Gates, Race and Cowardice

By Danae Jones Aicher | Friday, July 24th, 2009 | Policy

Once again, politics- and it seems, egos- are getting in the way of a real and possibly healing conversation on race. Last week’s arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates, a well-respected Harvard professor by a well-respected Cambridge police officer has exploded into a nasty back-and-forth argument that is not only predictable, but also insincere. Those who are tired, frustrated and have had enough of racial discrimination of people of color on one side and those who are tired, frustrated and have heard enough about said discrimination on the other. The result is only a deepening of the divisions over race in America… and more frustration that gets us nowhere.

We watched similar divisions over Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” comments and even Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s inflammatory comments during the presidential election. All of these incidents (along with others) presented America with an opportunity to have a real and honest discussion on race- however painful- and, in each of these incidents, we missed that moment, allowing politics to get in the way. That may or may not help politicians and political pundits. It does not help Americans.

There’s a lot that’s hard to discern as truth in the Gates arrest. Gates recounts the incident one way, the arresting officer recounts it another way. Both men, arguably, are credible. But there is one inescapable fact that seems to get lost in this debate: Gates was in his own home and identified at the time of his arrest as the rightful occupant of the home. I find it interesting that some of the police officer’s strongest defenders (and therefore Gates’s strongest critics) are the very same people who hold “one’s home” as the ultimate place of safety and personal rights. Regardless of race, we all expect to be safe from undue or unnecessary harassment of any kind in our own homes… barring any violation of the law. And, as one observer pointed out, being a jerk is not a violation of the law. Not even Sgt. Crowley’s report indicates that Gates posed any threat to police or anyone else, which, at the end of the day, disorderly conduct is about. In fact, part of that report is cited an initial New York Times article about the incident:

“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence,” Sergeant Crowley wrote in the report, “I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me.”

So, without calling Crowley racist, why not use this as an opportunity to really talk about race and the role it still plays in America? Is every white cop who arrests a black man or finds a black man suspicious necessarily racist? Of course not. Does that mean that racism doesn’t play a role in how people of color are treated throughout the justice system? Of course not. There are still two America’s based on race regardless of class. Education and hard work count for a lot. Most people of color agree with that fact. Most of us also know that we are still vulnerable no matter our professional and academic achievements. What is wrong with talking about that openly?

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