Professor Henry Louis Gates and the Police: An Opportunity for Guilford County Schools

A story appeared in the News and Record this morning that gave an account of a spat between Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard and local police.  The N&R wire story described Gates as the nation's "preeminent black scholar", or something like that.  He was reported to have been aggrieved because police had allegedly engaged in racial profiling against him.

Gates had been attempting to break into his own house, and apparently a neighbor called police.  In addition, an alarm apparently sounded.

A few thoughts come to mind:

1. I do not know upon what basis the news media designates Gates as the nation's preeminent black scholar.  It would seem to me that there are probably many black scholars across our vast nation, in various fields.  Was there some type of systematic, objective ranking that placed Gates at the top of this particular group?

2. The police were attempting to protect Gates' property.  Gates should have been grateful that the police responded and were trying to protect his property.  Instead, he is reported to have behaved in a disorderly way and protested.

3. The police could easily have been criticized if they had not responded to the call sufficiently.

4. With the nature of our local scene here in Greensboro, a comparable incident could easily have occurred here.

5. Gates' reported reaction was precisely the wrong way to respond to police.  When citizens interact with police as they are trying to do their job, it is very important to be cooperative, deferential and respectful.  The police represent civil authority, and bucking against them makes little sense.  A college professor and "scholar" who is advancing in years, of all people, should know that.

6. This episode reminds us of the need to teach young people; and represents an opportunity to derive a public schools curriculum locally that includes instruction on proper behavior and attitude toward police.  It is an important civic lesson that people should be respectful and cooperative when interacting with the police as they attempt to do their jobs; and that the police are trying to help citizens.  If those lessons are not imparted in the home, it is important they be shared in the schools at various stages of kids' education.  Guilford County Schools would do well to adopt such a curriculum if it does not already have one in place.  It would not require a lot of time; but is nonetheless justified because it is obvious that disordered relations with and attitudes toward police can be a huge problem.

Comments

[Joe Guarino]

It's pretty incredible. When I wrote this post three days ago, it was a relatively obscure story buried within the A section of the News and Record. Look at how it has become magnified since then, thanks in large part to the current occupant of the White House.

[Joe Guarino]

Now he says he could have calibrated his words differently.

This is getting to be a lot of fun to watch.

[Bubba]

Hubris......

Obama may well be the protagonist in his very own American tragedy.

[Tim]

May I offer how this whole thing might have been avoided?

Officer arrives at the house and tells the man inside that they have a report of a breakin. The man says this is my house, I live here. I had to force the door open because something was wrong with it. I just got back from a long trip so I was calling someone to fix it for me. The officer asks the man if he can verify his identity to prove he lives there. The man says yes and provides ID that shows he lives at the address. The police thank the man for his cooperation, the man thanks the police for looking out for his property and the whole thing is done in a few minutes. No news media, no screaming and yelling, no comments from the president about his friend being victimized by the 'dumb' police and everyone is happy.

And btw, this is the way it usually happens black or white people involved. But you get one hot-headed angry resident involved that seems to have a chip on his shoulder against the police and can only see how he is being victimized and he has a national voice, and you get this kind of mess.

Maybe the officer could have seen that he was dealing with a lunatic and just walked away to let him stew or yell or complain as he would surely do. Maybe he thought the guy had violated the law and needed to be arrested. I don't know, but from everything I have seen so far, the officer was just trying to do his job and Gates over-reacted in a big way. If he had just listened instead of insisting on 'educating' the officer, this could have all been avoided. But that wouldn't have helped Gates' platform would it?

[Bubba]

"If he had just listened instead of insisting on 'educating' the officer, this could have all been avoided. But that wouldn't have helped Gates' platform would it?"

That's what we're bound to get when a so-called "entitled" party is bound and determined to be part of the problem, rather than being part of the solution.

When you're "entitled", even if you're supposedly intelligent enough to know better, why bother working together toward a solution that doesn't allow you to cop an attitude and exploit your victim status?

[Joe Guarino]

There are several reasons this type of behavior should not have been expected from Gates. First, he is a university professor. Indeed, he has brought discredit to Harvard University with this incident.

Second, he is 58 years old. He should have already grown out of this type of thing, by far.

Third, he is supposed to be the nation's "preeminent" black scholar. What he has done reflects poorly on black scholarship, if the descriptor assigned to him is to be believed.

[cheripicker]

Ah, the esteemed halls of one of our finest institutions of higher learning in the US. Harvard. Where one can sit at the feet of world renowned preeminent scholars and listen to sagacious phrases such as "Ya, I’ll speak with your mama outside."

Here is the complete police report:
http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2009/07/ill-speak-with-your-mama-outside.html

[Stormy]

Consider this from Gates' bio:

"Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University."

Also:

"In the March 16, 1953, upon the death of Joseph Stalin, Du Bois controversially wrote of him in The National Guardian:

Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also - and this was the highest proof of his greatness - he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._E._B._Du_Bois

So, was DuBois really a communist, or at least a socialist? As a protege of DuBois, does Skip Gates follow in Dubois' shoes? And, what does it say that Obama is friendly with so many socialist/anti-American type of person? Obama's list of associates is starting to come together to define him; Frank Marshall Davis, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayres, Bernadine Dorne, Skip Gates, etc. None of this even starts to speak to his Saul Alinsky community organizer training in Chicago. Obama may not have been or is influenced by these radical friends and associates, but he may have been.

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/obamas-communist-mentor/

[Stormy]

Another interesting insight on Obama from Jack Tapper, and Obama's sensitivity to racial profiling:

However post-racial the president tries to seem, as an African-American man, he, like so many, has had his experiences where he thought he was being racially profiled. As a state senator he initiated legislation to – as he put it at the time – put “police departments on notice that they're being observed” while providing “law enforcement with the information they need to address the problems” of racial profiling, while also calling for more training of police.

A 2003 Chicago Tribune story about that effort began: “Like many African-American men, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama (D-Chicago) suspects but cannot prove he was a victim of racial profiling when he was stopped by police for no apparent reason.”

So, given this, did Obama intentionally wade into the Gates affair because of his personal problems with what he viewed as racial profiling? so, maybe it wasn;t about Gates at all...it was about Obama, as it usually is.

[cheripicker]

And he gets a free pass on his own presumed creds as an "African-American Man" to excuse his own race-baiting when he is half caucasian and half native Kenyan. He has no personal or family connection to racial discrimination whatsoever. But why get hung up on such nitpicky inconvenient facts? He "chose" his race to dovetail with his chosen political platform. Most of us don't have such options.

[Stormy]

Yeah, well he married into victims of slavery.

[brandonB]

Another ironic thing is, when crap like the Gate's thing is pulled, the blacks and whites who are racist are only given more ammo. No one learns anything. I don't hear about lynchings today, matter of fact, I can't recall any that happened during my lifetime. That being said, it sends chills through my body everday when I walk through the local apartment complex to the store or bus stop and hear "hey whiteboy!, come here, I need to ask you something." If I go, I'll probably get punched in the face and robbed, if I ignore it and walk the long way back home, I have to answer for that the next day. I don't go crying to the media, I don't cry to the cops, I deal with it like a grown man. I do not know any black folks in my neighborhood who have to deal with that kind of racial intimidation daily. Of course, I've related this to friends on the radical left and then I have to hear how blacks are oppressed and just lashing out, harmlessly, at me. My ancestors stole them and forced them to work in fields. Doesn't matter that half my ancestors were Irish and come to this country long after blacks. I'm white and guilty. I was watching (and soon walked out) one of Paul Mooney's recent stand up special or something like that. He was talking about how it took the events of 9/11 for white people to finally accept black people as human beings, then the whole room I was in, and the crowd on TV applauds and what not. Isn't this the same guy who encourages blacks to call each other nigger? Is he ignorant of the Quakers, Lincoln, FDR, JFK, LBJ? Is he ignorant of the Greensboro Massacre where 4 whites were murdered during a Death to the Klan rally? And his fans, black and white, just eat it up.

[brandonB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4sqEFVr-Y

Here is the clip of preeminent black comedian Paul Mooney that I was referring to. I tried to get into it, but like I said earlier, I walked out at 1:50. Caution, he uses the epithet "nigger" a lot.

[brandonB]

I've been watching a few videos of Gates. It's hard to believe the kind of behavior that Crowley and his colleagues witnessed came from the same man that I've been watching. I think Gates reaction to the police protecting his property can be summed up by this quote of Gates, from his appearance on the Tavis Smily show in 2008:

"When you are desperate or scared you scapegoat people. It exacerbates latent tendencies towards racism."

[cheripicker]

I don’t mean to hijack Joe’s blog, but he sort of gave me permission.

Here’s my one-man Beer Summit:

I’ve been thinking about racism a lot lately. It seems that anytime someone makes a public accusation of it, a brief debate about the merits of the accusation ensues, then, regardless of that specific verdict, expands into another broad national discussion of racism in general. The initial accusation is a very potent means to that end, and seems to have as its only requirement a perceived wrongdoing to a member of one race by a member of another, independent of the validity of the racism charge. The aggrieved person’s accusation is sufficient in itself to warrant yet another round of the broader debate, which in addition to periodic recycling of past incidents, keeps racism in the news at virtually anyone’s whim.

Those who feel that the broader debate should always be kept in the forefront cause those of us who don’t quite see it that way to feel constantly on some vague defensive about something we can’t quite see or define in ourselves. That, according to those who claim the mantle of a keener racial awareness and sensitivity, appears to be our problem. We just don’t realize our own racism. It is perhaps a subconscious thing, perhaps one that we cannot tap into, but it is there. And we may not see it in ourselves, but others can. As one commenter put it, the best we (whites?) can do is to keep it “at least not above the residual level that most all of us carry with us.”

I guess I can buy that. Sometimes my wife and kids will all observe that I’ve seemed cranky or in a bad mood when I don’t feel that way. And even though I thought those qualities were best defined by the person having them, when you’re outnumbered 3 to 1 by those who know you, you start to doubt your ability to define your own mood, so I guess that could apply to racism as well. I was first officially informed that I was a racist by a guy named RBM, whom I have never met, and whom I could not convince otherwise. But he had the facts to back him up.

So why do I always feel so sensitive and defensive when those with police dog-keen senses for detecting racism seem to be sniffing a little too close to me or others similarly deficient? Other than the difficulty in accepting that you didn’t know yourself as well as you thought, there is the problem of what to do about it. I certainly don’t WANT to be a racist. But if I’m taking it on someone else’s word that I am, how do I correct that which I cannot see in myself and what can I do to improve race relations in general?

Is it all about increasing awareness? After the last week of news, blogging and self-reflection, I feel like I’ve got awareness coming out the wazoo. As for the nation, for anyone who has a TV, I’m not sure how much more awareness there could be. But I’m still not sure how to translate my heightened awareness into words and deeds that will make a difference, and toward whom? Is it about saying the “right” things in these various blogs mainly written and read by white males? I don’t really see how and whom that will help very much. I certainly can’t afford reparations. I do some charity work in my occupation, but I have to admit that it’s targeted at low income, not a specific race per se. And maybe I’m being too hard on myself. Maybe I’m not racist but just racially insensitive. But isn’t that just a milder form of the same affliction?

I seem to struggle less with this dilemma when I look at it from a practical standpoint. And in doing so, I have devised the best plan I could come up with: From now on, in my daily interactions with colleagues, coworkers, employees and customers and friends of a different race than my on, as well as anyone else I encounter, I hereby vow to treat them as if I could not see their skin color. This is really the only way I perceive that I can make a difference going forward. I will continue to leave to others the job of curators and preservers of fading wounds. I think most people today realize that they have only one life, and are ready to get busy living it, rather than their forbears’.

I think I can do this, because in my 49 years, so far no one of a different race has ever accused me of being racist. In fact, it's only certain local white bloggers and the national media that have ever made me feel this way. But in the event I find myself struggling, or experience uncertainty or awkwardness, I will mentally pull myself off to the side and whisper “treat him as if he were white”. The beauty of this plan is that I will not have to change anything in that regard. I'm confident that if I can keep my residual, latent racism hidden from my own consciousness, I can probably keep it hidden from others. And if everyone else follows my shining example, we can snuff out racism street by street, workplace by workplace, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city, can we not?

If anyone can think of anything else I or anyone else needs to be doing differently, please let us know.

Or do we need to just keep talking about it?

I Drink Alone----George Thorogood

[Bubba]

"And if everyone else follows my shining example, we can snuff out racism street by street, workplace by workplace, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city, can we not?"

That will never be allowed.

Those who profit from the perceived institution of "racism" will work to keep the guilt trip going strong. The examples that prove this are too many to list, as they seem to be brought to the public conscience almost daily.

This is particularly true as it is commonly applied to decent and fair-minded people of goodwill who are susceptible to being snagged into supporting the meme or shamed at the possibility of being branded as tacit racists.

No actual act of "racism" needs to occur for this to happen. The mere suggestion of such is enough to activate the guilt trip mechanism.

[Jim Buie]

CP,

I appreciate your sincere soul-searching and self-examination on the issue of race. The world could use more of that.

Best,

Jim

[scharrison]

"I certainly don’t WANT to be a racist. But if I’m taking it on someone else’s word that I am, how do I correct that which I cannot see in myself and what can I do to improve race relations in general?"

Cheri, we are all both perpetrators and victims of stereotyping and preconceived notions of what certain behaviors represent. When we meet someone we've never met before and have little or no information about the person, our brain won't simply wait until information is provided before rendering judgment, it uses other (probably irrelevant) info to start building a profile of the person. We can't help it, it's the way we work. And that other person is doing the same thing.

So, when a white person and a black person meet for the first time, such as when a new (black) patient comes to you for treatment, you're both, maybe subconsciously, trying to "assess" each other. You can't stop your brain from jumping to conclusions, but you can recognize the faultiness of those conclusions, and try to build a more realistic profile of the person in your mind. And hope that he is doing the same thing.

At the end of the day, taking each relationship one at a time is really the only way to clear out some of the crap your brain uses to make judgments.

[cheripicker]

Glad you agree.

[Jim Buie]

I'm not sure that "treat him as if he were white" is the right tack to take, any more realistic than if a black man were to try to "treat you as if you were black." That ignores the fact that there are, generally speaking, cultural differences. How about "treat him as if he were human," acknowledging and respecting differences in perception and culture, may be a better tack to take.

Example no. 1: An acquaintance who vows he isn't a racist says he takes the approach you suggest, treating every black person as if he were white. A black man he had known previously moved into his neighborhood, and he "joked" to him, "There goes the neighborhood." My acquaintance was angry that his black neighbor took offense at his joke, which he said he'd say to any white guy who moved in. He later complains to his neighbor about how the Martin Luther King holiday is unnecessary, that King does not deserve a special holiday just because he's black, and he can't understand why the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary.

One time he asked his black neighbor how he was doing, and the response was, "I'm just trying to make it in YOUR world."

My acquaintance says he now avoids this neighbor, and avoids discussing anything of substance with blacks because "they are so sensitive."

I suggested to him that maybe the tension he feels around black people has something to do with his own insensivitity if not boorishness, but he would have none of it.

[cheripicker]

"treat him as if he were white"
There was meant sarcastically, as well as the quip about reparations. Everything else I meant in all sincerity.

[cheripicker]

Tha was meant sarcastically, as well as the quip about reparations. Everything else I meant in all sincerity.