When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, some pointed to this as proof that racism in America no longer exists. Tell that to Harvard professor/author Henry Louis Gates, Jr. As you probably know, Gates was arrested in his Cambridge, MA home last week on charges of disorderly conduct. The charges have since been dropped. If you aren't familiar with the story, you can read it here.
I was surprised to see the man (President Obama) who caused some to say that racism ceased to exist in America be asked about the Henry Louis Gates incident during his press conference on Wednesday night. I give props to the president for not sidestepping our country's history of racial profiling when it comes to African-Americans and Latinos. He has already touched off a firestorm by saying during his answer to the question about the Gates incident that "the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home". Some of those pissed off about the comments don't need much reason to get riled up when it comes to President Obama. Just the fact that a black man is president is reason enough for them. The way I'm reading President Obama's comments, he wasn't saying that the police reacted based on race and that therefore their actions were stupid. He said they were stupid for arresting a man who showed ID in his own house. I feel he would have said the same thing regardless of Gates' race.
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Whether race played a factor in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates is something that's up for debate. As unfortunate as this incident is, it has brought the subject of racial profiling back to the national spotlight. It's even caused Gates to announce his plans to make a PBS documentary about racial profiling.
What are your thoughts on the Henry Louis Gates incident and President Obama's comments about it?
24 comments:
I too am glad President Obama did not side-step this question. His comment about "being shot" if he tried to get into the White House was visually poignant, even as reporters laughed.
I do believe he lost his message on health care at that moment. I'm not saying one is less important than the other. Many of the people I know, particularly those who only watch TV news, will never know more about the news conference than that one question/answer. These people are the same people who would lose their minds if the police tried to arrest them in their home.
Finally! President Obama didn't sidestep a question!
I was going to make a post about this over on my blog after I read a little more about the incident.
It's similar to something that happened to me. When I was 19, I was going to visit my uncle at my grandmother's home. Nobody answered the door, so I just got the key from the fake rock and walked in.
I forgot about the paranoid, ubernosey neighbors in that part of town.
The cops showed up, walked right in, and demanded that I step outside. I was in the recliner watching TV. So, like anyone might do, I screamed, "FU! Get out!"
I mighta yelled, "Racists!" but seeing as I was white and the cop was white, that woulda been a hard sell.
Anyway, I refused to show ID, even though it wouldn't have proven I lived there. I refused to do anything: calm down, stop cursing, give my reasons for being there, etc. I was arrested and sprayed with pepper after a few more "FU" bombs.
I read an article that claims the officer in the Gates situation was highly decorated and a community man. And that Gates did not show his ID when asked. Instead, he started yelling that the officer was racist as soon as he arrived.
I can relate with Gates on that one. FU, officer!
But as far as racism goes, it might be a case where Gates' initial insistance that it was racism actually caused the situation to get out of hand.
I don't know about that. I do know that I learned absolutely nothing at all about the healthcare plan. :( .. Obama made the same mini speech a dozen times highlighting the Jesus-vision-3000 good stuff: affordable, all familes, care.
It seems as if he's laid out his vision and expects Congress to make it work the exact way he wants. I hope that's not the case. If it is, he needs to deal more with this Gates stuff and less with economic stuff. :P
Here are the keyords in the essay:
13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 2012 Election, B.E.T., Barack Hussein Obama, Booker T. Washington, Bryant Park, Cipriani's, Colin Powell, Criminal Industrial Complex, Deb Slott, Do The Right Thing, Heidi Klum, Hip-Hop, Mark Penn, Melting Pot, Pink Elephant, Racism, Reconstruction, Robert Johnson, Seal, Segregation, Shelby Steele, Sidney Poiter, Sonia Sotomayor, Spike Lee, Tavis Smiley, Terrence Yang, The Dance Flick, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Virginia Davies, W.E.B. Dubois, Zero Mostel, Politics
Prologue to Obama 2012
We approach the future walking backwards, our gaze forever fixated on the past. Predicting the future is not a passive exercise; we invent it every day with our actions.
I began the sketches for what would ultimately become Obama 2012 in March 2007, a month after Barack Obama declared his candidacy. I had spent much of the previous 18 months living abroad as an entrepreneur and statesman of sorts, and I was slightly out of touch with the pulse of life on the street in the United States. I learnt about Sen. Barack Obama’s Springfield, IL speech formally declaring his candidacy for president of the United States through one of the international cable news channels and thought how great it would be to have a fresh start after years of mediocrity in Washington and a plummeting reputation around the world.
By September, after what seemed like raising a six-month-old child, my sketches had turned into Why the Democrats Will Win in 2008 the Road to an Obama White House. It was my answer to the burning question everyone had back in March: Can he really win? Actually, not everyone thought it was a question. For many people, including Mark Penn, director of the Clinton campaign, the answer was an easy “no way.” This strategic blunder made it that much easier for the Clinton campaign to be defeated. Then there were Black pundits like Shelby Steele, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, who came out with a 2007 book entitled A Bound Man, Why Obama Can't Win.
Being Black did seem to be an automatic disqualification, but then why did someone need to write an entire book arguing what should have been patently obvious? Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Colin Powell came to my mind and I remembered that he could have run for president in 1992 as a war hero. But Colin Powell was Ronald Reagan’s protégé and got a special pass on the race question. Black conservatives like Justice Thomas, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell were careful to disassociate themselves from liberal thinkers and activists like Jesse Jackson, who lost, as expected, the 1984 and 1988 Democratic primaries. Ultimately, Colin Powell, in spite of all his honors, declined to run for president. His wife Alma feared for his safety. Common sense said that a candidate like Obama, for numerous insurmountable reasons, didn't stand a chance of winning the Democratic primary, let alone a general election in which 10% of the electorate is African American and Republicans controlled the White House for 20 of the preceding 28 years. But I decided that Obama's chances merited a closer examination. In it, I would bring to bear my gambling skills.
I am not sure what to think about what happened with Mr. Gates, but I am inclined to think if he had only told the policeman who he was, produced I.D., and hadn't started screaming at the policeman, there would have been a completely different outcome. If this had been the other way around, with a black policeman and a white man, and the white man was acting the same way as Mr. Gates, he would have been arrested, and we wouldn't have known about it, and, for sure, the President wouldn't have been involved, because the question wouldn't have been asked.
Let's hear the 911 call, the neighbor's statements, and then let the process work. We, all, too often are all ready to make snap judgments off the cuff, and are usually wrong.
I do not have words to convey the inappropriateness of what went on at Dr. Gates home and the anger I feel that he was subjected to such abuse. Further I cannot believe that the officer refuses to apologize. I met Dr. Gates while doing post graduate work at the University of Missouri and I can attest to the fact that a kinder, gentler, soft-spoken man you will probably never meet. Here is a link an interview with his daughter on the matter.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5181954n
Well, I have to say that I think what happened is somewhere in the middle of the two main versions being put out there. As far as I know, the police just didn't stumble across Professor Gates trying to get into his own home, they received a call that two people were attempting to break into the home. This is not all that uncommon of a call, really. They assume they are going to a burglary in progress and act accordingly, which does involve checking the IDs of the people at the scene and asking them to step outside of the home even if they have verified that they are indeed the homeowner.
I don't know this cop and I don't know Professor Gates. My gut tells me that this incident is similar to the Texas traffic stop case involving that football player. The officer may have gotten PO'd and probably arrested him when maybe he could and should have just let it be, but there is no doubt in my mind there was some unwillingness to cooperate with the police happening there, too.
If I was just doing my job, responding to a call and came across someone in the home and asked for their ID to be told "Why, is it because I'm a black man in America?" that would really set me off in a not so good way, too. Racism is a serious and accusing someone of it (which is exactly what that comment is) is also a very serious thing and it's not something that should be done lightly. It's not right that just because someone is white and a cop, there's some kind of assumption that racism has something to do with every interaction they have with anybody who is not white. If Professor Gates did say that when asked for his ID, then he was way out of line.
I have to admit, if he had said that to me, I would be livid and I have no doubt a comment like that set the tone for the rest of whatever did happen there.
I'm sure the truth lies in the middle of the stories we are hearing.
I can see both sides of the problem. First, Gates being asked to identify himself in his own home and the officer responding to a call about a break-in.
The officer arrives at a house that was reported as being broken into, and arrives to find someone in the home. He has no way of knowing who the man is, or even if an intruder is potentially inside the home and forcing Gates to make the police leave.
Gates in his own home after a long trip, and police asking questions and trying to determine the situation.
I have to think that if it was my house, I would make every effort to establish who I was, and to make certain the police knew that the call was a mistake. That is what the police are there for, and what they are paid to do.
How would the police have looked if it really was an intruder in Gates home and the police just left, or worse yet, a thief behind the door waiting for the police to leave and then later kill Gates and rob him ?
I think it is better to be safe than sorry, and with just a little cooperation, the incident would have been over in minutes.
Judi: I am surprised that Obama didn't catch flack for the "being shot" comment. Although I feel it was harmless, it doesn't take much for some of the anti-Obama people to get worked up over.
Josh: I intentionally left the word "sidestepping" in my post just to see if someone would use the opportunity to take a swipe at Obama. Congratulations. :-)
I too heard similar things to what you cited from the article you read. I also heard Gates say that he did show his ID (two in fact) and that Sgt. Crowley failed to give his name and badge number.
Navas: Thanks for weighing in on this topic.
Linda: It sounds like you only heard one side of the story. It could turn out to be a "his word against theirs" situation because Prof. Gates' recollection of the incident is completely different from the one by the police. The 911 tape is really making the Cambridge police department look suspect because the caller never mentioned race as Sgt. Crowley suggested she did. As for what might have happened if the races were reversed, I think we still would have known about it because the people involved were black and white.
Pjazzy: Thanks for sharing that link. I am really intrigued by the outcome of the "beer summit" on Thursday.
One thing that pisses me off about this incident is how Professor Gates is being negatively portrayed by some. I doubt if some even knew who he was until this incident; all they know about him is what they hear by conservative members of the media and off they go.
Jessica: You may be right about the truth being somewhere in the middle. I wish that Professor Gates' driver hadn't departed before the police got there.
Lot 2 Learn: Something I find interesting is that you and a few other commenters are under the assumption that Professor Gates didn't show his ID. I have to ask, did your news source(s) ever give Professor Gates's side of the story where he said that he provided the police with two forms of ID?
I was aware that Gates had provided 2 ID's to the officer.
What gets me is the fact that The officer not only had to be sure of who Gates was, but that no one else was in the home that could potentially be forcing Gates to make the police leave.
Where would you stand if that had been the case, and the officer had just left, then later Gates was injured, or worse killed ?
Bottom line, the officer had a job to do, and Gates threw race at him, maybe because he was tired from his trip, maybe because he could not get into his home, or maybe because he has a problem with white cops.
Racism goes both ways
Lot 2 Learn: In answer to your question, I would have been horrified if Sgt. Crowley left and something had happened to Prof. Gates. Another probability to go along with the ones you raised is that Sgt. Crowley's actions caused Prof. Gates to feel he was a victim of racial profiling.
You ended your comments by saying that racism goes both ways. Are you saying that Professor Gates is a racist because he accused Sgt. Crowley of racial profiling?
I am going out of town soon. If I return and one of my neighbors calls the police because they notice something suspicious and when the police show up I show 2 pieces of identification, I do not expect to be lead out of my home in handcuffs. Neither would any of you. The whole thing is ridiculous, you have my identification, yet I still have to go downtown for questioning. That is BULL!
I know it seem to always boil down to race, but hey folks, this America, a country built on racial disparity. I know this is a hard fact for some of us to face, but it is real and it's true.
@ Malcom
I certainly think it is possible
@ pjazzypar
Do you know why Prof. Gates was arrested ?
@ Lots to Learn: For being Black. Yeah, I said it.
@ Pjazzypar
Hate is a learned thing my friend, and sometimes it is so deep, it can never be washed away.
It has to start with someone, and continue to the next generation.
Who taught you to hate ?
You do have a lot to learn dear. Because I tell it like it is does not mean I hate anyone. I am disappointed that people like you continue to act like problems don't exist in this country and when called out about it you try to flip the script and "blame the victim". I have never hung a people from a tree or had them dragging from the back of my truck. Nor have I spouted any hate speech. I am a peace-loving woman.
What happened was just obvious to me having lived in this skin all my life and put up with a few injustices or two. I said he was arrested just because he was Black, it was like a he could not possibly live there because he is Black. Dr. Gates could have showed them 25 pieces of identification including wheeling his mother in with a birth certificate stating that this man was indeed her son and it would not have mattered, what does matter is race.
So no I do not hate anyone, there are some people I do not like, but color has absolutely nothing do with it. I do not have enough time or energy for that, because I spend my time educating about the truth, regardless to whether someone like you wants to recognize it or not.
I am done, I have had my say and I will not be revisiting this topic because nobody's opinion is liable to change here. I know mine opinion will not. I will not be doing anymore rebuttals on this topic.
@Malcolm
Obama doesn't sidestep questions? I'm sure you've seen one of his press conferences. He's had the same number, already, that Bush had in 8 years. lol
If you think that's a "swipe," (read: cheap shot) then you'd hate to hear what else I have to say about his Presidency to this point! :D
At least he's still personally popular; that's not something afforded to many sidestepping politicians. Hope does float.
About the Gates/Crowley/Obama/Biden(? lol) situation: I think the facts are all out now and I think all parties could have acted a bit differently.
I don't necessarily find it disheartening that the past is always with us, but I do find it discouraging that its context doesn't seem to evolve, know what I mean?
I'm a firm believer that we all have room to grow. Situations like this seem to make the country shrink up as a whole.
To all
Agree to disagree ?
Not sure where pjazzypar is from, but in my neck of the woods, ALL the folks sit back and shake their heads at this story
Sorry to clog your comments Malcom
Lot 2 Learn: Although it's possible, I don't think it's very probable.
Josh: A comment can be both truthful and a swipe. I never said that Obama doesn't sidestep questions. You make it sound like he's the first one to do so. Find me a politician who hasn't at some point in their career.
Although situations such as the Henry Louis Gates incident are unfortunate, they do demonstrate how far we need to go in regards to race relations in this country. Hopefully, knowing how far we need to go will lead to people trying to build bridges instead of burning them.
No doubt, all politicians sidestep questions. Not all politicians end up being President. Not all Presidents throw every other President under the bus and claim they will be NOTHING at all like the previous, though, and then go back on that within the first month.
Transparency? Just like every other politician ... change we can believe in.
:)
But this isn't the time nor place for all of that.
Still a long way to go, yes. But not so far as some may think. Regardless, it starts with the individual, not the whole.
New essay "The Gates Affair:Why We Care" yours to publish
Dear readers and webmasters,
Author Daniel Bruno Sanz has written an essay about Gatesgate. We encourage its publication and distribution.
Regards,
Navas S.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
- 4th Amendment to the The Constitution of the United States of America
Interesting post, Malcolm (and you're quite the hottie, you might have mentioned that). The problem is that Gates did NOT show i.d. in his own home. That is what started escalating what should have been a nothing incident (as I wrote in my own post on this issue).
Honestly, I think this issue for both Gates and BO was more about class than race. There've been some great articles on this angle, the best, I think, by Camille Paglia over at Salon.com.
BO didn't know what the police's actions were based on, he jumped to a conclusion without the facts. A thing that rankles those of us on the right when he's yet to admit that the Fort Hood terrorist was acting in the name of his twisted Muslim extremism, and it took him almost a week to say that the panty bomber was a terrorist. And he didn't even really admit that, just that he was "connected." But I digress.
Conservatives are not, by the way, upset that BO is black and president; we would have supported a black conservative and wanted to when names like Rice and Powell were being considered in years past. I think the left does themselves no favors by nursing this "racist" angle; conservatives are far less racist than many liberals who have simply legislated racism while paying lip service to racial equality.
Fuzzy: Thanks for joining in on the discussion. Actually, Professor Gates DID provide Office Crowley with a photo ID (he went into the house to get it). Both the police report and Professor Gates' account bear this out. Also, to the best of my knowledge, U.S. police officers are required to show a badge when they are asked for proof of identity. According to the police report, Off. Crowley only gave his name and said he worked for the Cambridge Police.
I'm not sure what you mean by President Obama jumping to conclusions. Can you clarify that for me?
Also, I never said conservatives were upset that President Obama is black and president. What I said was, "Some of those pissed off about the comments don't need much reason to get riled up when it comes to President Obama. Being upset that Obama is president because he's black isn't a conservative thing, it's a racist thing and racism isn't confined to one political ideology. Conservatives need to stop assuming that anytime someone mentions racism as the motive for people opposing Obama, the person is labeling all conservatives or even just non-Black conservatives as racist.
As for me being a hottie, thank you. My plastic surgeon is the best!
Hi Malcolm, actually, Gates initially refused to show id. and refused to comply with the officer's request for some time (yelling about racism). After the officer radio'd for assistance, Gates showed his university id (this is not a legal identification, by the way), and only after more back and forth belligerence did he produce his driver's license. As I said on my blog, why not be glad the cops responded to the call and do what the police ask? That's what I would do. Gates escalated that incident for no good reason. The police report is available at SmokingGun.com and there are some great articles by local papers (they tend to be more detailed), the one at the Boston Globe is still available.
The incident was unfortunate, but I don't understand why someone wouldn't just show their id when asked and be responsible. The cops are trying to do their jobs, and I sincerely doubt that they thought that the diminutive, middle-aged, limping, well-spoken, well-dressed Ivy League professor was a thief. They have to ask for id. It's their job. If someone to refuses to show it, that someone loses the high ground. All the histrionics were undignified, and I'm sure that Gates himself regrets them very much.
Fuzzy: I actually read the police report when the incident was still hot news. I also reread it this week as I was responding to your first comment. What I was disputing was your original statement that "Gates did NOT show i.d. in his own home".
In addition to reading the police report, I also revisited Gates' account of the incident. In case you haven't read it, you can via the link I provided below. As you will see, Gates states that he provided the officer with his Harvard I.D. and his drivers' license. Also, based on Gates' account, he did comply when initially asked to show I.D.
http://www.theroot.com/views/skip-gates-speaks?page=0,0
As I said on your blog, I think this incident is a "his word against theirs" situation because both the police and Gates have different accounts of what happened. One thing I got from both the police report and Gates' account is that Officer Crowley didn't properly identify himself as a police officer. Giving verbal proof is not sufficient, especially when one considers that impersonating law enforcement officials does happen. Hopefully, Officer Crowley regrets his handling of the situation.
As unfortunate as this incident was, it did highlight the fact that blacks and whites often have different experiences when it comes to the police. Also, if it had to happen, I am glad that it was to a public figure such as Professor Gates because the average citizen doesn’t have media access and can’t provide their side of the story.
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