Fairly consistently, many whites view the arrest of Harvard's distinguished scholar, Henry Louis Gates, as justified, even as most blacks do not.
Context, as Judge Sonia Sotomayor attempted to point out, before backtracking, while not everything, remains all-important. Getting undressed, so long as it's not in front of 'queers,' for some teenage males, inducing future Supreme Court Justices, may not be a big deal. But Ruth Bader Ginsburg uniquely appreciated a different point of view: how a strip search might not seem so harmless for an adolescent girl.
Similarly, irrespective of how educated or rich one might be, to be a black man in America is still a condition in which one feels he has no rights that any police officer is bound to respect. Indeed, very often, to be black and successful only provokes the anger of some whites, far more than if one neatly fulfilled an expected stereotype.
So we African Americans all know President Barrack Obama was only commenting on such harsh realities when he unexpectedly chimed in. So was Congressman Charles B. Rangel when he stated that even the President needed to be wary in Harlem, because as a black man, he too, could be randomly shot by the police. And still it was a call of , "No excuses" with which President Obama admonished black citizens at the NAACP's centennial celebration recently in New York.
Well before he spoke, before Professor Gates was arrested at home for no discernible reason beyond race and class, I disagreed. For there are, if not excuses, nonetheless real persisting reasons for the still-deep disparity between black and white Americans concerning economic and academic attainment, concerning our experience of equal protection, liberty and justice, that no amount of preaching or taking stock can wish away.
Whites very often don't see it. They instead rationalize their advantageous position to a greater commitment to take advantage of the opportunity so widely offered in the United States. And so impassioned are their lamentations concerning the absence of real bias in the post-racial era and the harm of reverse discrimination, that one might almost be persuaded, until, that is, one regards their complaints turned around.
If most firefighters were black, and a multiple-choice written test were given for their promotion, on which blacks always scored best, would white civil servants really respect that test as fair and impartial? Do whites really feel blacks love their children less, that we are merely disinclined to work hard to acquire all those good things whites desire too? What, beyond a lack of opportunity, inferior schools, housing and jobs, do whites attribute these gaps? If Tiger Woods, the Williams sisters, Obama and Ophrah Winfrey are no more indicative of black potential than Bill Gates is of white possibility, do they not at least dispel the old lie of African American inability?
In this time after we have elected a black president, supposedly, magically, newly devoid of prejudice, where are the white undercover police officers slain by their black colleagues? There are so many more white officers; statistically, oughtn't some to have been victims of black 'friendly fire?' Where are the unarmed white youth or grandfathers, shot by black officers? There are so many more white youth than black. Where is the renowned, infirmed white professor arrested for disorderly conduct on his own porch by a black policeman?
More importantly, even if Professor Gates raised his voice or gritted his teeth, haven't we got a First Amendment? Don't white police officers routinely swear in the most uncouth manner to presumed 'perps'? Would white men truly, sanguinely, put up with the routine stops and searches of black officers in their neighborhoods?
Once he was a Democrat. But leading up to the Grand Old Party's national convention in August 2004, New York's billionaire-mayor, Michael Bloomberg cavalierly suggested that our First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly are not rights at all but mere "privileges" that, if abused, could easily be taken away, by him!
Mayor Bloomberg was only trying to downplay concerns among Republican volunteers that protesters might disrupt their proceedings. During two terms, instituting the greatest expansion of police surveillance of political activity in 50 years, asserting that the city cannot rely on the federal government to protect New York from another terrorist attack, he has contended that most robust intelligence operations possible are essential. These 'legitimate' police powers have included undercover infiltration of legally formed groups around the country and a declaration that his honor's private mansion is 'off limits' for protest of any kind.
Picketing there all alone on the eve of his infamous term limits hearing I was arrested, handcuffed, interrogated and held for seven hours. The reasoning of the officers who grilled me was that I was out to do harm to the mayor. 
"People who avail themselves of the opportunity to express themselves ... they will not abuse that privilege...Because if we start to abuse our privileges, then we lose them, and nobody wants that."
Despite expressing a reluctance to abridge rights, the mayor oversaw the arrest of 1,821 mostly peaceful demonstrators during the RNC in 2004. On April 10, 2009 Jim Dwyer reported in the Times about these hapless hundreds who, "were arrested, fingerprinted and held for as long as two days on charges...no more serious than a traffic ticket. In about 90 percent of the cases, the charges were dismissed outright or dropped after six months. The city has spent more than $8 million on lawsuits related to the convention, but that figure is sure to rise because only a fraction of the claims have been settled."
Critical of Bloomberg's interpretation of the First Amendment's lack of protection of free speech, civil rights advocate Leslie Cagan countered,
"The right to protest is not nor has it ever been a privilege - it is a constitutionally protected right that everybody in this country enjoys". Head of United for Peace and Justice, which had confronted the city over its attempt to prohibit a 250,000-person protest in Central Park, an impassioned Cagan continued "I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm completely flabbergasted!"
Bottom line: racism, and elitism, are still with us, not as faintly remembered vexations of the past, not to use as knee-jerk excuses, but as dire obstacles to fairness, to overcome as reasons to alter public policy to effect real change.
Follow Michael Henry Adams on Twitter: www.twitter.com/harlemhellion
**Friday, July 24, 2009, about 3:30pm Gary is detained while bike-riding on NE 12th Street near Middle River Drive by 2 police officers in 2 cars. Officer notes that Gary’s bike is a registered bike and requests Gary’s ID. Officer’s stated reason for detaining: recent area bike theft. Gary later learns the theft occurred 3 blocks away and 5 days prior to his being detained.
**Saturday, May 30, 2009, about 9:30pm Gary is detained while driving, by 2 unidentified police officers in 2 cars. Stated reasons for detaining: the officer had (for no apparent legal reason) run a check on Gary’s UNexpired and still valid license plate and could find no record of it in his computer system.
**Tuesday, December 23, 2008, about 10:30am Gary is detained twice by Detective Charles T. Sierra (Badge No. 354). The second time, Gary is handcuffed and placed in the back seat of Sierra’s police car (No. 9523) for 30 minutes. Officer Sierra pokes fun at Gary’s name and seems incredulous that Gary has no prior criminal history and is not a convicted sex offender. Stated reasons for detaining: Gary was walking on the wrong side of the street, carrying a backpack, walking during the day in a neighborhood where daytime burglaries had occurred, Gary has no surname, and a Detroit-issued sex offender warrant contains the name “Gary.”
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I agree that maybe Gates was overly sensitive for a good reason (the history of police/black relations), but this cannot be a reason to commit disorderly conduct with impunity.
Crowley has VOLUNTEERED five out of the last six years with his African American colleague to train officers how to avoid racial profiling. He is a good man who followed the book.
There are bigots who go to church and temple, every day, big deal,
'ye shall be known by your deeds!'
IF we were mired in poverty like the system is designed for US to be, then the police and the Uber-class wouldn't be so worried...but it looks like WE are about to rise up!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LukWzli19M
The president of the United States made a straight forward common sense comment about the Gates" arrest at a national press conference. I"m sure he assumed that there would be universal common sense understanding throughout the media and our society about the injustice of arresting a middle-aged man within his own home for being rude to a police officer. Sadly the media, law enforcement, political institutions and race baiting public in this society allowed this common sense evaluation to spiral out of control. The minority population in this country has always and will always need a coalition of proactive citizens with a similar sense of values in this society so injustices can be expressed without chaos, political unrest or violence. That has been the basis of every minority civil rights movement of our country. The president acknowledged an obvious injustice at a national press conference and expected common sense police officers, nurses , doctors , teachers, the media, politicians and everyday citizens to understand and support his outrage at the injustice and humiliation Professor Gates endured in his own home.
H. Smith