs the Race and Public Policy program at the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs. "The whole thing about race rearing its head, the fact that it became an explosive story, the charges of racial profiling � that's actually the moment. It teaches us that we are not beyond race." And the meeting? He said, "I don't think it will be a historical moment for race relations or anything like that."

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