Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested! One of the most respected African scholars in America was arrested. What prompted his arrest? Mr. Gates was trying to break into his own home. He was having trouble with his front door. And like some people who get locked outside their own home, Mr. Gates decided to get in right then and there the best way he can.
According to the news report, somebody saw a black man trying to break into a house. The police made a visit to the house. By the time the police showed up Mr. Gates was inside the house. He was asked to provide proof of his identity and proof that he lived there. Mr. Gates produced a driver’s license and his university identification. But then what happened dissolves into a case of his side, their side, and the truth.
The police say that Mr. Gates became belligerent. Imagine that! Mr. Gates arrives from an overseas trip from China, a pretty good distance and a very considerable amount of time away, only come home to find his front door stuck and he has to force himself into his own home. Shortly thereafter, the police are knocking at his door asking him to prove he owns his house. It isn’t hard to believe that he was upset. Dude was probably tired. Instead of the police recognizing an angry man in his own home, the police want the respect from a black man that they feel that they are due. Since the police didn’t get their props from Mr. Gates, they felt it was in the best interest of the Cambridge community to pull Mr. Gates out of his house and book him on charges that amount to being angry.
The spokesperson for the Cambridge police says that mistakes were made on both sides of this issue. As is the custom when confronting black people, the police made the mistake of following the standard procedure of throwing any and all forms of compassion out the window in favor of the heavy hand of law. On the other hand, Mr. Gates made the mistake of being a black man and thinking he was entitled to be angry on his own property. Both sides have made key mistakes.
Mr. Gates is only the latest black man to be hauled off to jail or harassed by police for being accused of having a bad attitude. And contrary to what a lot of people would like to believe, this is far from being an isolated incident. I was listening to people making their comments during a program on the radio and a lot of white people were recalling their stories with police. How come when they were harassed by police it wasn’t racist but this case was? What makes Mr. Gates’ arrest different?
Off the top of my head I would say that none of the stories told were about police coming into their homes and arresting people when no crime was committed. I would say that the fact that Mr. Gates identified his self and had proven that he was entitled to be in his house. After such a long trip, it’s pretty reasonable to think that Mr. Gates was cranky. Add a stuck door to the picture and it’s easy to believe that he’d be pissed. Put cops on top of that and I could see him being angry. But Mr. Gates has no criminal record and has a history of being a good citizen. The fifty eight year old man is an asset to the community. But good behavior doesn’t buy much these days.
Unless he had threatened somebody the police should’ve simply walked away. But instead of allowing good judgment to prevail, the police felt that whatever damage their egos suffered from Mr. Gates’ anger required compensation. A black man needs to have more respect for the agents of law.
People are entitled to their anger. As a social collective we are told that our children are entitled to be angry with their parents, we are told that spouses are entitled to be angry with their significant other, some of us believe that we are entitled to give god the middle finger if we are so moved. But then on the flip side of these anger management coins, many of us think that the lines of anger that are so crossable in other areas of our lives must be held fast and strong lest black people lose their proper regard for law enforcers.
Instead of people seeing this incident as the latest manifestation of the collective disrespect for black people, people want to sweep it all under the rug as nothing more than an unfortunate misunderstanding between two parties who both contributed to a series of mistakes being made that resulted in the harassment of another black person. This was just another one of those cases where cops are too quick to trample the rights of a high profile black citizen by mistaking him for the typical black person without the resources to call attention to their abuse, and a case of a black man forgetting his place in our social structure.
And there it is there. I’ve been blogging about this myself. What I truly find disturbing are the responses of overwhelming support from White Americans for the arresting officer. Wow!
This whole incident is a modern-day throwback of the Jim Crowism. ‘Brotha wasn’t willing to look down or stop walking or move off the sidewalk when a few White people came his way, and so, he needed to be taught a lesson. Let this be a lesson to us all about the relationship the police have with Black people. No matter how much we may want to, it’s just not safe to let down our collective guard.
Exactly! If Professor had been an “awww shucks” negro, we woldn’t be having this conversation.
Now this has turned into white folks hurt feelings.
I have read and heard a lot of commentary on this issue. Here are 3 of what I consider the more informed, insightful and balanced commentaries on this issue.
1. Dr Boyce: Henry Louis Gates and His Arrest at Harvard
2. Dr. Boyce: Obama’s Big Mistake in Supporting Harvard Professor Gates
3. Dr. Wilmer Leon on Henry Louis Gates’ Arrest
Additionally a conversation between Watkins and Leon on this affair, which pretty much sums up their articles:
Dr. Wilmer Leon and Dr. Boyce Watkins discuss Henry Louis Gates’ Arrest
I still don’t see why there is so much outrage. There is a video floating around where two white police officers beat a young white woman. Mentally unstable Police officers harass people on a regular basis…the black community should know this well.
What gets me is that everytime a Police officer treats a black person harshly we have to go through this whole deal where we call Al, cry like kids, and make things bigger than what they are.
I’m from the hood just like most of ya’ll and despite a few incidences with the police ALL the violence perpetuated against me and mine was from black folks. A white man has never laid a finger on me or robbed me…..my ‘brothers’ on the other hand…
The Sean Bell and Rodney King incidents had me heated. What happened to the Professor was a minor inconvenience and nothing major compared to those men’s struggles. In my honest opinion the profdessor had his head in the clouds and was mouthing off and the officer took him to jail out of spite for talking reckless…..it’s human nature.
Before we start pointing fingers at whites, the gov’t, or the past we need to turn that finger upon ourselves and ask each other why it’s cool to sell poison to our weakest brothers and sisters, why we’ll spend hundreds on shoes but not help that man on the corner, and why we maim and kill each other before we build with and love each other.
The police, gov’t, and outsiders will show us more respect when we respect ourselves.
My biggest issue is that this whole ordeal was made into a racial profiling issue.
The woman who called the cops was made out to be a racist because she identified the color of one of the men she viewed as breaking into a residence.
Why is it that race is the only thing that gets negative response when it is used to identify a person? Why is it ok to say it was a man or woman? Isn’t that sexual profiling? Height and weight might as well go out the window as well, thats body type profiling… And since color is such a taboo topic Hair color must not be mentioned for fear of revolting red heads.
For those who dont get it, these are all things that are used to help identify the person who comitted the crime in an attempt to actually catch some criminals…
Imagine if all forms of description were classified as profiling and frowned upon, the world would fall apart since the cops would be questioning everyone and catching no one.
One last thing… as I read the stories Gates didnt provide identification when first asked, instead he placed himself into the shoes of a victim leaving the officer who was trying to do his job with the default position of racist victimizer.
I wonder if Gates would have given a black officer the same grief when asked to show identification at the seen of a reported crime which begs the real question… who is the real racist in this equation?
This whole ordeal was silly. No wonder POTUS offered up the brew…