Mark Another Coup for David Axelrod

The threesome -- or Man Date -- between the President, Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley, and Skip Gates bears the slight fingerprints of David Axelrod.

The President's 2008 campaign put a premium on comforting skittish white voters to look past Obama's skin color and "exotic" profile. David Axelrod, Bam's chief political strategist, is a "cross-over specialist," a political hand particularly skilled at making black politicians palatable -- and even appealing -- to white voters.

Bam's mea culpa -- his conciliatory about face -- has the distinct whiff of Axelrod's brand of racial healing.

More importantly, the controversy surrounding Gates-gate has a lot to do with Class. Socio-economic class, not schoolroom.

The call's transcripts show that Lucia Whalen, who placed the 911 call, never specified Skip Gates's race (black). She just knew (and stated) that he was not white -- probably "Hispanic."

Also, through her attorney, Ms. Whalen insisted that she falls "outside the plain lines of race."
"The fact is," Ms. Whalen's attorney reports, "she's olive-skinned and of Portuguese descent. You wouldn't look at her and say, necessarily, 'Oh, there's a white woman.' You might think she was Hispanic."

Race became an issue -- especially for Gates -- once the officer pushed into Gates' home, demanded to see his ID -- yet declined properly to show ID himself.

Disturbing discrepancies mark Whalen's account of the episode versus Sgt Crowley's. For example, the officer, in his police report, claims he spoke to Ms. Whalen at the scene.

But Wendy Murphy, an attorney who represents Whalen, categorically rejects that claim.

"Let me be clear: She never had a conversation with Sgt. Crowley at the scene," Murphy told CNN by phone. "And she never said to any police officer or to anybody 'two black men.' She never used the word 'black.' Period."

An innocuous discrepancy? Or a falsified police report?

What a comedy of errors in this racial and class imbroglio! When the accused is poor and nameless, then it's not quite as funny. No CNN reports and beer invitations follow...

According to a groundbreaking 2008 study, whites rate a neighborhood much more favorably when whites dominate its make-up, even when controlling for the quality of the neighborhood. Randomly selected white adults from the Chicago and Detroit metropolitan areas were shown videos of identical neighborhoods and asked to evaluate features, such as the home values, perceived safety, and quality of area schools. While the neighborhoods in the videos were identical, the residents were not; some respondents saw the neighborhoods sprinkled with black residents, others saw the same neighborhoods with only white residents. According to the study, whites who saw white residents in the video rated the neighborhood more favorably than whites who saw black residents in the identical neighborhood. And the more negative the stereotypes white respondents held of blacks generally, the more likely they were to negatively rate the identical neighborhood with a visible black presence.

Why do economic and racial segregation still dog us in 2009 -- the forty-fifth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act -- and what, if anything, can be done?

Aggravating Boston's racial turmoil, of course, are class divides. The Cambridge police force that arrested Skip Gates is charged with keeping the upscale enclave "safe" from some decidedly downscale neighborhoods nearby. Wealthy communities abutting poor ones often produce a class anxiety that borders on paranoia. Ms. Whalen, who failed to recognize Gates, works at Harvard magazine. Does Whalen suffer from said class anxiety, as opposed to racism? Perhaps. Such community anxiety - every "outsider" is a suspect - often demands "tough" policing, which curdles into abusive policing.

Beyond the racial kerfuffle, the less discussed problem: How poor people, and perceived outsiders like Gates and the cabbie, get abused in a mini Police State where police see their first and foremost duty as protecting the property of the wealthy.

Comments

[noneIn2008]

The strategy is to push 53 different topics at once and confuse the masses. It is the ultimate shell game.

[HSmith]

1. We Didn’t Just Fail To Support President Obama And Professor Gates; We Failed To Support The Common Sense Values We All Share As Americans.

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.

[HSmith]

2. 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. Common sense values dictate that no one would want their dad or grandfather to be arrested in their own home for being rude to the police. But instead, this society debated and continues to debate whether Professor Gates should have been humiliated in such a manner by a professional police officer. President Obama is president of the United States, but he is also a member of a minority group of citizens in this country, and he has to navigate in ways someone who is not a member of a minority will never have to. As a member of a minority group, just as in the civil rights movement, President Obama's voice on injustice in this country, is and will only be as strong and as loud as the courage, strength and volume of the coalition of common folks who elected this president to office. Without common sense folks repeatedly speaking out loudly and confronting an obvious injustice, the president’s voice will be drowned out by the race baiting fringe groups, media and other institutions that know his voice is only as strong as yours.

[HSmith]

3. The radical fringe wants everything about President Obama, from birth certificates to pre-school, from friends to religious associations, marriage, political appointments and opinions to revolve around race, so that the voices of common sense folks with common sense values and issues can be drowned out by fake controversies, chaos and political unrest. If we empower the president's voice on common sense issues within this country, we will mute the divide and conquer tactics of these racists fringe elements in our society that surely benefit from political unrest and racial strife in the United States. The president spoke out about an obvious injustice to one of the most respected scholars in the country. It is our responsibility as citizens to back the common sense approach and determination that the president came to, repeatedly and loudly. In this democracy our president is a reflection of who we are and what we represent as a society. If we fail to speak up and support this president’s common sense approach on issues of injustice and policy in this country, the president we elected will have no voice, and neither will we.

H. Smith

[respectingothers]

been doing my part.

[boolala]

Um, a couple of minor points about that 9-11 call.

You say 'She just knew (and stated) that he was not white -- probably "Hispanic." '
But actually, it sounds like she didn't "know" and stated that she didn't know:
"...one looked kind of Hispanic, but I’m not really sure. And the other one entered and I didn’t see what he looked like at all."
Besides, I would guess that the one who entered (whom she did not see well) was Skip Gates, not the cab driver. That would explain why she " failed to recognize Gates" despite working at Harvard.
It seems like you didn't read the transcript nor listen to the tape very carefully, because she does not sound at all paranoid. In fact she says, "after the gentlemen were already in the house, I noticed two suitcases So I’m not sure if these are two individuals who actually work there, I mean who live there" so she's being careful not to make hasty accusations.
It is the dispatcher who speculates, "You think they might’ve been breaking..."
"Caller: I don’t know, ‘cause I have no idea, I just noticed..."
And just to be clear she mentions that it was an older lady who pointed it out "Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it at all, to be honest with you."
Just minor points, but points that make your speculation about her suffering from "class anxiety" and paranoia seem like a stretch.

[Richard M. Benjamin - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you, boolala. I believe you give a very perceptive and persuasive interpretation of those transcripts.

Lucia Whalen: "...one looked kind of Hispanic, but I'm not really sure."

I took this comment to mean that the suspect is racially vague, but definitely not white. In other words, Whalen is unsure and unwilling to categorize him as Hispanic. But I didn't think she ever mistook either man -- bronzed ever more by the Summer -- as "white."

I still VERY much think that Cambridge, and communities like it, suffer from a fair amount of class anxiety due to the close proximity of "lesser" communities. The obsession of keeping these communities at bay, indeed degenerates to paranoia. I've spent my whole lifetime living and observing this dynamic.

However -- as you point out -- it's unfair to brand Ms. Whalen in particular with this mindset -- especially not on the basis of that short transcript.

[boolala]

I do agree, though, with your general point that the kind of racial and class anxiety exists. I, myself, live in an upper middle class, very liberal, almost all-white neighborhood. There is a neighborhood email list and very often someone will write an "alert" to the neighborhood along the lines of, "Just a head's up, everybody, there is an African American guy driving down our street, and he seems to be stopping and looking at houses." (Substitute "homeless-looking guy," "hispanic teenager," etc.) Now sometimes they report suspicious behavior of white people, too, but the standard for what is noticed and what they consider suspicious behavior seems to be very different based on race and class. And I also have heard personal anecdotes from people of color who are routinely stopped and questioned in their own wealthy, or upper middle class neighborhoods.
So I absolutely agree with your premise that there is a lot of paranoia, particularly in these communities where it is least warranted. In this case, though, I think Ms. Whalen sounded like she did not really think a crime was happening, but because this elderly woman was concerned, she felt obliged to call it in. I think she gave the dispatcher enough information that the police should have at least approached the situation aware that there might well be no crime involved, but I'm not sure that was communicated by the dispatcher, and I'm sure the police always approach expecting the worst.