How Heavy the Load

The first time that Henry Louis "Skip" Gates' name actually registered in my mind was when I saw a Vibe Magazine profile of Harvard's African American Studies Department. Dubbed the "Dream Team," the article included a picture of Gates standing alongside fellow professors Kwame Anthony Appiah, Lani Guinier, Cornel West and William Julius Wilson. As the profile suggested, Gates was the maestro responsible for Harvard's unprecedented level of black star power. I remember marveling at that photo as an undergraduate at Queens College in New York -- it was a turning point in my life as I was in the process of transitioning from a high school sports fanatic well versed in the original Dream Team to a "budding scholar" with his eyes firmly poised on graduate school in the near future.

It's been a decade since that article and while a number of the faces have changed in Harvard's African-American Studies Department, it's still the bastion of black star power in the academy and Henry Louis Gates is still the maestro.

More to the point, Gates is a celebrity as much as he is a professor, and the recent incident in which he was arrested for "disorderly conduct" after refusing to cooperate with a police officer responding to an alleged break-in -- albeit at his own home -- has more in common with Christian Bale's tirade from earlier this year than it does the Amadou Diallo murder, for example. Yes, race played a role in this situation, but the American nightmare of a Harvard professor gunned down by cops while entering his own home was avoided during this encounter and Gates must bear a peculiar burden as a survivor of this incident to which so many are now bearing witness. Diallo was an unknown immigrant who became famous -- and his death instructive of the tragic outcomes of overly aggressive police tactics. Gates' behavior in the aftermath of his arrest bears shades of survivor's guilt; with Diallo and Abner Louima having already set recent precedents of the harm that can befall black men in the hands of police, Gates finds himself once again beholden to what Hazel Carby once referred to in another discussion of Gates' life "as a particular anxiety of masculinity, an anxiety which is embedded in the landscape of a crisis in the social order." Here Carby was addressing Gates' struggles responding to the premature deaths of two of his classmates at Yale -- experiences that caused him to steel himself so that he can continue doing his part to push along with the tasks that his generation was expected to complete. Carby cites Gates' own words where he professes:

Ours was to be the generation with cultural accountability, and cultural security: the generation that would tell white folks that we would not be deterred -- that, whether they knew it or not, we too were of the elite.

Unfortunately, in Gates' lifetime, the quest for elitism has become intertwined with the quest for celebrity. That so many people are simply famous for being famous makes people like Gates and the aforementioned Christian Bale vulnerable to the engines propelling these vapid strains of elitism. In this particular instance, like Bale in his infamous encounter with a stagehand, Gates felt that his space had been invaded by the police officer. The officer was wrong for arresting Gates, but not for investigating the incident for which he was called to the scene, just as the stagehand was not wrong for being on set. Gates was inevitably flexing the same muscle, the same power that I found alluring in that Vibe photo when he shouted down the officer, and Bale's intensity dressing down the stagehand likely correlates with why he is now the star of two blockbuster movie franchises, Batman and The Terminator. Neither Gates nor Bale were willing to concede that what they saw as an intrusion on their space, their antagonists saw as simply doing their jobs, and in both instances these stars were left to piece back together their shards of celebrity.

The reason for this Bale comparison is because there's a strand in the threads of responses to this incident that infers that Gates should never have had to deal with this because he's an acclaimed Harvard professor. If this is the case, we cannot ascribe one facets of 21st century culture to Gates' arrest while conveniently disregarding the others. Getting closer to the point, I am saying that we can not cherry pick instances in which celebrities are to be treated differently from non-celebrities. As Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal writes in a recent essay on this case:

The attention that the case has attracted raises more troubling issues about which black bodies really matter. Few blacks -- and fellow black scholars for that matter -- are fortunate to have Charles Ogletree on their speed dial; or edit an on-line magazine in collaboration with the Washington Post and Newsweek magazine. Indeed Antwi Akom, a professor of Sociology and Africana Studies at San Francisco State University didn't have such a profile when he was arrested in front of his campus office in October of 2005 while retrieving books.

I still cannot help find it amusing however that early in this same essay Neal declares:

That he is legitimately the most well known black person at Harvard University and Cambridge at large is beyond dispute. That any Cambridge police officer would not recognize Professor Gates or adhere to the confirmation by campus police that the figure he was arresting was indeed Professor Gates raises obvious suspicions -- yet another iteration of the "uppity Negro" backlash that has reached a fever pitch in the Obama era.

As a fellow academic, I can understand Neal's rendering of Gates' visibility. It has been virtually impossible to have a discussion about African American Studies in the last 20 years without mentioning Henry Louis Gates.

That said, I would need more evidence to believe as Neal suggests that Gates is "the most well known black person at Harvard and Cambridge." Cambridge has recently elected two black Mayors, Ken Reeves who's second stint ended in 2007, and current Mayor Denise Simmons, both of have the distinction of being the first open gay and lesbian mayors in the city's history. Reeves, is also a Harvard graduate who remains in contact with legions of Harvard students, and Cambridge residents who worked on his campaigns. I would be hard pressed to believe that Gates can be better known in the area than either of these two elected officials. He may be Harvard's maestro, but he isn't Cambridge's mayor.

I bring up this point because it touches on another controversial element festering in this case, the often-tense relationships between universities and the cities in which they reside. Harvard is not exempt from this, especially in the eyes of non-Harvard-affiliated Cambridge residents who have seen their rents rise, or pushed out of their homes altogether during Harvard's recent decade of expansion, a period that coincidentally coincides with Gates' own expansion from university professor to media entrepreneur. It is likely then that the irony is not lost on longtime Cambridge residents that a famous Harvard professor would be arrested while asserting his right to be in his own home. If this is truly to be an injustice committed against Gates, than we must be prepared to render Harvard professorship moot -- and if not, then we should prepare ourselves to reconcile that this case may be less about an uppity Cambridge Negro, and more about a pretentious Harvard professor, a distinction well worth remembering because of the -- dare I say it -- double consciousness it invokes.

Readers of W.E.B. Du Bois' seminal work, Souls of Black Folk, will remember a scene that DuBois resurrects from his early life to show the bitter nature of racism. In this scene a young white female classmate he sought to give a card to rebuffs a young Du Bois in Great Barrington, Massachusetts:

The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card, refused it peremptorily, with a glance. The it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others, or like, mayhap, in heart and life and long, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.

Writing for the American Prospect blog, Adam Serwer paints an adult rendering evocative of the schoolhouse scene described by Du Bois a century ago:

What really disturbs me though, is the fact that Gates' own neighbor didn't recognize him. Regardless of who is ultimately at fault in the encounter between Gates and Sgt. Crowley, the most frightening thing is that a Harvard professor could be mistaken for a burglar by his own neighbor.

Gates, his neighbor and the arresting officer all seem to have been impaired by Du Bois' proverbial veil. Like the incident with Du Bois' classmate, Gates' imbroglio begins with a misreading of his intentions by his white female neighbor. The similarities end there because the affronts against Gates are being played out in public, and not within the confines of a classroom. Surely, this incident may become an apt teachable moment for many scholars, and even I may have an opportunity to refer to it when I return to teaching in the fall. Along with the characters at play, it has the added bonus of occurring only a week after President Obama told the crowd at the centennial celebration of the NAACP (the organization Du Bois helped found) "no more excuses."

If what we are to take away from this incident is that racial profiling is appalling, then we must be diligent in ensuring that training public servants to treat black people more humanely is a very different task than training public servants to treat black people more humanely because they might be Harvard professors.

And while this incidents reiterates how heavy the load, as this saga unfolds, we must remember that Gates' dream has not been deferred.

Follow Ferentz LaFargue on Twitter: www.twitter.com/professorf

Comments

[AnimalLover6]

Thank you for a reasoned assessment of this incident.

This police officer was called to Gates' home to investigate a possible B&E. Which means that he arrived at Gates' home in an effort to protect Gates' property--at considerable risk to himself. In response, Gates proceeds to verbally abuse him, even though the officer is simply following protocol. Gates is now claiming that the officer refused to state his name. The police report clearly shows that this is not the case, that the officer tried 3 times to give Gates his name, but Gates was so busy yelling that the officer could not do so. This is a career officer, with no history of racist behavior. In fact, he teaches a course on racial profiling at the academy. If anyone is a victim of racial profiling here, it's the officer. In Gates' mind, he's innocent simply by virtue of the fact that he's black, and the officer--by virtue of the fact that he's white--is guilty. All of this could have been avoided had Gates simply complied with the officer's request (as we are all required to do, Harvard professor or not, black or white or Hispanic or Asian) and, in the end, thanked the officer for doing his job in protecting Gates' property. But, being white, this officer never had a chance. All Gates had to do was take one look at that white face and all bets were off. Appalling.

[tbone99]

Gates frequent responses of "Don't you know who you are dealing with" are both arrogant and sad , in that he expects special privilige having penetrated to that level of celebrityhood he is perhaps has entered the social level in which a person supposes he is entitled to expect such a thing. So though that"privilige " exists , that expectation of privilige is just wrong , especially considering the thousands of black men who actually are jailed, murdered by the cops and even executed despite their innocence or pettiness of their misdeeds with the collusion of our justice system and without recourse or help to fight it.

It makes me sad to think of these men whose cases do not get the attention they need while Gates seems more outraged by this the violation of his specialness . I wish instead he would devote himself to just one of these cases with the same fervor he has taken offense at being requested to show his ID at midnight while breaking into his house.
He is free, well known and has Harvard behind him- he will actually benefit from this incident while others face serious consequences alone.Some in Boston may suffer in retaliation because of his actions

Once the cop saw his ID there was absolutely no need to handcuff the man . Calling someone a racist is not a crime

[hasheville]

We still don't know the details. The presence of a black cop on the scene doesn't alter the story to me - the first cop their makes the call about what's going on unless someone has obvious seniority and the others back him up. To challenge him is to invite controversy and continual grief on the job. Whites who say Gates should have been more cooperative are rationalizing. It was an absurd situation and anyone would be steamed and defensive if the police didn't believe they were on their own property. Gates is so lucky it was day and not night or he'd likely be dead. Besides - the details of this particular case are less important to analyze than the daily injustices it brings to our attention. The police are entrusted with their roles and their weapons. We all pay their salaries - black and white. They are supposed to be well trained to perform their difficult jobs without endangering the public but there are too many stories of them stepping over the line.

[jeffrey678]

I have Police Officers and University Professors in my family. These Professions seem to attract people with HUGE EGOS who are easily slighted but have no problem with slighting other people.

[tbone99]

Good things they don't have guns and tasers like the macho men in uniform.
They might be able to really hurt people instead of having only facts at their disposal.

[noreast77]

Police have protocol for these situations so they can go home at night instead of being shot and/or dead. Any "professor" should know that- and should have been intelligent enough to comply and not escalate this situation, especially a black one who claims to live in such a "racist" society. I am white and I know you comply 100% with cops if you don't want a face full of taser or worse no matter the situation.

[stepintothelight]

The boundries defining your 100% is different from ours ... trust me!!!

[GardenerNorCal]

As a child of the sixties we were raised to believe that police officers are public servants and are supposed to operate within the law. They have no implied privelege of being obeyed blindly simply because they carry weapons.

[Mike Barden]

Boy, this seems to be another one of them sore points.

[miketothad]

That neighbor should be ashamed of herself.
And I naturally presume that cops feel threatened by me, so I tend oblige them as much as I can.

[GardenerNorCal]

I would imagine she has never been invited over to Gates home or borrowed a cup of sugar, and I am sure she won't be in the future.

[RobinSeattle]

Most of us don't even know our neighbors nowadays since we tend to cocoon in our homes. I don't know my neighbors on one side of me (I never see them outside and they are so quiet you would never know they are there) at all and if I saw someone prying at the door, no matter their ethnicity, I would call the police, too. So I don't really fault the neighbor in this case.

So I'm not sure who to believe here. I will wait for further details.

[MrsOrtiz]

She was a passerby, not a neighbor. She worked nearby. Not many of us are chummy with people who live near our workplace. We tend to go there to work, not visit.
I'd be ashamed of myself if I witnessed a possible break in and looked the other way. She may not have known her "neighbors", but she was watching out for them. She probably won't be making that mistake any time soon.

[ENOS]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/US/07/22/harvard.gates.interview/art.gates.demotix.jpg

check out that link...

The Policeman closest to the foreground of the picture IS African-American.

Does this have any impact on people's interperatation of this case?

[stepintothelight]

Again as responded to your other chit stirring inquiry ...

All your skin folk ain't your kinfolk!!!

A majority of these types are more "blue" than black. But it's that kind of environment for police .... Look ... For decades becoming a cop turns whites into ruthless lying animals ... Or just brings it to the surface.

[ItsMickeyBricksBaby]

This is a first-class post Mr. LaFargue!

[deebles]

Well thank you very much. My thought exactly that race is less important than your neighbor knowing who you are. I would consider it a nice gesture if my neighbor worried about my house enough to call the police. The fact that I share pies and flowers and communal chats over the fence leads me to believe that he wouldn't call the cops on me. If I did none of those things then regardless of race, I'd still approve of the concern. I can't judge Gates' motivation but I can certainly judge his rather non-racially oriented not so neighborly pre-call behavior. Actually a good neighbor would have your key or a crowbar. That he was left to his own devices is less racial and more just a human thing.

[sportigal]

I have, as most of us, had occasion to break into my own home. Forgotten keys, stuck door - whatever. It has never failed to go through my mind - I wonder what anyone would think passing by - that I am a burglar? Being a white middle aged female - not likely. But if I were a male and especially a black male I would expect some attention. Until things change in this country, you can't have it both ways. The neighbor did the right, responsible thing. The cops did the right, responsible thing in their response.

[tbone99]

"The cops did the right, responsible thing in their response."

Up to a point - but after they had ascertained that he lived there by seeing his ID - it was time for them to say "good night, sir."and leave.

[RobinSeattle]

It's not just blacks who get rough treatment at the hands of law enforcement. Here is what Japanese comedienne Haruka Minowa experienced when she flew into LAX with a tv crew to do a location shoot a couple of years ago:

Minowa and the tv crew got to immigration and the crew was allowed through no problem. But then one of the immigration officers pulled her out of line and asserted that she "didn't look Japanese (even despite her Japanese passport)" and was asked, "what do you do for a living?" and "are you a Mexican?" In broken english, Minowa replied that she was from Japan. Minowa speaks little english anyway and when their attempt to communicate reached an impasse, she was hauled off to a detention room, where a female immigration officer said in halting and badly pronounced Japanese that she wouldn't be allowed back in the country if she didn't tell the truth. A MALE officer then did a body search of Minowa (how come the female officer didn't?). The male officer continued to insist that she resembled a Mexican. They let her go, but also told her that "you should try to look more feminine."

Minowa has vowed to never visit the U.S. again. She recounted the story on a popular Japanese comedy program. The officers must have figured "it's Bush time" and they can say or do anything they want without fear of discipline. This was just sheer racism here.

[OldSchoolLiberal]

Reminds me of how I and other Gaijin have been treated in Japan, especially those who are south east asian or asian-american.

[sammyscout]

Two wrongs don't make a right

[RobinSeattle]

Yeah, Japanese immigration has definitely had its own problems. There have even been a couple of cases that I know of where foreign detainees died in custody.

Nevertheless, I like our country to be better than that and can't engage in a race to the behavioral bottom when it comes to law enforcement. Not to mention that stuff like this does America's already violent and drug ridden image in Japan no good. It's also hard for me to believe that with tends of thousands of Japanese coming through LAX every year that they wouldn't have competent Japanese speakers on hand. Even the airlines at that airport have that.

[GardenerNorCal]

That is abominable behavior on the part of the officers. They should have been fired.

[Beefcake]

Probably the most racist thing in American law enforcement is the Department of Justice blatantly lying about the number of blacks in prison for drug offenses:

http://www.tremblethedevil.com/my_weblog/2009/04/even-without-lies-the-damage-is-already-done.html

[SuperSizeMe111]

I resent the fact that you propose we approach and treat Blacks differently than others. Isn't this what Dr. King fought against? You are essentially saying that you have no desire to see Black and Whites treated equally, and rather prefer a special set of circumstances when dealing with blacks.

[Solja]

You missed the entire point.

[kathy001]

You've completely misunderstood what the author was saying.

[phipho]

Great article. Here is another take in a similar vein.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32085686/?GT1=43001