President Obama “acted stupidly”
Black is still black.
That’s what LZ Granderson said, explaining why black gays would never criticize President Obama. The logic is ludicrous – what does someone’s skin pigment have to do with the job he’s doing? – but that doesn’t faze Mr. Granderson. Or President Obama, evidently.
Last night, he said “the Cambridge police acted stupidly” by arresting Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
It doesn’t matter what the extenuating circumstances were. It doesn’t matter that the police were, in fact, trying to protect Mr. Gates from being robbed.
Black is still black. And because Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is black, the police must be stupid, in the words of the President of the United States of America.
Let’s take a look at the facts.
A neighbor saw two men trying to break through the front door of Mr. Gates’ house, so she called the police.
She didn’t realize the two men were actually Mr. Gates and the man who had driven him home from the airport. She couldn’t have known that the front door was jammed, and the men were trying to force it open. She only knew that it looked like two black men were trying to break into a neighborhood house.
On the other hand, there’s no way Mr. Gates could have known someone had called the police and reported suspicious behavior. He was in his house, arranging to get his door looked at, when the police came knocking.
And that’s when everything fell apart.
Imagine both sides of the story. On the one hand, you’re a cop checking out a possible breaking and entering, and a man answers the door who initially refuses to step outside and talk to you and accuses you of racial profiling. On the other hand, you’re a professor who’s glad to be home after a long trip (and a struggle to open the front door, to boot), when suddenly there’s a police officer at your door demanding identification and questioning your right to be in your own residence.
Believe it or not, sometimes situations happen that are ugly and angry and confusing but are not, in any way imaginable, the fault of any particular person. Was the neighbor wrong to call the police when she saw two people trying to force their way into a nearby house? Was the police officer wrong to ask Mr. Gates to step outside and prove that he was the legal resident? Was Mr. Gates wrong to wonder why he was being treated like a criminal for no apparent reason?
Sometimes bad things happen for no reason. Hell, most of the time there are no reasons to explain why shit happens. Pretending otherwise is as effective as spitting into the wind.
The Cambridge police force did the right thing. They dropped the charges of disorderly conduct against Mr. Gates after realizing this was an unfortunate misunderstanding.
And then the President of the United States of America calls them stupid? What the fuck?
Let me make a few things very clear.
Racial profiling is just as popular now as it has ever been. I remember working in a department store years ago and learning that our store detective had won prizes for the number of shoplifters she had caught. I was disappointed but not surprised to find out that every one of the shoplifters had been black. I’m sure hundreds if not thousands of white people had stolen their fair share of products from the store, but I lived in an area where black people were automatically assumed to be criminals and white people were sinless.
From everything I’ve read, Boston still has a multitude of racial problems (did anyone truly believe that electing an interracial president would immediately end all racism?). Although I have no evidence, I am positive than Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has experienced the ugliest side of human nature on several occasions, and I don’t fault him for assuming the worst of white people.
And human beings have this bizarre tendency to want to blame someone for everything. Nothing ever happens by chance. Hell, this Sunday I listened to one of my neighbors talk about an interview she had and a dog she saved from the middle of the road afterwards. “I was meant to get the job or I was meant to find the dog,” she told me, not even contemplating the idea that she wasn’t meant to do anything, she just did it.
So yes, I can understand why people are up in arms over Mr. Gates. “This wouldn’t have happened if he’d been white,” they declare (although yes, in fact, it would have). “Mr. Gates is a victim of racial profiling,” they scream, even though it wasn’t like he was tackled on a nearby street because he was black. The police got a report that two black men were forcibly trying to enter a nearby house. Mr. Gates – a black man – answered the door when the police knocked. Am I missing something?
I am disgusted by President Obama. Anyone even partially unbiased would recognize that this was an ugly misunderstanding. Mr. Gates probably overreacted because he couldn’t understand why a police officer was knocking on his door and insisting he prove he was a legitimate resident. The police officer probably overreacted because he was confused by Mr. Gates behavior.
If the officer had been black, if Mr. Gates had been white, if the neighbor had been an Asian lesbian with purple tattoos and a nose piercing, would it have changed anything?
No.
Race was not the mitigating factor in this.
I don’t think Mr. Gates was wrong for freaking out. I have never been anything but exceedingly polite to police officers, but if one knocked on my door and demanded proof that I was a lawful resident, I’d freak out too.
I also don’t blame the police officer. He was investigating a possible breaking and entering and had no way of knowing that he was walking onto a minefield.
But for President Obama to call the police force stupid for doing their job? That’s revolting.
I guess we know where his values lie. If you’re a black man, he has your back, even when it makes no sense. If you’re not a black man, he could care less.
Guess who I won’t be voting for in 2012? I’d like a President who doesn’t think “black is still black.” I’d like a President who instead thinks in terms of equality for all.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:04 am
You and I do not see eye to eye on this. Now I know why you apologized when you wrote of your dissapointment on my blog. I respect your viewpoint, but it makes me a little bit sad that you and I don’t agree on this. Agree to disagree, perhaps?
Here’s my take. I actually think the President responded well to this story by criticzing the police, although I fault the judgment of the particular police officer, not the police force as a whole. And today I learned that the officer, Sargent Crowley, has taught law enforcement how to avoid racial profiling for five years, which makes me wonder where his good judgment went. I understand what you are saying about not finding fault, yet at the same time, race is all intertwined in this story. For one, I have doubts the neighbor would’ve called if the owner of the house was white and she saw two white guys trying to open the jammed door. I don’t really fault the neighbor, although it’s odd that she didn’t know her own neighbor. Judging from the photos, this happened in daylight, so it’s not like she couldn’t see clearly who the people were. But anyway, I have doubts the cop would’ve responded in exactly the same way to the person who answered the door, if that person was white. In other words, would the officer have assumed that the guy answering the door is a suspect, or the owner of the house? That’s where we disagree. You think this isn’t a race issue, saying that it would still happen if Gates was white, but I disagree. Even if the suspects were white, I think if Mr. Gates was a white man answering the door of his own house, the officer would assume that he was the owner of the house. There is no way to know for sure how this would play out, but I wouldn’t automatically assume it would play out the same. I don’t draw conclusions either that President Obama only has your back if you’re black, (or brown).
The main problem I have with this is that after if was established that Mr Gates was in fact the owner of the house, 1.)the cop refused to give his name and badge number when asked, and 2.) There were charges against Gates, (although they were finally dropped on Tuesday, which was five days after the incident, and 3.) the cop refused to apologize for the siuation, even after a week, and even after the charges were dropped, and 4.) the cop arrested and handcuffed a 5′6″, 150 black man who needs a cane to walk, because he was angry and “disturbing the peace” and “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place”. I don’t get how someone’s front porch qualifies as a public place, and since when is being rightfully upset and critical of police action a reason for arrest?
Granted I wasn’t there, but I don’t think that was a necessary action for the cop to take. It was extreme to arrest and handcuff a small black man in his own home after he already proved he was the owner and wasn’t getting an apology or identification from the cop. And Crowley is still sticking with “I won’t apologize because I don’t believe I need to apologize for anything.” If he admitted he made a mistake and offered an apology, I’d rethink things, but for now he comes off as an arrogant asshole.