When I read the headline of the story, I was all ready to get angry. Well known Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested for trying to enter his own house because the color of his skin alarmed a Cambridge, Massachusetts witness who called the police.
Anger is just what Professor Gates wanted, it would seem to me after reading the whole article. Instead of telling the police his name and that he lived there, which would have ended the matter with him remaining on the moral high ground, he refused to say anything but
"This is what happens to black men in America" in a loud voice.
Yes it is of course, but also no it isn't and I'm guessing that most black people haven't been arrested for unlocking their front door; but that suspicion follows them like a shadow, I know for a fact. A great many African Americans have been stopped and questioned when others would not have been.
Gates' loud and continuous protests along with refusing to identify himself had the expected results. He was not given an apology and left to go about his business: he was arrested. No doubt academic papers, lectures, articles and perhaps movie rights will follow and that doesn't hurt the career of a professor of African American studies at all.
I'd like to think I would have handled it differently and of course it always pleases me to say that to professors. The insidious kind of racism that leads people to conclude that a black man in a "nice" neighborhood is up to no good is what needs addressing; needs illustration -- and a choreographed arrest like this one detracts from the clarity of the situation. The police were required to respond, were given a legitimate reason to arrest him and he may well not get off without consequence from the disorderly conduct charges. The clarity? Yes, I think it's clear that nice, ordinary, well meaning people can fall prey to their prejudices when they see a black face in Cambridge or a bearded man in an airport. It's not about the police, it's about us and Gates gave away the opportunity to teach us that by displaying his temper. Too bad.
(Cross posted from The Swash Zone)
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