On Skip Gates and What It Means to Have a Black President

[bana05]

According to NYT writer Katharine Q. Seelye, “Americans got a rare glimpse Wednesday night of what it means to have a black president in the Oval Office.” It’s not exactly clear what that quote means; but one could suppose she is saying Americans now have a president who will, if not put a spotlight on the elephant in the country that is racism,

Comments

[stoplookingup]

Other than a couple of traffic stops, my white husband has not been stopped by a cop since he was 16 (30 years ago), at which time he actually was committing vandalism and was caught in the act

[bana05]

I was stopped for speeding while I was in college, probably just before senior year. I had NEVER been so terrified, especially because I was in the wrong. Lord only knew what could happen--me alone on the backroads in SC in a nice car. I think the cop (yes, he was white) saw me freaking out that he let me go with a warning. But I kept my hands on the steering wheel and everything. I was lucky that day--both because I didn't get a ticket and because I got a decent cop to stop me. But every person of color, no matter the station, knows that possibility is still out there.

And Prof. Gates is one of the least incendiary "black scholars" out there. He ain't no Cornel West, that's for damn sure--and I loves me some Cornel West!

[stoplookingup]

I can only imagine how you must have felt. In New York the cops were generally pretty laid back, but when I went to college in Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia, it was another story. I remember Freshman year when a friend of mine came back from an orientation for black students at Du Bois House, she told me they had a talk about the Philly police. They were told that they could expect to be treated more or less like any Penn students by campus cops -- but set foot off campus, and they could expected to be treated like "any other West Philly nigger." And that was a deadly serious warning.

[bana05]

They were told that they could expect to be treated more or less like any Penn students by campus cops -- but set foot off campus, and they could expected to be treated like "any other West Philly nigger." And that was a deadly serious warning.

Except you don't even get that at Harvard sometimes. I try to always make eye contact with cops because I want them to know what I look like and for them to know I do belong here.

[box_in_the_box]

Yeah, I got into a few flame wars over this on ontd_political, including with one white Baby Boomer who - and I still can't even believe they made it so easy for me to fill my Bingo Card - trotted out the I MARCHED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN THE '60S SO HOW DARE YOU TELL ME WHAT'S RACIST AND WHAT'S NOT line.

The fact that she refused to respond to ACTUAL BLACK PEOPLE pointing out her racism simply made it all the more WTF.

And yes, it is TOTALLY a "tone" argument, which, even as a white person, pisses me off, because if I get falsely accused of the police of "breaking into" my own goddamn house, I consider myself entirely within my legal rights to refer to those officers as goddamn motherfuckers who should get the fucking fuck off my fucking property.

[bana05]

Well, of course you're entitled, as you are white. It's us uppity cullud folk who should mind our manners, even when we're right.

[box_in_the_box]

Very true, but I dream of a perfect world in which people of all colors are one day every bit as entitled to be just as assholish as me. :)

I'm like the alien-created mimicry of Kirk's old academy classmate, in that one episode of Star Trek, who basically spent the entire episode saying FIGHT ME JIMMY. :)

[bana05]

Jeebus, but he was a tool.

[abydosangel]

Awesome post. The entire thing needs to be waved around and quoted for truth.

[bana05]

Thanks. And I'm lucky, because sis and I are first generation post-Jim Crow in my family. And this isn't some "long time ago" stuff; nor is it "only in the South". This is wherever my black behind goes, stuff, don't forget there are people who will treat you this way. You always gotta remember.

[neadods]

There's a thing called a bodiband - a wristwallet with a clear face used for ID purposes. It's advertised for school trips, and I have one I wear at conventions instead of hanging the badge around my neck.

The inventor doesn't talk about it now, but when the company first went live, the article in the paper said he'd invented it because he got pulled over for Driving While Black far too often - and a cop scared him by assuming he was reaching for a gun when he went to get his wallet.

I've got no clue why this is supposed to be "post-racial" America when the election of a black President has only brought a great deal of bigotry to the surface.

[bana05]

Damn, that's deep. And brilliant. I'll look into those, thanks!

And you're right...this "post-racial" mess is a joke that's not very funny.

[neadods]

Bodiband. He's seriously branched out since he started (*am amused by the "iPod friendly!" notice on the site*).

I seriously don't understand how anyone can say "post-racial" with a straight face. Are they not paying attention to anything outside 1600 PA Avenue?

[bana05]

They're not even paying attention to what's going on in 1600 PA Ave.

And thanks for the link!

[xerox78]

All this to say, “racial profiling” is what civilian folk call “stereotyping”. It’s what many people of color, in this case black folk, describe as “Driving While Black”; “Shopping While Black”, “Walking While Black”, or, a new term, “Entering One’s House While Black.” It’s being pulled over for driving too nice a car and claim a car had been stolen that fit the description.[ii] It’s being told straight to one’s face with a broad smile to “remember to buy the dress before leaving the store”.[iii] It’s waiting at the door to be seated at a restaurant for thirty minutes, watching other people come in and being seated in the meantime, before finally being given service.[iv] It’s people giving one odd looks as one walks into her college dorm, because when they had gone to school, their dorm-mates hadn’t looked a thing like her.[v] It’s alumni asking if the entertainment had been flown in for the festivities even though the group had been introduced as club from campus.Add to that [vii] going to a yard sale and being told that everything

[bana05]

*smh*