Proof that racism is alive and well Options

[THECHICKEN]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_...cholar_analysis

It took less than a day for the arrest of Henry Louis Gates to become racial lore. When one of America's most prominent black intellectuals winds up in handcuffs, it's not just another episode of profiling — it's a signpost on the nation's bumpy road to equality.

The news was parsed and Tweeted, rued and debated. This was, after all Henry "Skip" Gates: Summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale. MacArthur "genius grant" recipient. Acclaimed historian, Harvard professor and PBS documentarian. One of Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Americans" in 1997. Holder of 50 honorary degrees.

If this man can be taken away by police officers from the porch of his own home, what does it say about the treatment that average blacks can expect in 2009?

Earl Graves Jr., CEO of the company that publishes Black Enterprise magazine, was once stopped by police during his train commute to work, dressed in a suit and tie.

"My case took place back in 1995, and here we are 14 years later dealing with the same madness," he said Tuesday. "Barack Obama being the president has meant absolutely nothing to white law enforcement officers. Zero. So I have zero confidence that (Gates' case) will lead to any change whatsoever."

The 58-year-old professor had returned from a trip to China last Thursday afternoon and found the front door of his Cambridge, Mass., home stuck shut. Gates entered the back door, forced open the front door with help from a car service driver, and was on the phone with the Harvard leasing company when a white police sergeant arrived.

Gates and the sergeant gave differing accounts of what happened next. But for many people, that doesn't matter.

They don't care that Gates was charged not with breaking and entering, but with disorderly conduct after repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number. It doesn't matter whether Gates was yelling, or accused Sgt. James Crowley of being racist, or that all charges were dropped Tuesday.

All they see is pure, naked racial profiling.

"Under any account ... all of it is totally uncalled for," said Graves.

"It never would have happened — imagine a white professor, a distinguished white professor at Harvard, walking around with a cane, going into his own house, being harassed or stopped by the police. It would never happen."

Racial profiling became a national issue in the 1990s, when highway police on major drug delivery routes were accused of stopping drivers simply for being black. Lawsuits were filed, studies were commissioned, data was analyzed. "It is wrong, and we will end it in America," President George W. Bush said in 2001.

Yet for every study that concluded police disproportionately stop, search and arrest minorities, another expert came to a different conclusion. "That's always going to be the case," Greg Ridgeway, who has a Ph.D in statistics and studies racial profiling for the RAND research group, said on Monday. "You're never going to be able to (statistically) prove racial profiling. ... There's always a plausible explanation."

Federal legislation to ban racial profiling has languished since being introduced in 2007 by a dozen Democratic senators, including then-Sen. Barack Obama.

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., said that was partly because "when you look at statistics, and you're trying to prove the extent, the information comes back that there's not nearly as much (profiling) as we continue to experience."

But Davis has no doubt that profiling is real: He says he was stopped while driving in Chicago in 2007 for no reason other than the fact he is black. Police gave him a ticket for swerving over the center line; a judge said the ticket didn't make sense and dismissed it.

"Trying to reach this balance of equity, equal treatment, equal protection under the law, equal understanding, equal opportunity, is something that we will always be confronted with. We may as well be prepared for it," he said.

Amid the indignation over Gates' case, a few people pointed out that he may have violated the cardinal rule of avoiding arrest: Do not antagonize the cops.

The police report said that Gates yelled at the officer, refused to calm down and behaved in a "tumultuous" manner. Gates said he simply asked for the officer's identification, followed him into his porch when the information was not forthcoming, and was arrested for no reason. But something about being asked to prove that you live in your own home clearly struck a nerve — both for Gates and his defenders.

"You feel violated, embarrassed, not sure what is taking place, especially when you haven't done anything," said Graves of his own experience, when police made him face the wall and frisked him in Grand Central Station in New York City. "You feel shocked, then you realize what's happening, and then you feel it's a violation of everything you stand for."

And that this should happen to "Skip" Gates — the unblemished embodiment of President Obama's recent admonition to black America not to search for handouts or favors, but to "seize our own future, each and every day" — shook many people to the core.

Wrote Lawrence Bobo, Gates' Harvard colleague, who picked his friend up from jail: "Ain't nothing post-racial about the United States of America."

Obviously race related...

[FORSAKENR320]

i see no issue here in the arrest. the guy WAS instigating disorderly conduct. yelling at a police officer wether you're white or black accounts to the same thing, and thats the exact charge he was arrested for.

yell and scream at an officer who pulls you over for a broken tail light... you get that exact charge. (bonded that one out tonight, actually)


obviously the officer was called to the scene, a nieghbor alerted the police, etc. i see nothing wrong with asking for identification and proof of residency in a case involving a potential breaking and entering. so why would one be so upset about this? unless of course they thing that their prestige of accomplishments and their skin color should make them an acception to the laws that apply to everyone....

fucking race-cards

[chook]

IT could of been, but I was asked by an officer to show ID when I was in my own house once.

[impala454]

As soon as all criminal activity is split perfectly even between all races, I'll give "racial profiling" a second thought. Until then, this guy needs to STFU. That's not racism, it's statistics.

Not to mention I'd be elated that my neighbors called the police because they thought there was a break-in happening at my place. I'd be delighted to present my ID and show that it's my house and that everything is ok and thanks for coming out to make sure.

Lastly, I'm so sure the cops wouldn't have asked for ID if the guy was white...

[Spectatrix]

Without a third party to confirm what actually happened, its hard to discern whether this is a case of racial profiling or not. If the police report is accurate and the professor was acting irate, I certainly don't consider his arrest evidence of racism. If the professor is telling the truth that he happily produced identification and was arrested anyway, then something is indeed awry.

Racism is indeed alive and well in some corners of the world, but this case is too scant on reliable details to be used as evidence regarding race relations.

[The Fanatic]

I don't think it was racism. He was asked to cooperate and he refused. Those are the consequences. End of story.

This post has been edited by The Fanatic: Jul 22 2009, 10:24 AM

[Inferia]

I don't think it was racism. He was asked to cooperate and he refused. Those are the consequences. End of story.

Do you say that because you believe that a cop's story is more reliable than someone who is not a cop? Or do you say that because the person who is saying the other side of the story is a black man? Either way, I don't think it's end of the story, when the beginning of the story just started...


And impala, I don't know how you're familiar with the white privilege, or anyone on this board for that matter. Don't you think that being born black, and is an expert in African American studies would make one a little edgy when it comes to police officers identifying you as a criminal in your own home? I don't know, I would think so...

[impala454]

They weren't identifying him as a criminal. Just identifying. Are the officers supposed to not ask for his ID when the house was called in for a robbery?!?!

And where/when did I claim to be familiar with anyone on the board and why does that even matter?

This post has been edited by jonathan83: Jul 22 2009, 01:04 PM

Reason for edit: profanity/insults

[The Fanatic]

Do you say that because you believe that a cop's story is more reliable than someone who is not a cop? Or do you say that because the person who is saying the other side of the story is a black man? Either way, I don't think it's end of the story, when the beginning of the story just started...


And impala, I don't know how you're familiar with the white privilege, or anyone on this board for that matter. Don't you think that being born black, and is an expert in African American studies would make one a little edgy when it comes to police officers identifying you as a criminal in your own home? I don't know, I would think so...

You bring up a valid point, however if the man in question was White and arrested for similar reasons then my opinion would remain unchanged. So do you believe that a cop's story isn't reliable? I guess it depends on the cop or person in question to determine how reliable a story is or is not. I don't know these people personally and I do admit that sometimes cops can get unruly and power hungry. However, he should have just showed the officer his ID instead of jumping to conclusions. If anyone's racist it's probably the woman who called in the robbery.


This post has been edited by jonathan83: Jul 22 2009, 01:10 PM

Reason for edit: removed quoted insult from impala's post

[jonathan83]

this is NPR and everyone is supposed to be civil in here. no more insults impala.

[THECHICKEN]

If you look at the picture on the webpage, one of the arresting officers is black.

Even in the video the guys friend breaks it down like this: "he showed his identification and then asked for the cops name and badge number so he could file a complaint".

In my opinion this black scholar had a chip on his shoulder and had a belief that because a cop was following up on a reported breaking and entering he was obviously racist. Hell even if the cop was an asshole to him.... IT WAS A REPORTED FELONY, of course the cop would be edgy going to a call like that. Shit if i was the cops i would say "we don't apologize and hopefully he doesn't have a real need for police in the future. " Profiling would be stopping a guy for being in a white neighborhood. This guy was arrested for being an asshole to a cop who was there FOR A VALID REASON (call about break-in). How its racism in the least i don't see it.

[chook]

More like white privledged to pay for student loans.

[Inferia]

You bring up a valid point, however if the man in question was White and arrested for similar reasons then my opinion would remain unchanged. So do you believe that a cop's story isn't reliable? I guess it depends on the cop or person in question to determine how reliable a story is or is not. I don't know these people personally and I do admit that sometimes cops can get unruly and power hungry. However, he should have just showed the officer his ID instead of jumping to conclusions. If anyone's racist it's probably the woman who called in the robbery.

I mostly commented on that because I was reading another website earlier, and one of the commenters said that many people seemed to believe the cop's story over Gates' story. This is particularly interesting because I feel like cops do not have a great reputation, and in many situations people tend to believe "the people" over the cops. I don't know which one is more reliable, I think both parties were stressed out and were in a heightened emotional state, which probably screws with everyone's memories. Plus Gates probably just got off a 16 hr flight and with jetlag, not the greatest time for stuff to go down.

this story reminds me something a friend told that happened to him a few years back. He was in high school at the time, and the first time that he realized what race is. He was walking down the street in NYC with a friend, and the cops were looking for someone who's black and wearing a black coat. My friend was stopped, face pressed to the wall and hand cuffed. All because he was black and wearing a black coat, he said that his life flashed before his eyes and was worried that he will have to spend the rest of his life in jail for a crime that he didn't even know about.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0722/p02s01-usju.html
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/4542..._racial_project

couple of other articles on the matter/person. Mind you, the nation is pretty left winged (though apparently slowly migrating east).

[FORSAKENR320]

jet lag or not, it's no excuse for not cooperating with the law.


thats like you saying that it's ok to beat your wife if you've had a bad day.




i think the only real racist in this situation is the black professor

[chook]

Damn, he compares himself to W.E.B. DuBois. This guy is a prick who uses race to keep us seperated instead of just Americans.