Mr. President, You Got Caught Up in Henry Louis Gates' Mess

Dear President Obama,

This has been a busy week in Black America, hasn't it?

First your boy, Henry Louis Gates aka Skip, had a run-in with the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts.  Then CNN aired its second exploration of negrodian life with its Black in America 2 documentary.  Needless to say the program was met with a mixture of praise and contempt -- mostly the latter.

I am disappointed with some of the response to Black in America 2 but that's not the purpose of this note.  I am writing to share my thoughts on your response to Lynn Sweet's (Chicago Sun-Times) question about the significance of Skip's arrest and a little of my mother's advice.

I know, I know, you get unsolicited feedback from people all the time.  My goal is not to criticize but to encourage you to remain focused on the bigger picture -- economic recovery; education and health care reforms; Iraq and Afghanistan resolutions; and positive international relations. 

Mr. President, I wish that you would've told Lynn, and all Americans, that Skip's arrest was being handled and didn't require attention from the White House.   

You and I know that there's a chance that race ignited this fire.  If that's the case, it started with Lucia Whalen, Skip's neighbor, who struck the match when she called the police while watching Skip and his driver try to get into his home.

Let's give Lucia the benefit of the doubt and say that she had difficulty distinguishing one Black man from another and preferred to err on the side of caution rather than regret.  Or let's acknowledge the darker, no pun intended, reality that Lucia leveraged Skip's misfortune (being locked out of his home) as a passive-aggressive attempt to make known her race-laced displeasure with living near a Black man or an interracial couple.

We can speculate for days about Lucia's motives, Mr. President, but it would not be fruitful.  In addition, that is not the part of this saga that received a response from you.

I am not convinced that Sgt. James Crowley and his colleagues "acted stupidly" when they arrested Skip as you stated.  I think that they cuffed and charged Skip because he repeatedly popped off at the mouth.

Skip's good has likely outweighed his bad and he has done well as a tenured leader at Harvard and author and with his documentaries.  I can see how he may have forgotten that he is Black in America, 2, as well as the rules that govern a Black man's interaction with the police.  More than that, I believe that Skip's self-perception and inflated ego may have caused him to be uncooperative.  Skip had a "do you know who I am" moment that he has turned into a racial incident. 

That's why I wish that your response to Lynn would've been different. 

Now you are in the unfortunate position of being tangled up in Cambridge-gate and having to smooth over ruffled feathers among the boys in blue.  This at a time when your attention needs to be on matters that are more important than Skip's ego.

So, here are the words of wisdom that my mother shared with me and now I share with you:

1) Be still and find out what's going on before you jump into things

2) You can't comment on everything; sometimes you have to keep your opinions to yourself

I am sure that this will be water under the bridge soon for you and, please, don't worry about Skip.  Farai Chideya, author and newswoman extraordinaire, best summed up his fate in a recent tweet.  She said that there will be a gold (not a silver) lining in all of this for Skip.  

Let's take bets on if this will yield a new book or documentary.  If it's a documentary, do you think CNN will air it?  And will Black America give it a chance?

Comments

[L Martin Johnson Pratt]

My thoughts exactly! POTUS is awesome. He just needs to not feel comfortable when he feels comfortable he is likely to say anything and unlike Bush who really said any DAMN STUPID thing. POTUS is not allowed to make any mistake at all.

[J. Stone]

I have to say that I agree and disagree with parts of your blog.

I completely agree that sometimes Obama needs to keep his opinions to himself. Don't allow the media to bait you into something that is not your fight. Your fight and focus must stay on the tenets of your campaign. Too much is at stake!

However, I disagree that Skip, if you will, acted in any way, inappropriately. Should he have toned it down and not let anger and outrage prevail? Of course, that is the rule in any situation.

However, as a police officer from IL noted on WVON-AM (Chicago), it was the officer's responsibility to gain control and walk away when Skip lost his cool. They had the information that they needed (they saw his ID). They should have walked away and let the man rant.

In addition, let me submit that someone who teaches diversity training and issues to other police officers should have recognized the rant for what it was - historical discrimination culminating in this situation -- and walked away. Instead, the ego war began and as usual, the boy in blue trumped the table with his power to arrest.

I guess the only solution (since this blog focuses on solutuions) is to follow the Biblical principle: be angry, but sin not. Or Proverbs 3:5-6: "Pride (on both sides) goes before destruction and a puffed up spirit before a fall."

[You Make Me Sick]

@ L. Martin Johnson Pratt: You are right. President Obama has to keep in mind that every word he utters draws attention.

@ J. Stone: You make a valid point about both men operating out of anger and in pride. Mr. Obama got caught up in Skip and James' mess. I think that's better.

[r quashie]

You nailed it and your mother was right!

[Cynthia]

My lasts two cents on the matter. I promise. I firmly believe one has the ask, why the arrest at all? No matter that Gates was acting out.

Here's an article from Cyrus Bina that expresses my sentiment about the matter.

http://counterpunch.org/bina07312009.html

A brief excerpt:

The question, therefore, is not whether Professor Gates “resisted arrest” or “talked back” to the arresting officer; the pertinent question is why an arrest in the first place. Upon hearing the released 911 tape from the Cambridge police--following the caller initial report—the police officer suddenly asks: “… are they White, Black or Hispanics…” The question remarkably provides its own answer, namely, that the typology of race is a premeditating factor that terrifically is on the mind of officer who sends the squad car to Ware Street. As we can see, answer then is racial profiling, which consciously and/or unconsciously has been and still is an essential part of the police training in all our 50 States, plus the District of Columbia. And, worse, the “science” of profiling of all kinds has decidedly been further fortified by the fear-mongering and civil-liberty-grabbing attitude of the post-9/11 in this country—this needs to stop.