Dr. Gates has written and researched extensively on the history of the black experience. For those of us who have any sort of interest in reading up on African and African-American history, Dr. Gates' (along with Kwame Appiah) name is synonomous with the field. Which all brings me to my disappointment. I realize over the past few days that many African-Americans (both the famous and the facebook versions) have expressed their anger over the actions of the Cambridge police force. But why?
As African-Americans, we are always quick to join forces to unite when under duress or times of inequality. We can even go back to two weeks ago when Michael Jackson passed away. For the past ten years, Michael Jackson and the insertion of any combination of 'bleaching' or 'voice' or 'baby held out porch' or 'NeverWILLISENDMYKIDTOTHATLand' has evoked widespread laughter from the audiences of all of America's known and lesser known black comedians. But for the past two weeks,
you better dare not say nothing about Mike! I digress.
Last Thursday, Dr. Gates was arrested on suspicion of breaking and entering. That much is true. The rest is subject to interpretation and point of view. According to the police report, Gates intially refused to step out onto the porch when confronted by the police. Furthermore, he refused to show the officers his identification. According to Gates, he followed the directions of the police officers. They did not follow his request to tell him their badge numbers and names. At that point, he became angry.
Now, we will never fully receive the true version of events. This isn't to say that any of the parties is lying. It is to say that the one side (
the police) is going to be overzealous in defending their actions. The other side (
Gates) is extremely upset over how he has been treated trying to enter his
own house. But this much is true. According to both the police report and Dr. Gates himself, he either said, [police report - in response to to being asked to open the door of his house], "Why, because I am a black man in America" or [Gates' version of events - in response to not being told the name and badge number of the first police officer], "You're not responding because I'm a black man, and you're a white officer."
Place me in the minority here (no pun intended), but when you utter any one of those responses to a police officer (or anyone for that matter), the offended person will probably not respond in the most polite of ways. Furthermore, if you berate the officer continually to get him to tell you your name and follow him out of your house, should it really be a surprise when two metal links are placed around your wrists?
What I'm writing isn't to defend the actions of the police force or okay racism or racial profiling in our society. I am writing to convey my disappointment in the actions of
our foremost intellectual. Gates is a 5'7, 150 pound, light-skinned black man with glasses and a cane. He is rarely going to racially profiled based on his appearance. And in the case when he is (which is allegedly what happened here), it
should be all the more shocking
because of his appearance. I am a 6'1, 200 pound, dark-skinned black man with no glasses and a confident walk. I think it's fairly safe to say that I have been the victim of racism and racial profiling much more often in the past 10 years than Gates has. Perhaps this is why I can't side with Dr. Gates on this one. Perhaps because after years of being pulled over while driving (four times) and having to place my bag at the front of the store when I later realized every other person had their bag with them (three times), hearing an obscene number of racist comments and/or epithets thrown in the direction of myself or other brethren in my company, and having numerous other friends had things much worse done to them, I feel it is only right for me to say to Dr. Gates: 1)Please don't make a mountain out of a molehill so that you can now claim to have been the victim of racial profiling and 2)You don't have to embolden your blackness by claiming to have been wronged by the justice system. You're makeup (physical and social) doesn't quite match up.
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