Current events + ongoing thoughts
While browsing online news today, I ran across an article that's a culmination of issues that I've been thinking about recently.
You may or may not know who Robert Louis Gates is. He's a professor of African-American Studies at Harvard (and a pretty important scholar in the field of African-American Studies in general). Today he was arrested for allegedly trying to break into a house in Cambridge, MA. The allegations were false, and he was released in a matter of hours.
The first thing that intrigued me about this occurrence were the public accusations of racial profiling. If you look at many of the comments below the article, several people complain that Gates was a victim of profiling and was basically conspired against in the whole process. Gates too considers himself a victim of such wrongdoing, as do many of his colleagues. What I don't understand, however, is how the public, Gates, and Gates' colleagues all failed to see that the police are undeserving of such an accusation (at least that's how it seems to me)! The police don't really get to choose which leads they will and won't follow. If they get a call that a black guy is trying to break into someone's house, they have to check it out. And if there just so happens to be a black guy at the scene trying to forcibly open a door (which there was; Gates had trouble opening his door and had to push it forcefully), what choice do they have but to apprehend him? That's their job. If anyone should be accused of profiling in this case it's the woman who reported him. Chances are she didn't have a clear view of him and assumed he was black. Even if the call was totally legitimate, no wrong was committed on the cops' part (at least that's not how it seems, factually speaking).
Secondly, people are quick to put the blame on the side of the law (as they often do, and justifiably so in many cases), but the way Gates acted was not appropriate at all. If he really did yell "Do you know who I am?" at the cops, I understand why they arrested him. I would have been upset in such a situation too, but status/intelligence/academic importance does not get you a get-out-of-trouble card. Like I said, the cops were simply doing their job, and they can't not do it because they're dealing with a high-ranking intellectual.
Thirdly, I'm interested in (but not surprised at) the fact that Gates' colleagues were so quick to call foul play in this whole situation. I'm generalizing here, but African-American scholars (and their non-black counterparts) have a habit of jumping to conclusions when it comes to ethnicity. Any "wrong" act against a black person is automatically racist, when in fact mistakes happen every now and then, surprise!. On the other side of the coin, if you happen to be African-American in an intellectual environment like Harvard (goody for me, right?) you're almost expected to have such a response. From what I can tell, if you're African-American in such an environment you're automatically expected to align yourself with anything even remotely related to "race issues", even if it's just on an emotional level. They say racism is over just because we elected Obama, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Reverse racism is still a type of racism -- not reverse racism in the "wise Latina woman" sense, but in the "oh-you've-suffered-so-much-historically-I-can-only-imagine-how-you-feel" sense. Now it seems that both African-American scholars and their "allies" feel that they have to make up for lost time and fight for civil rights, when in fact they're just recycling old stereotypes all over again. It's not the sixties anymore. Racism may still be around but we don't have to be all gung-ho about it. This all seems like a legitimate mistake to me, not a reason to go crying wolf.
In short, it was unfortunate that this happened to him, but I think it was blown out of proportion. No more, no less.
You may or may not know who Robert Louis Gates is. He's a professor of African-American Studies at Harvard (and a pretty important scholar in the field of African-American Studies in general). Today he was arrested for allegedly trying to break into a house in Cambridge, MA. The allegations were false, and he was released in a matter of hours.
The first thing that intrigued me about this occurrence were the public accusations of racial profiling. If you look at many of the comments below the article, several people complain that Gates was a victim of profiling and was basically conspired against in the whole process. Gates too considers himself a victim of such wrongdoing, as do many of his colleagues. What I don't understand, however, is how the public, Gates, and Gates' colleagues all failed to see that the police are undeserving of such an accusation (at least that's how it seems to me)! The police don't really get to choose which leads they will and won't follow. If they get a call that a black guy is trying to break into someone's house, they have to check it out. And if there just so happens to be a black guy at the scene trying to forcibly open a door (which there was; Gates had trouble opening his door and had to push it forcefully), what choice do they have but to apprehend him? That's their job. If anyone should be accused of profiling in this case it's the woman who reported him. Chances are she didn't have a clear view of him and assumed he was black. Even if the call was totally legitimate, no wrong was committed on the cops' part (at least that's not how it seems, factually speaking).
Secondly, people are quick to put the blame on the side of the law (as they often do, and justifiably so in many cases), but the way Gates acted was not appropriate at all. If he really did yell "Do you know who I am?" at the cops, I understand why they arrested him. I would have been upset in such a situation too, but status/intelligence/academic importance does not get you a get-out-of-trouble card. Like I said, the cops were simply doing their job, and they can't not do it because they're dealing with a high-ranking intellectual.
Thirdly, I'm interested in (but not surprised at) the fact that Gates' colleagues were so quick to call foul play in this whole situation. I'm generalizing here, but African-American scholars (and their non-black counterparts) have a habit of jumping to conclusions when it comes to ethnicity. Any "wrong" act against a black person is automatically racist, when in fact mistakes happen every now and then, surprise!. On the other side of the coin, if you happen to be African-American in an intellectual environment like Harvard (goody for me, right?) you're almost expected to have such a response. From what I can tell, if you're African-American in such an environment you're automatically expected to align yourself with anything even remotely related to "race issues", even if it's just on an emotional level. They say racism is over just because we elected Obama, but this couldn't be farther from the truth. Reverse racism is still a type of racism -- not reverse racism in the "wise Latina woman" sense, but in the "oh-you've-suffered-so-much-historically-I-can-only-imagine-how-you-feel" sense. Now it seems that both African-American scholars and their "allies" feel that they have to make up for lost time and fight for civil rights, when in fact they're just recycling old stereotypes all over again. It's not the sixties anymore. Racism may still be around but we don't have to be all gung-ho about it. This all seems like a legitimate mistake to me, not a reason to go crying wolf.
In short, it was unfortunate that this happened to him, but I think it was blown out of proportion. No more, no less.