I haven't read every word of "print" on the story and fallout of Henry Louis Gates, esteemed Harvard professor, who was arrested in his own home by a police officer who thought he was breaking in. Race is a topic I hesitate to write publicly about. As my Latino friend Rudy once said about chiming in on a debate about African Americans, "I'm not black, and I can't say how I'd feel."
So this is not going to take the perspective of "A Phantom Negro" who criticizes Gates for acting like he was in too high a position to be treated that way, or the Cambridge police chief who criticized President Obama for saying the Cambridge police acted "stupidly."
I just want to say a few things. First, I have long admired Henry Louis Gates, Jr., not because I know much about his scholarship, but because I have been proud that a black man rose to the heights of academic excellence and esteem. Second, I was outraged by the arrest, going to that place in my brain where all the stories of racial profiling have been stored. Third, I don't think President Obama was wrong to say the police acted stupidly. Apparently they did.
But maybe he shouldn't have said much about it at all. Maybe none of us should say much about what another person does. At age 53 - not old, not young - I've come to see and hear many, many stories. People stories. From afar, a person's actions might seem scandalous, unwise, downright stupid. But then they'll tell me their story, for an hour, and in just one hour I come to understand their story a little - enough to step down off my high horse of judgment and imagine their life.
Eckhart Tolle says that if you were born with the same genes and the same circumstances as any other human being, you would make the same choices they have. So far, I think he might be right. So I am going to withhold judgment of Gates, of Sgt. James Crowley who arrested him, and of President Obama for using that word about something he didn't know a lot about. It's a wilderness of unkown to assess any person's actions. I'm not talking about murder, or other heinous crimes, I think you know that.
8 comments:
Yes.
If nothing else, maybe it will get communities to look at their own police departments' policies on racial profiling. The media frenzy over this reflects, I think, what a salient topic it is.
I like this, from the head of Harvard's program on negotiation:
"Mnookin: What I think would be interesting, and perhaps useful, is if they really sat down as two people, as two human beings. If they were both interested in exploring, what had happened, how did this happen, what impact did it have on each of them; that I think would be perhaps valuable. ...What would be interesting on a human level to see is if they would each be willing to try to listen to each other and see the world from the other person’s perspective, without letting go of their own perspective."
The whole interview is here
Oh, he was talking about the police sergeant and Gates.
I just typed a really long response, but it was basically a bunch of words that ended up agreeing with you. And since you're the better writer I'll just say - "I agree with you!"
Amen to that...
I live in the Houston metro, where instances of racial profiling by police abound. I abhor the practice, and applaud every effort here to deal with it.
However. Sargeant Crowley didn't happen to walk by Professor Gates' home, glance in the window, see a Black man inside and think, "There's no way a Black man could afford that house in this neighborhood,.He must be an ntruder." That would be profiling, but that's not what happened.
Sgt. Crowley appeared at Gates' home because a call had come to the police station suggesting someone might be breaking in.He wasassigned to respond to the call. At that point, there's no racial profiling involved at all, only a standard response to a call.
Further, Gates was not arrested because Crowley thought he was breaking in. By the time things got dicey, Gates' right to be there had been established. If anything, I suspect two strong-willed men started butting heads and what happened, happened. The arrest was for disorderly conduct or its equivalent. Whether that was a good idea can be argued (I don't think the arrest was necessary) but it could have been headed off by Gates himself.
There simply is no indication that Sgt. Crowley broke procedures. A police officer called to such a scene has every right to demand an accounting from everyone present - specifically, their identity. If Prof. Gates' Harvard identity card did not carry his home address, there was still ambiguity to be cleared up.
I have encountered stupid and abusive police, and have no tolerance for them. On the other hand, I've been acquainted with highly esteemed, highly intelligent Black academicians who also are hypersensitive and more than willing to play the race card when it suits their purposes.
What happened here will sort itself out. But Professor Gates is not totally without responsibility for what happened, and Sgt. Crowley, a specialist in racial profiling, has no doubt learned a painful lesson about how far we have to go in such matters.
(I've been stewing over this all day. Thanks for the chance to chime in!)
I'm blog bopping and thought I'd check out one of your others! I've had the privilege of meeting Dr. Gates at a PBS meeting and have huge respect for him, his accomplishments, his programs. So, I was following this one closely. And I couldn't agree with you more about everything you wrote here. Beautifully said.
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