Lose, Lose When You Talk About Race
Why the Gates Affair Bored Us
President Obama and the subject of race remind me of the proverbial camel’s back and straws: the American people shrugged off “typical white person”, then forgave the clingers speech. They bristled a bit about “No more disown Rev. Wright than…” and started to become concerned about “downright mean country” and Michelle’s never before being proud of the good old U.S. Sotomayor’s “wise Latina” and self-referencing “as a Latina” ad nauseam did not help. Nor did Attorney General Holder’s slur that we were “cowards.” And now the Gates affair. Minor of course. But it is the proverbial straw that finally seems on this issue to really be breaking the back of the American people, who are not only tired of racial evocation, but tired of Barack Obama and those elites around him using race for self-serving sermonizing—especially given their former confidence in Obama to lead us to racial transcendence. So read on…
Psychodramas
African-American professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested in his own home by a white policeman for disorderly conduct (I think mostly for insulting a cop) and then subsequently released. Such misunderstandings happen all the time. Many in the Civil Rights community, however, were outraged at the arrest. And they cited Gates’ treatment as proof that racism was still very much alive in the age of President Barack Obama.
America Snoozes
But as details emerged about the incident, the outrage of the African-American self-appointed leadership oddly failed to ignite even liberal America. And why it did not tells us much about a changing United States. So let us list the ways in which we did not much care whether or not Professor Gates had to go down to the station for screaming epithets at an investigating police officer.
Race is Not So Simple
1) America is no longer a white/black country. Due to liberal policies, tens of millions of Asians and Hispanics have recently immigrated to the United States. And far from seeing themselves, along with blacks, as a unified “people of color”, they split along various class and racial lines on almost every issue.
Intermarriage has created millions of Americans who don’t consider themselves part of any race. Gates may be a professor of white/black racial bias, but millions of nonwhite Americans have evolved beyond his easy dichotomies. Tens of thousands of Koreans, Filipinos, Mexicans, Hondurans, and Punjabis living in America are no doubt mystified by Gates’ furor. Most in their own lives perhaps instantly profile those on the streets of their neighborhoods not by race, but in rough accordance with their perceptions of prevailing crime statistics. From my travels in Hispanic, Arab, Asian, and European countries, I would speculate that those of African ancestry are treated most equitably (by far) in the United States.
No More Monolithic Poor
2) There is now not only a black middle class, but an elite one as well. Professor Gates is one of the highest paid professors in the United States. As soon as he was arrested, the African-American mayor of Cambridge, the African-American governor of Massachusetts, and the African-American president of the United States all weighed in on his behalf.
When he sneered at the arresting officer “You don’t know whom you are messing with”, Gates was quite right—and so was released almost immediately once the calls came pouring in. In contemporary America, the wealthy and influential Gates, and his close political friends, are part of the establishment—and Sgt. Crowley who arrested him a member of hoi polloi without capital or chums in high places.
America shrugs that when an elite like Gates, a zillionaire like white-faced Michael Jackson, or an Bruno-Magli shoed O.J. gets caught in their own self-induced legal jams, they will too often immediately revert to racial victimization and try to convince America that they are living in Mississippi circa 1930. Good luck with that in the multiracial 21st century.
Living is stereotyping of some sort
3) Gates’ accusations of stereotyped racism, the President’s assertion that blacks are unfairly profiled by police, and Governor Patrick’s claim that the arrest was the nightmare of every black man—all failed to register with the American people.
Why? Because such allegations, even if they were true and some may well be, are only part of the complex 21-century story of race and the police. Attorney General Holder may call the American people cowards for not engaging in a national conversation on race. But the Gates incident, and the reaction of the Massachusetts governor and the president of the United States, reminded them why they don’t welcome these melodramatic “conversations.” Such therapy sessions never involve questions of personal responsibility—specifically why African-American males commit crimes at rates both higher than the general population’s, and at levels higher than other minority groups that likewise struggle with poverty and unfairness.
Among the things I dislike most about the Left is its determination to retain its political power by working overtime to prevent the emergence of the almost colorblind society we could probably have if it weren’t for various people (both non-white and white) gleefully pulling out the race card at every opportunity.
Also, Dr. Hanson, I love you for writing “hoi polloi” rather than “THE hoi polloi.”
Once more the professor deserves commendation for his dispassionate reporting and spot-on insight into the feelings that resulted by Mr. Gates’ abominable behavior toward the policeman.
I’m having a problem getting past it. The professor calls it the last straw. It is for me. Blacks should know that decent people who’ve been sympathetic are now infuriated.
I’ve had it with blacks demeaning this country. It’s given them so much…so many millionaires, celebrities, academics and businessmen. I’ve had it with white people in the media calling people ‘racists’. I couldn’t care less what they call me anymore. They are the racists. They treat blacks like babies and the handicapped. Give them more. Give them more.
I’ve heard black parents destroy their young children by heaping loud vile scorn on them. Most(?) are angrily taught by their own mothers and fathers that they’re _______. They’re beaten and killed by their own in disproportionate numbers.
And now they want us to sympathize their pain? And now they want us to pay for their disfunctional mindset? I don’t think so…anymore.
There’s your dialog, Mr. Holder.
I think Supreme Leader was knocked off his stride last week. The Age of Obama is becoming the Obama Blip and he don’t like it, bro. So, we must be understanding when his mind is not sharply focussed on the words given by Lord Teleprompter. Or it may be that Lord Telemprompter had no clue about what is in the Obamacare scheme nor how to sell it, so the One who Won had to wing it. And we know He trails Joe Biden in the wing it department. I blame Bush.
African-American elites use the black underclass the same way Bolsheviks used the Russian proletariat. It’s a cynical ploy to create and maintain a power base.
I’m reminded of the opening scene from Enemy at the Gates. Russian commissars order a massive wave attack and then gun down their own when the attack fails. What the collectivist left doesn’t understand is that their leaders consider them completely expendable.
We will never resolve our race issues because a few have found considerable advantage in keeping the issue alive. Most Americans simply shrug it off now because the issue always leads to the same cul de sac, and nothing is ever resolved. But then, resolution was never the intention.
A neighbor called the police on my wife
and myself while moving old furniture
out of our house. The neighbors were not
familiar with us and the cops were just
doing their job. We were not forcing
entry but had used keys and were in already.
The police were of course cautious and
we showed them ID and did not become
belligerent. If we had become obnoxious
I have no doubt we would have been
arrested. It was startling but we kept
our cool. If we were Black we would have
been victims of racism except we are not.
A Black friend of mine felt he was profiled when a cop pulled him over for driving
with an expired vehicle permit. He was told
to drive home and not to bring that car back
on the road until he had it renewed.
Being a holiday and the permit was only
recently expired he felt it was unfair.
I asked him if he got a ticket-he didn’t
just the warning. Such a display of racism
by the White cop!
When you have a guilt industry operating
and a redneck attitude in a community
everything becomes an issue.
AG Holder wanted an honest discussion on race, well I intend to give it to him.
Discrimination against WHITE working and middle class people is LEGAL in practice in the United States.
That is against only WHITES NOBODY ELSE!
Rich and powerful elites buy their way and their children’s way around this and do not give a rat’s ass about our families.They are the liberal elitists. Some are even called “conservatives”.
Its a disgrace, its evil, and its totally illegal according to the 14th amendment of the Constitution.
Obama and his wife not only support this discrimination they are advancing it. They want their pound of flesh from working and middle class white people. They hate and wish to destroy them.
Anybody that implies that all sides are equally guilty is a PC liar and coward.
“African-American professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested in his own home by a white policeman for disorderly conduct (I think mostly for insulting a cop) and then subsequently released.”
I do not believe that Officer James Crowley arrested Henry Louis Gates because he felt insulted. It appears that Henry Louis Gates refused to allow him to verify both his identity—and right to be inside the house. Furthermore, police officers often arrest someone in these circumstances to protect themselves from a phony lawsuit at a later date. Dropping the charges also does not necessarily mean that a crime was not committed. It may simply be a matter where the local prosecutor normally prefers not to take such cases to the next level if at all possible.
Dr. Hanson, it’s not that we do not want white collar criminals punished (harshly) it’s that such crime evokes a different kind of fear and, therefore, a different kind of reaction. White collar crime affects where we are willing to put our money , violent crime affects where we are willing to put ourselves. Bernie Madoff deserves as much jail time as any violent criminal. However, I am not afraid to walk around in his neighborhood nor walk past him on a dark street.
P.S. I have also been assaulted and robbed by minority males.
The Gates incident was another example of those in power who wish to intimidate whites from expecting equal treatment in this country.
All we need is some enraged black to scream racism and we must give up more rights to appease their abhorrent behavior.
This must stop. No more aplogies for nothing.
You can tell PJM is very bored with “the Gates affair” by the paucity of posts on the topic.
People didn’t buy into Gates’ racial hype because the civil rights movement, fervently opposed by Democrats, won. It achieved all of its goals decades ago and the overwhelming majority of Americans are just fine with that. Most Americans have friends, neighbors and coworkers of all races and they do not categorize them by race, nor do they think of them in racial terms–as “the other”–but think of them as friends, neighbors and coworkers, judging them, as Dr. Martin Luther King suggested, not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
In America in 2009, “racist” is a dirty word, and behaving as a racist removes one from polite, decent society. Americans understand this and have no quarrel with it. They also understand that the kinds of people who bring up race, who want to have a “meaningful racial dialogue’ generally fall into one (or all) of three categories: racial grievance mongers, stupidly pandering politicians or well meaning liberal dopes.
In any case, few Americans want to engage in “dialogue” with such self-serving, annoying people. After all, who wants to be accused of harboring racial thoughts and intentions they’ve never had and, in general, abhor by single minded, uninformed, just plain nasty zealots?
It was our race hustler in chief, Jesse Jackson himself, who once observed that when walking down a dark street and hearing footsteps behind him, he was ashamed to be relieved to discover that the producer of those footsteps was white rather than black. Indeed, Blacks do commit more crimes and more serious crimes than any other racial group, but this is primarily culture driven and enabled by those who claim to care most about them, their democrat pals who hate the police, blame the police (and America) first just as our President did, are soft on crime, embrace criminal and anti-social behavior and allow black criminals to blame essentially non-existent racism rather than demand of them personal responsibility.
Even so, just as dogs can tell the difference between being tripped over and kicked, Americans can tell the difference between criminals and non-criminals of any race. They know that when one buys into a culture whose music glorifies “thugs,” abandons its women and children, reflexively addresses even imagined slights with violence, disdains education and accomplishment, wallows in drug use and ignores religion, it’s hardly surprising that culture is in deep trouble in virtually every way. They know that the police would be idiots to ignore these facts in their dealings with the public and do not, for a second blame them for being a bit more careful, a bit more alert when approaching and dealing with young black men, particularly if those black men are dressing and acting the part, so to speak. In the same way, most Americans are delighted to see airport security officials “racially profiling” young, nervous middle eastern men who are muttering “God is great” or “death to America,” rather than strip searching red-headed, fair complected grandmothers, particularly those boarding the same aircraft they’re boarding. Race, in short, has nothing to do with it; it’s all about common sense and experience.
And today we discover that the woman who originally called in the possible burglary in progress at Mr. Gates’ home did not know, nor did she mention, the race of the potential burglars. But even if she had, all police officers see burglars as potentially deadly threats and approach them all accordingly. It does seem even clearer–at least for those who don’t see the world through racially tinged glasses–that the Gates incident had no racial component at all, until Gates, and in turn, President Obama, stupidly inserted one and then found themselves unable and unwilling to back away from their folly, reveling instead in the language of the race hustler. That’s language America rejects, particularly when it’s so clear that the police did nothing at all wrong.
Oh, and by the way, most Americans have read the statistics and know that most black criminals prey overwhelming on other blacks. Those darned statistics are so annoying for racial grievance mongers, aren’t they?
Perhaps you can talk about race and not have it be lose lose, only if you don’t let it be lose lose.
Only talk about it if it is going to be win-win.
Perhaps this can be done through non-verbal communication more easily. :)
And by non-verbal, I mean, you know, like smiles. :)
It appears that just as America has seen the world change around it, blacks in America who “cling” to the race card have not kept up with the change within America since the ’60′s.
The race business is becoming more of a nuisance and impotent as other people’s have moved right in, assumed the mantle of “Americans” and worked to achieve to their abilities without letting barriers, real or perceived, get in their way.
This episode has shown Barry to be what he truly is: a hustler who insults Americans of every stripe at every turn. But we will see the game field shift as Barry, Rahm and company find the race card ineffective with today’s America. They are in their backrooms right now asking “What Would Alinsky Do?”
The game is not over by a long shot. Crap & Tax is a ripoff and their Health Care “Reform” a lie and doomed to failure. The jig is up so time for a new crisis. I just wonder what it will be.
WATCH GLEN BECK THIS AFTERNOON. HE HAS VIDEO OF WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR 1ST AMENDMENT.
i should have added, what is happening to our 1st amendment rights, if you are not black and belong to ACORN
It appears that just as America has seen the world change around it, blacks in America who “cling” to the race card have not kept up with the change within America since the ’60’s.
Or apropos the Gates affair, Gates is an historian who does not just study the past, he lives in it.
I prefer my historians to be knowledgeable of the past yet still live in the 21st century.
And if we want to get all psychological, I think blacks like Gates love the psycho-social drama of slavery, segregration, and civil rights strife. He doesn’t just make a living from it, he LOVES the narrative, the drama, and his imagined (self-)righteous role in the Great Play.
In short, it’s a typical university liberal*.
*Actually, blacks of the Gates variety aren’t really liberal, Leftist, or even racist in the strictest sense of the word. They’re racialists first — they see EVERYTHING through the prism of race theory — which inevitably leads to frequent and continuous slips into racism, Leftism, liberalism, and other forms of mental disorder. They’re an intellectually incoherent mess — one-note Johnnies, and an atonal Johnny at that.
In short, Gates is boring.
What could be worse than that?
After reading about Obama inviting Gates and Crowley over to have a beer..I almost puked. Gates wants to use this as a “teaching” moment…what??? you degrade the people that try to protect you as Crowley did to race baiter Gates, try to defend your property when a 911 call comes in, and you act like an @$$ to the cop…a teaching moment??? What ??,that being black pays off in race baiting??? I dont’ care if you are black or white or green, this is a sad moment or both sides. A president that sets up a question with a reporter about Gates, and then lowers the office to race bating/police hating??
Then Obama calls and soothes the waters and now the police dpt understands he is truly “concerned”…puke He just wants the votes in 2010, he doesn’t like the police any better.
Glen Beck has a program/video on tonight about our 1st amendment rights and the fact they are being flushed down the TOILET!!..
it’s a video from this weekend with ACORN
okay, you guys are doing your magic again..1st it’s here, then it’s not, then it is…so i retype, and there it is again..MAGIC??? VOODOO??..Boogity, Boogity, Boogity
Obama and his friend Gates have now had their self-inflicted Sister Soljah moment, a “teachable moment” according to Obama, but one where his — and Professor Gates’ — prejudices were on full display. Who’s teaching who here?
Gates lives in the rarefied world of the Academy. He’s milking this affair for all it’s worth from the willing dupes he’s associated with. Probably wind up on his resume some day. No doubt the “really smart” students at Harvard will take this as Selma II, a wake up call for more activism, while the rest of the country just yawns. Everyone’s been in a similar situation with the police. Most don’t act as uppity Gates.
Obama’s taking the opposite tact. He can’t wait for class to be over with. It must have dawned on him and Axelrod that what he said — for many reasons — was stupid. Like. Really. Really. Stupid. A for Effort, but F+ on subject matter. They may have an inkling that a great many Americans listening to Obama at the press conference thought to themselves “practice what you teach” Mr President. You are the one jumping to conclusions here, conclusions based on racial prejudice.
Gates wasn’t “arrested in his home.” He was trying an O.J. Simpson. So was B.O. and B.O. was also grandstanding.
The most racist people in a American are lib-left blacks and white On the average KKK members probably are about like them.
And when we are posting,let us remember that lots of blacks are as sick of race-bating as whites. As for myself,I live in a rural area and know no liberal-leftist race-baters,and blacks have treated me as well or maybe better than whites have.
Because, as the comments so far show, there IS no racism in America. And if we PRETEND their is, then we’re giving the racists (which don’t exist because there IS no racism) all the excuse they need to call US the racists, which we’re not, because there IS no racism. Right?
But seriously…
I love watching you cats defend racial profiling and racism and all that by saying Obama spoke without knowing all the facts… all the while defending Crowley’s actions — WITHOUT KNOWING ALL THE FACTS!!!
Hypocrisy? Pajamas Media is thy name.
Of course you failed to mention that even though other races of people have migrated to our country, blacks still are the primary victims of racism and injustice. You can’t sweep 400 years of oppression under the rug just because we now have asian, arabs, and mexicans here. The recent arrivals are clueless to what’s in the minds and hearts of blacks and whites. This evil goes back a long way and the Universe will eventually right the wrongs of the past. And no matter how much negative spin the GOP puts on this, they are the losers, because they are supporting a losing cause. Their objective is to oppose black people, that’s why they hated Clinton so much, he was the fist Pres that openly supported blacks, he actually had real black friends (can you imagine that), he appointed and hired so many blacks, they called him the first black president. But of course now we have a real black president, and my God, the Confederates are in an uproar, how the hell did this n***** pull this off. The best thing for white people to do is learn how to love all races of people, and learn how to love this country for what it stands for, not the color of the person in charge. Actually, they’ll have to, because in due course the non-whites will be the majority.
The more I learn about this incident between Dr.Gates and the police, the more I am reminded of the Mel Gibson DUI incident. In both cases there was a celebrity pulling a “Do You Know Who I Am?” act.
In the Case of Mel Gibson, he was impaired by alcohol. Dr.Gates apparently walks with a cane. I wonder if he injured his leg recently and if he was taking some sort of medication that impaired his judgment. If that is the case, we should all show him all the understanding and compassion that was afforded to Mel Gibson for his bad behavior while under the influence.
It must have dawned on him and Axelrod that what he said — for many reasons — was stupid. Like. Really. Really. Stupid.
Yes indeed. One mistake in this whole affair which I’m sure Dear Leader never considered is that if the majority of the American electorate reaches the conclusion that it is Gates who is the racist pr**k, and since Obama has stated that Gates is his friend, then Dear Leader has once again shown himself to associate with questionable people.
Result: It’s one questionable associate too many and he loses a little support.
Meanwhile, he and Gates think this is a ‘teachable moment’. Well now, if the majority thinks Gates is at fault (and Obama), then these voters, whites especially, will take none too kindly to being lectured to about race by yet more black-racists. In particular, normal adults don’t take too kindly to condescension from Ivy League jerks.
Result: It’s one condescension too many and he loses support.
Meanwhile, he loses the support of cops and those dastardly tonsil-stealing docs.
By the way, I think his answer to the question, one that was obviously planted, was as much designed to garner support from Hispanics prior to the Sotomayor vote as it was to throw a bone to blacks and his buddy Gates. Thus his phrase “blacks and Hispanics” when referring to racial profiling.
I wonder what Hispanics think about being dragged into the trials and tribulations of a black supremacist? Hispanics aren’t nearly as obsessed with ‘whitey’ as Obama thinks ….
If Alan Keyes or Thomas Sowell were racially profiled, do you think it would get as much media attention? No. It’s politics. If Gates were a conservative, the media would not have given a flip. A good example is Sotomayor and Palin. Sotomayor has been treated like a Queen. Palin like a skunk. Yet, their genitalia is the same. Their race is different. But more importantly, there politics are different.
Release the tapes.
The thing that galled me the most was that the leader of the most powerful nation in the world made a comment about a local issue without having all of the facts. Leadership 101 – be very aware and careful of what you say as most are listening. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t make comments ‘off the cuff’ if you don’t know the ramifications of those comments. Even if you have an opinion, keep it to yourself until you have clearly identified how you wish that opinion or statement to be generally perceived. Everyday, this mans shows his inexperience. His poor staff is spending most of their time mopping up after him….
As for Gates and Sgt Crowley – that kind of stuff happens everyday. Usually one should err on the side of civility with enforcement agents. If you have a problem with their behavior, take notes and take it up with their boss. Screaming racial epithets doesn’t endear you to anyone.
“Gates wasn’t “arrested in his home.”
That indeed does appear to be the case. It seems the house is owned by Harvard University. This could have added to the confusion—if Prof. Gates did not possess I.D. with this address on it! Once again, it is the duty of the responding officer to verify one’s identity—and also their right to be inside the residence.
The entire impluse of the Cambridge and Massachusetts liberal political establishments must have been, in this case, to blame the cop and exonerate Gates. Obama’s reaction, as a member of the same establishment, was thus entirely predictable (although no less contemptible for being so). If there were any way that the officer could have been fired/penalized/otherwise disciplined, the liberals of Massachusetts would have gladly found it and used it.
But notice: a week on, the officer is standing tall and unrepentant, and it’s Gates who’s anxious to forget about the whole episode and “move on.” I therefore speculate that when and if the entire (presumably considerable) audio/video record of this encounter is publicly released, Gates and his pal Barack will look even more pompously foolish than they do now, and the officer even more cool-headedly self-restrained.
Barack Obama and his friends are an affront to every value this country was founded upon.
Add this to your list of recent incidents in which faux racial victimology intrudes into our body politic. From a front-page article titled “‘Blue Dog’ Democrats Hold Health-Care Overhaul at Bay” in today’s Wall Street Journal,
“The Blue Dogs’ resistance has angered other Democrats. At a heated closed-
door meeting of House Democrats last week, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia
Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, complained about
the Blue Dogs holding up the health bill in the Energy and Commerce
Committee, noting pointedly that all are white men.”
Huh? White men don’t understand health care reform? What the ____ does the color of a legislator’s skin have to do with his ability to legislate? Oh, I forgot. According to the prevailing liberal dogma, it has EVERYTHING to do with it!
Yes, the Gates affair ( Obamagate? )has finally pushed a lot of us who have been patient and sympathetic to the goals of affirmative action and other race-based social initiatives over the proverbial edge. Enough already! It’s past time that this country stop with all this insanity and return to being a republic based on merit.
If and when these guys ever do get together for a “beer”, I’d like to be a fly on the wall to see two EEO appointments go up against an educated cop. You can bet the embarrassment that comes out from Obama and Gates will never make public consumption.
But, Crowley could write a book! If I were him, I would. This crap is absolutely novel.
HENRY LOUIS GATES INCDIDENT 10 YEARS FROM NOW:
Professor Gates creates Institute of Advanced Racist Studies, using scientific equipment he discovers new forrms of racism previously undetected.
Sgt Crowley wins Police Oficers’ Medal for controversial “indecent exposure” arrest of Cambridge area Grandmother in her own shower. The Fraternal Order of Police, and the police oficer’s union stand by the arrest.
Dr. Hanson: As others have said before me: Essential VDH.
Until we stop hyphenating our nationality with our heritage, we will never see cohesion. If I were to engage in that kind of political correctness, I would be a French-Italian-Scottish-English American. It’s ridiculous.
The only people who can legitimately hyphenate are those who were born elsewhere and then moved here and became American citizens (sorry “undocumented workers” – you don’t qualify).
So Charlize Theron, who immigrated from South Africa, can truly call herself an African-American. Or South African-American, if she wanted to make it clearer.
At some point, we will have to declare the nationality of just plain ol’ “American” as bona fide, showing that it can stand on its own, without the hyphenation.
That hyphen does a lot more than just indicate heritage – it separates, literally and figuratively, the wearer from America.
What is quite interesting about this old debate is that in some measure it is illustrative of how little both sides have learned through the years. Typically minorities will side with Gates/Obama regardless of the facts and whites will nearly universally side with the policeman. Why? Because many blacks have not in a true fashion by and large tried to move on from the past while many whites have. As Mr. Hanson correctly points out, the word racism, racist and associated are bandied about so recklessly these days it seems that the majority of whites pay it no mind anymore, I suspect. As a teacher, I fully expect to hear the word racist when I discipline a minority student so I’m not surprised when the accusation is leveled. Would I be wrong to think that the parents of these children are poisoning their children’s minds with this nonsense? I think not. Is racism alive and well in America? Certainly and there’s no way to legislate that. It is not the institutionalized racism of the past however and it exists on both sides. I had only to sit through two courses on African-American History in the past as the only white male to see that. Things were said in those classes that had the situation been reversed white people would never had said about African-Americans. No one likes the police around until they are needed, myself included, but when they are needed they quickly become your best friend. How often are police denigrated, especially by minorities whom the do a credible job trying to protect? Far too often, I think. An African-American female commentator said yesterday on one of the talk shows that she remembers her father telling her brothers how to act when confronted by police. This is but mere common sense, be cooperative and polite and if you are innocent you will generally have no problems. If you act obnoxious then you will be treated in a similar fashion. Perhaps there is something in the psyche of Black Folk about this as Chris Rock did a bit several years ago called “How Not to Get You Ass Kicked by the Police.” It was funny but I wonder if this is why so many Blacks have trouble with the police, because they are overly sensitized to police and act obnoxious. Although it has now been shown that the 9-1-1 caller in the Gates case did not use race as an identifier, so what if she had. How is this considered profiling to report the description of someone you believe to be committing a crime? Are we to stoop to the level of Chief Wiggum on the Simpsons when his description of a fleeing suspect is to say, “the subject is hatless, repeat hatless.” This is all a very sad commentary on the subject of race in this country. African-Americans would be well advised to save the terms racist and racism for true emergencies, because the vast majority of Americans are getting tired of them crying wolf.
In retrospect, has Gates admitted that he acted in anger? Is anger particularly useful when it involves the topic of racism? Herein lies a problem with Obama/Gates’ reaction to this event: it easily forgives anger. Anger is appropriate at times, but the anger Gates displayed appears to have devolved into racist slander.
Anger is not approporate for every injustice, perceived or otherwise. Obama forgives the anger of Gates, and then tries to pacify Gates and Crowely with beer. This is yet another example of Obama’s idealism — a triumph of anger over ideals.
16. annie: “WATCH GLEN BECK THIS AFTERNOON. HE HAS VIDEO OF WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR 1ST AMENDMENT.”
I find it truly bizarre that anyone would actually watch Glenn Beck for any reason other than to laugh at his lunatic craziness.
The fact that a literate adult human being would expect to learn anything of any intrinsic value by watching Glenn Beck astounds me.
#33 Gerald….This is business as usual. Blacks can say anything, and get away with it thanks to the MSM.
There were several black pastors that called Obama’s mother white trash last year during the campaign. Can you imagine the outrage if it were reversed, and Obama’s mother was black, and his father white, whereas you had white pastors calling Obama’s mother black trash?
This would never happen, because they would know better.
Great read.
A Black Department Chair at Harvard uses the race card against a white cop. The Black Mayor, Black Governer and Black President express outrage at the white cop.
The Black police chef to his credit backs the white cop.
Dear African-Americans this is a jump the shark moment. It’s over, we will not tollerate racebaiting from your Harvard Chairs, Mayors, Govoners and Presidents. Get a grip and deal with life like everyone else has to.
I grew up an Army Brat, I am 41 years old and have grown up in the post 60′s upheavel living in the DC area for 5 years during the 1970s. I am sure that racism was present and rapamt during much of these times but being the fortunate member of a military family had not to deal with any of the percieved racism. You see that the military was the first to integrate both minorities and females. We socialized with our neighbors, living in Prince Georges County, were of many racial characteristics. So, it was on a night in 1993, in Old Town Alexandria where a friend of different race and I, being in our early 20′s, were probably inbibing more than we should and my friend ask us to call a cab to take him home rather than drive. While my friend waited outside the condo complex for the cab a Police Car drove up and started to ask him questions. Me being the friend of this individual I came out of the home and responded that he was just waiting for a cab. The officers asked me to stop talking and to remain where I was. I thought that this was outragious, they were just harrasing a person of other racial characteristics. I spoke of this. The officers than pursided to drop me and hangcuff me and take ME to jail, while my friend got into a cab and went home. I learned that day that it is not the color of your but the way of your attitude. Believe me, an officer will not take disrespect or aggression from anyone.
Steve in Tucson
The president fully intended to bag himself a whitey cop. His execusinizors say the prez is just trying to have an intelligent and elevated conversation about race,but his critics won’t let him. It’s hard to elevate the racial conversation when your mind’s in the racial gutter which is where the One’s mind and heart is. People in this country of all colors of good intentions toward each other have enough trouble without the agitation of this professional race-baiter.
The professor writes:
“African-American professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested in his own home by a white policeman for disorderly conduct (I think mostly for insulting a cop)”
I would add that the African-American professor in question was also trying to get street cred.
After all it’s hard to be an Ivy league African-American professor and maintain that there is discrimination in America with a straight face.
41. Ruebacca: “Dear African-Americans this is a jump the shark moment. It’s over, we will not tollerate racebaiting from your Harvard Chairs, Mayors, Govoners and Presidents. Get a grip and deal with life like everyone else has to.”
Dear overweight bitter lonely white woman anonymously typing racist comments from her computer: nobody cares what you think.
That must have been a Fresno motorcycle cop!!!
Slavery victimhood is the foundation myth for admittance into the fraternity of Haranguers of the Perpetual Grudge. From tenured Harvard professor to Cambridge Mayor, Massachusetts Governor to President of the United States, this cohort of colored men enjoin the public to have a dream in which whitey is guilty unless proven innocent, connections with the politically powerful prevail over the rule of law, the darker the color of the skin, the less need to take responsibility for dysfunctional behavior, and notwithstanding all evolution theory to the contrary, that the supremacy of the African gene were so.
Haranguers of the Perpetual Grudge have no intention to relieve white America’s psyche of the stigma of slavery because it serves, among other justifications, to distract them of their own guilt in the perpetration of genocide of the black community by state-funded elective abortion.
The actions of this representative segment of our country’s black leadership—professor, mayor, governor, plus our historic first Islamic apostate president—inform us that their stature today depends on being both masters of deception and servants to a belittling grudge.
On the issue of mixed race persons, my favorite is Tiger Woods. Most people aren’t aware his mother is Asian; he himself has rejected the label “African-American” because he felt it disrespectful to his mother and her heritage. There actually was a dust-up for a few days some years ago over this, with the Black community and Black journalists *insisting* that he was African-American, whether he wanted to be or not. One guy finally conceded he might be labeled “African-Asian-American”, which of course emphasizes the silliness of the whole process.
I still insist that this whole incident mirrors, with less comic violence, the start of the movie “Amos & Andrew”. And I also reiterate my original point: the Cambridge cops were dumb to arrest a Harvard professor, once they knew who he was. The only justifiable thing would have been if he actually attacked someone physically, and injured them. Short of that, they would be accused of racism pretty much no matter what they did.
Perhaps its already been said but who knew Cambridge was so close to Waterloo?
It is sad. Incidents such as this harken back to Amos and Andy. Two steps foward, and three back. So sad.
It is a lose lose when Hanson talks about race
When I was a kid my brother was in a phone booth and was robbed by two black guys. He immediately turned over his money and got a brick bashed into his face that required months and months of reconstructive surgery for his troubles.
When I was in middle school I was knocked unconscious by a group of black kids and thrown into a dumpster.
When I appraise Section 8 housing today in Atlanta, I get yelled at and glared at (not just looked at but stared down) by groups of blacks for no other reason that my white skin.
While I realize it is more of a class thing, my physical unconscious reaction aroung groups of young black males is a higher heart rate and a higher level of alertness. Now can I help that? Or is that a natural reaction to my experience with blacks?
I am 31 and have never intentionally harmed a soul in my life. From my standpoint, young black men have to earn my trust, not the other way around.
I feel sorry for the cop, and the lady that had the nerve to call 911. Bet she won’t make that mistake again.
who knew Carmbridge was one step closer to a civil war…just a step closer, slooowly he turned, step by step…it’s cooommmming..better pay closer attention. Don’t be taken off stride by the Gates’ of the world..
and what the hell every happened to being proud of being an “American”? Not a hyphenated American!, an America!! Love it or leave it and don’t try to pull it down to your level as you leave.
You can see developing a coorinated effort from the professional race-baiting multicultural academics and national race-baiter.orgs to spin this incident into their race-profiling story line. All get their money from hand-out and freebies or out of the public pocket.
46. Mike W.:
“Dear overweight bitter lonely white woman anonymously typing racist comments from her computer: nobody cares what you think.”
I said nothing racist. Racebaiting is a stanard play in the Democratic parties playbook. Al Sharpton et. al. They jump to this almost on instinct
This time it was a purfect storm of Mayor, Govenor, President and Harvard Chair person. The racebaiting is getting old when Blacks have proven over and over no barror remains in there way.
“White Racism in this countryis reduced to kooks in the Mountains selling shot guns.” A black coworker once told me this.
I did love your classic liberal doge the issue and attack me personaly. So predictable.
LEOs:
What are the odds of additional taping besides the 911 call and the Crowley et al reports from the scene?
Might his chest mike have been live and possibly recorded?
53. Jason S:
Your reaction towards blacks is a natural reaction based upon your experiences with them. As for the “niqqer stare”, it’s a form of assault and definitely a hate crime but since whites cannot be the victim of hate crimes according to our InJustice Department I guess you’ll just have to get used to it.
Ugh.
There is a sub class of educated and successful blacks in America, a class that have become upper middle class and upper class. Most are professional and are in education or government. They usually live in mixed cultural neighborhoods. Asian, liberal whites. Their children attend private or top public schools. They have little to no contact with the criminal invested uneducated poor blacks of the slums. They by enlarge have escaped the burden of being “Black”. This is the real result of affirmative action in university education and corporate America.
And they are raciest toward the majority of whites they meet and have contact. Any of us that live in a large city like Chicago or New York or Boston, have met these racist blacks and know that Professor Gates is one of these elite Blacks. BHO and his lovely Wife Michelle are also.
We will all see this form of racism in the future and will wonder what happened to “Fairness” and The Rule of law in this country.
46. Mike W. wrote:
Dear overweight bitter lonely white woman anonymously typing racist comments from her computer: nobody cares what you think.
Peter writes: See? Another perfect example of the libtards injecting racism where there was none.
23. Deep Brain Diarist:
“…Obama spoke without knowing all the facts… all the while defending Crowley’s actions — WITHOUT KNOWING ALL THE FACTS!!!”
First of all, Obama admitted he didn’t know all the facts, then proceded to say the cops acted stupidly, before launching into his boilerplate “let me teach y’all about race and racism” BS. The people posting here now know more about this incident than Obama did the night he ran his mouth. BTW, no one here is saying there is no racism in America. I mean, just look at Professor Gates’ actions.
46. Mike W.:
“Dear overweight bitter lonely white woman anonymously typing racist comments from her computer: nobody cares what you think.”
The last phrase is a stupid assumption on your part. I read her comment, wouldn’t call it racist, and basically agree with her. On the other hand, I think your comment is lazy idle speculation from someone who has no argument to make.
Mike W is obviously jharp
Mike W….nobody cares what you think, either. Go back in therapy and get your arrested emotional development squared away.
#23 Deep Brain Fart – Wow, what a profiling job you just did. You could have addressed your comments to Dr. Hanson, to the bloggers as a whole, to specific bloggers, but you choose PJM the website that hosts here. Yes it does rain. Yes after the day comes night. Yes after summer warmth comes winter cold. Yes racism exists, all over the world. It is part of the human condition. What are you going to do about it? Get over it and get on with your life.
#24 Jack T. – “And no matter how much negative spin the GOP puts on this, they are the losers, because they are supporting a losing cause. Their objective is to oppose black people, that’s why they hated Clinton so much …”
As used to be said on SNL (paraphrased) “Jack, you ignorant slut!” Read up on history you uneducated duffus. It was democrats who opposed desegregation until the mid’60′s. It was republicans who passed the three-fifths vote for slaves so that slave owners voting power would be punished, not as a racial thing against black men. It was a republican president who fought the war against the south and slavery. The GOP opposed much of civil rights just for what it has wrought … generations of welfare dependent, crime ridden, uneducated masses of black folks indebted to the JackAss Party. And as for opposing BJ Clinton, well, that was purely a matter of character judgement.
Go read, get a clue, and set yourself free!
Gates talked about the importance of Affirmative Action in a talk he gave to the Senate Church (YouTube). He said without it he would not be at Harvard because Harvard was racist and the university was forced into diversity, etc. But Gates is not interested in latinos, black men (he called Clarence Thomas a hypocrite) or women like Sarah Palin if they do not tow the ideological party line. He would be the first to stand with hands on hips in the doorway blocking their entrance. Gates does not seem to understand that Harvard picked him, not because Harvard had seen the error of its ways, but because he fits right in.
Essential vdh
BHO and Gates pulled the trigger and shot themselves. I believe this incident is important to illustrate who BHO is and how the “elite” institutions employ idiots to continue with race baiting issues. In the name of AA and PC.
Gates did so without reason and tagged himself for what he is. A “Brilliant” Harvard Professor and employee with the mind of and mouth of an Al Sharpton. A petty professor instead of a petty thief. He of course is the “Brilliant” Head of the African American Studies. That in itself is an oxymoron. What do they study: Racism. Gates has demonstrated his pea brain.
A “Brilliant Harvard Professor”Gates is one more reason to not give money to a Harvard endowment. Let the Government fund them. The increase in all taxes will take care of any donations for A race baiting idiot without any brains other than knee jerk reactions. A rat.
BHO stepped into a little more sophisticated than a typical Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson move and because the cop stood up and the actual facts got out BHO looks like the extortionist and blackmailer he is. In other words a POTUS who thinks like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Wright.
Why is it at its core extortion and blackmail? Because BHO and his race bating handlers wanted a “cute” way to use it as an illustration that bad racism still exists in America and that BHO is the only POTUS who by being “black” can lead us to the promised land of affirmative action, political correction and Communism to keep the playing fields level.
Without communism we would all have to feel guilty for something. Also what is left to be nationalized, bailed out and owned by the federal government within the next 6 months.
I defy any parent to raise children with this victim value structure to simply extort from others. This method is the core BHO operation and has been shown constantly by BHO and his “suffering downtrodden victim of racism” wife.
We are all fools if this loss of America and its individual freedoms and responsibility is allowed to continue on past the next election.
A teachable moment on how to be a “Brilliant Harvard Professor” Joined with the POTUS on demonstrating what Affirmative action and political correctness leads to. It develops idiots.
Seems as if everyone is forgetting the important point here. If Obama had only made the comment, “I am aware of the incident with Professor Gates but I do not have all the facts and information and since I am not the Mayor,instead of making a comment on a police matter in Cambridge, I will pass at this time and after all facts are in and all legal issues settled, I will offer a comment.”
If Obama had simply kept quiet and let it die on the vine, we wouldn’t have the high octane fuel thrown on smoldering embers, creating another brush fire that just may erupt into a forest fire. Instead, he allowed the question to be asked if you listen closely to the questions asked of his press secretary. When a reporter asked if Obama was aware that he would be asked a question about Gates being arrested, he stammered and tried to avoid the question but in the end, everyone knew Obama was ready for the question and with that in mind, would have to reach the conclusion, he had an answer ready as well. After watching this person perform for almost two years and reading his book, he knew exactly what he was doing. Of that, I have no doubt.
Obams is hell-bent on keeping the race card on the table and will never let it be taken off. When Gates and Crowley have a “beer” with Obama, Crowley will be race bait, nothing else. Soon, there will be some “new” revelations about Crowley, indicating he is a racist whether true or not. Wait and see. It will happen. Soon, he will be the object of protests by the Harvard students and his life will be made miserable. Just ask Joe the Plumber how much hell comes down when you challenge the “One”.
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/07/cambridge-police-profiling-still-a-grim-reality-for-harvard-faculty-assholes.html
“White in America” vs CNN’s “Black in America”
I’m White in America, and proud of it.
This past weekend, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien followed her very successful 2008 report, “Black in America,” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/ with a new mini series, “Black in America 2,” http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/black.in.america/.
I have to admit that, aside from a few minutes here and there, I didn’t watch either one.
The first special aired, just coincidentally, in the midst of Barack Obama’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for president.
It was touted by CNN as an exploration of ”the varied experiences of black women and families and investigated the disturbing statistics of single parenthood, racial disparities between students and the devastating toll of HIV/AIDS. O’Brien reported on the progress of black women in the workplace and the status of the black middle class.”
It’s difficult to critique something I haven’t seen but, based on that blurb alone, I’d have to say it must have focused on how blacks in America have largely caused their own problems.
I did admire the subterfuge of the accent on black women, which diverted attention away from the idea that it was a free advertisement for the first black man to run for president.
CNN’s/Soledad’s sequel had a much different blurb: ”This July, CNN continues its investigation of the most challenging issues facing African-Americans with ‘Black in America 2.’ Soledad O’Brien reports on people who are using ground-breaking solutions to transform the black experience.”
Based on the touts, it seemed BIA1 emphasized black problems and BIA2 emphasized solutions, which is admirable. It also seems that both specials served to divide rather than unite the races in America by showing their differences and dissimilarities rather than seeking racial unity.
I’m well aware that many if not most African-Americans feel, even in 2009, even after electing a black president, that they are still victimimized in our country whereas the reverse is much more true. Harvard’s Professor Louis Gates is an excellent case in point, a man who has gained it all in America yet smells racism at every opportunity.
Suffice to say, in twenty-first century America, I believe any black in America who sees white racism lurking everywhere or who blames bigotry as the cause of his or her failures in life is delusional. Continued harping on a dead issue only leads to more frustration and less self-application.
I’ve never felt like a minority citizen of the United States of America although I am. I imagine my forebears and fellow Irish Americans’ predecessors more than once felt that way as immigrants on the infamous nineteenth century coffin ships that carried the Irish to this country.. . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)
My experience is that our militarized police forces are taught to treat everybody like a potential cop-killer. Last year, in my quiet college town, a local kindergarten teacher, who had promised to check on a vacationing friend’s bird, found herself facing down the barrels of two police pistols as she exited the house. She told me that when she laughed at them, “it seemed to make them really madder”.
There are only three responses to a moron with a badge: “Yes officer.”, “No officer.”, and “Thank you officer.” Gates was lucky he did not get tasered.
During the presidential election, I thought Obama absoultely HAD to avoid appearing like a glorified Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton, all race baiters that most Americans would not vote for. For the most part, he did just that. He effectively distanced himself from Jeremiah Wright and the Ayers, and his “not guilty by association” argument probably even won him some sympathy points.
Which is why his “police acted stupidly” comment is so puzzling. He prefaced it with his usual nuance, admitting he didn’t have all the facts, and pointing to his presidency as a proof of progress since the Jim Crow era, but he suddenly attacked the police with unexpected bluntness.
I think it’s sign that, with his place in the white house secure, some of the caution he exercised so effectively during the election is wearing off. Unlike Bush, Obama’s always struck me as an assertive person, who’s always ITCHING to respond to those who question his policies. Most of his speeches quite often reveal his confrontational side.
“Well, these people who think the goevernment can’t run anything (a veiled swipe at Republicans and libertarians), they say this and this is pork, but it’ll create jobs, so what’s wrong with it? What? We can have a honest debate, but come on now. George Bush did this and that. WE can’t fail like that again.”
I say Obama’s doing some work for the Republicans in their efforts to unseat him. Americans don’t like race baiters, they don’t like OJ and his race card waving defense team, they don’t like Jesse Jackson and the like. If you can successfully depict Obama as one of them, you can gain some ground.
“It was republicans who passed the three-fifths vote for slaves so that slave owners voting power would be punished,”
Huh? The Republican Party wasn’t around then. Republicans appeared some eighty years later, when the Whig party fell apart, and its Abolitionist (anti-slavery) wing formed a new party.
The Republicans, right from the beginning, were an Abolitionist party. The Democratic-Republican Party (later the Democratic Party) was initially the party of the plantation squireocracy – the slaveholders. Post Civil War, it became the Jim Crow party. The Democratic Party has always been America’s racist party, and it remains so today. Although the Democrats are now our chief enablers of black racism rather than white racism, it’s still racism, and an enduring stain on America.
Those who wish to see, well their eyes are working and they see the racism which is part of
some communities who have various identifying features. One feature is, their skin tone is anything but white.
Too many black people see discrimination and think it is racial when in actuality it is about attitude. They’ve just been taught to use race as a cop out.
Attitude discrimination is entirely appropriate.
<a href=" http://strongerthandeathhq.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/kelly-king-and-a-real-teaching-moment/
“> Karen Kelly does a real teaching moment!
74. RE wrote:
Too many black people see discrimination and think it is racial when in actuality it is about attitude.
Peter writes: Several years ago one of the cable channels produced a reaality series called “Black/White.” The premise was simple, a black family and a white family lived for a period of time in the same house together and also, through the use of make-up and teaching subtle body language, the white family was made to look black and the black family made to look white and both spent several days out in the ‘real world.’
One of the episodes that I remember best focused on a day spent at a shopping mall. Before the trip, the black family, particularly the father, complained about how comon it was for blacks to be followed by the security guards and kept under constant surveilence as if they expect every black person to be a thief.
The two families made the trip to the mall, and upon returning home, shared their perceptions. The white family, as blacks, noticed no difference in the attitudes of the security guards. They never felt like they were being followed. They never felt like they were under greater scrutiny. They just observed the guards going about their normal duties as usual.
The black family still insisted the guards were scrutinizing the disguised white family in greater depth.
What it all comes down to is expectations and perception based on what you have been told. Gates has been told, and continues to tell others through his ‘teaching’ that whites are always racist and that is all he will ever see as a result, no matter what is happening in reality around him.
is the state of race relations really regarding aggresive white policemen? or are there hatreds elsewhere?
Any light pigmentation person should try taking the bus or subway through any of the following:
1- Watts, La
2- South side or West side Chicago
3- Bronx, NY
Well see which community is really truly hateful and rascist.
Dark pigmentation people need to take stock and admit responsibilty for themselves and thier community.
Even though the POTUS is a dark pigmentation person I just dont think we will ever get past this crap.
To Mike W
Sadly, I guess you feel welcome to metaphorically kill the messenger, but thankfully the message has a bountiful life of it’s own.
If he teaches courses at Harvard — and I do emphasize ‘if’ — I wonder if the good Prof. Gates would tolerate such uncivil and discourteous behavior from ANY student in his classroom. I somehow doubt it. Every civilization is based upon various levels of authority. For someone supposedly so intelligent, Prof. Gates sure is stupid. Not one usually given to conspiracy theories, I wonder if he didn’t orchestrate the whole incident to draw attention to his project on racial profiling. Hmmm… I wonder.
“…arrested in his own home by a white policeman for disorderly conduct…”
NO he was not. He was arrested in his yard screaming at the cops who were trying to leave AFTER letting him into his house. The cops warned him 3 times even showed him handcuffs but he continued the “your moma” tirade and was arrested for disorderly conduct as set by law. The only bad part is the gov backed down and dropped the charges.
Say Doc don’t you think it’s time you got yourself a firearm?
Spot on as usual professor, although I think you missed a key element of the “crying wolf” part;
To wit; the real damage from bogus racial flareups is to those who might one day have a LEGITIMATE complaint and will be casually dismissed because of all of the preceding phony claims.
Race pimps, an unfortunate subspecies in which our President has revealed his membership, seem only to live for the moment, either oblivious or non-chalant about the damage their showmanship of the moment might inflict on their cause.
If we grant they are as intelligent as proported we cannot then grant they are either oblivious or non-chalant. The only conclusion that can follow that conclusion is that stunts such as these are pulled deliberately to perpetuate the grievence industry that has served them so well. Nothing else makes sense.
Needless to say the more diginifed and productive approaches taught by Ghandi and ML King might be usefully applied here, but that would risk their fifteen minutes fame and worse still actually diminish the racism on which their careers depend.
Two parting shot questions. Is it not the height of irony how the behavior of todays civil rights leaders are the least civil of all? Secondly, isn’t it at least a little bit racist to think that all it takes to convert a white bigot is beer?
I grew up in southeastern Michigan, where black criminals literally run wild. So, I moved to Los Angeles. For the last several years, the Mexican gangs have been running black people out of town. The once-powerful, race-baiting black politicians are collapsing. The local media ignores it. I noticed it, but then I remember how black criminals treated me in Detroit, and I shrug.
Mexican gangs deal drugs, but are largely social organizations. For the most part, they don’t have a problem with white or Asian people. In other words, it’s safe to visit the Watts Towers again.
70. Sulla:
You are right, watch the video of the police arrest of an EMT.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhxWA0szXvA&feature=related
Cop beats man with unzipped jacket.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M4CosYN3D0
15 year old girl beat in a cell.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIUhCuoQ_vc
Here is another.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSwITK4jjQ
Disorderly conduct sound familiar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFUpa0OwlyU
Some cops don’t like being on video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv8sEO0zlX4
But sometimes it pays to video the police.
Houston brothers receive $1.7 million in wrongful arrest suit.
I agree with Warren Beatty’s character in Bulworth.
“All we need is a voluntary, free spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction/ Everybody just gotta keep f*ckin’ everybody til they’re all the same color “
Dr. Hanson, You said it and I love the way you say it. I would move if all of those things happen to me, yes I would leave California so fast that all you would see is my dust behind me. Have you ever thought of moving to Texas? Have you ever thought of living in a small town, and letting all of the folks know that you have guns and you know how to use them? This keeps honest folks honest, and it works, especially if you let them know that you will dust their britches with buckshot if they enter your home to steal from you.
I know if I was to talk ugly to a Police Officer or make a derogatory reference about his mother I would be in big trouble. I do not talk about peoples mothers; in polite society, you do not do it.
Thinking out loud. Wouldn’t it be nice if their afternoon beer turned into a drunken brawl? It would be nice ending to this stupid news story. Professor Gates is an elitist who looks down on all law enforcement officials, black or white.
Professor Gates, why do you want to teach at Harvard? Gates: “Because I hate white people, and this is as white as it gets.” Good Professor Gates you are the kind of black folk we like at Harvard. You may now refer to yourself as “World Renown Professor.”
I’m more simple-minded about it than VDH.
Gates and Obama are more racist than 95% of white Americans ever thought of being.
They are like schoolyard bullies who have discovered the teachers don’t want to mess with them. And they are gloating about it.
But like Reverend Manning says, they might want to think about whether the smirks are smart. Sometimes the quiet kid isn’t the pushover he seems at the moment.
In the last point you made — that personal experience and anecdotes cause people to make decisions based on race — you are completely right. I am ethnically white (though I can pass as other things and it is probable I have some African genetic material) and will have four children living at home when we move later this year.
We’re going to buy a home when we do. I have several overt qualities I’m looking for — but there is one covert one I will not share with the realtor or anyone else. I’ve been the victim of a mugging at gunpoint — by a well-dressed black college man. My (VERY blonde) husband was once nearly killed by a black gang seeking to harm white people.
I don’t like feeling this way — but I will NOT buy a home in a black-majority neighborhood unless it is clear that few of my neighbors have young teen boys at home, or unless it is a military neighborhood. It’s a matter of personal safety and the safety of my children, and bitterly-learned lessons that while most black people are ordinary people, often even wonderful people, there is a significant percentage who are not just bad but physically dangerous. I’d rather be called a racist than risk having one of my children wind up in the hospital or worse.
I hate feeling this way, and I hate having to take this precaution, but there it is.
Now, since I’ve opened up a “discussion on race” here as Holder recommended, how many people will call me a racist? Which is exactly why white people avoid the topic when possible.
It occurs to me that this was a sea-change moment. Whites have just won the racist wars. It’s over. The race hustlers have been exposed. When the first black Prez weighed in as he did, the con was up.
It’s over.
America is becoming numb to all the racist talk. Maybe that is how it gets resolved. Obviously talking about it doesn’t help. Anyone other than a black person will be labeled racist, so why bother? I just don’t care about it anymore and I’m turning the channel. Maybe we all should.
kywrite, I don’t see your views as racist. I call that self preservation. If you saw my oldest child, one sibling brother, my father, and even my husband you would know exactly what we all have in us. We are redman Indians. We don’t consider ourselves Native Americans just Americans. Racism is for scaredy cats. Obama and Gates are just what they appear to be. Bullies.
The race wars are far from over. The reason this Gates case did not register with so many is because you couldnt have a more perfect fact scenario to show that the racism of the Democratic party and minorities is alive and well. You have a rich educated black man, who you would expect to know better, acting like a thug to a police officer who did his job properly which affirms every stereotype that liberals accuse conservatives of stating about black people, which is no matter what they achieve in life and what is handed to them through affirmative action, they are still a bunch of street level goons who are looking for revenge for slavery and who blame whites for their failures and inadequacies.
That is why this story has not taken off like it should have despite the majority of black leadership commenting on it and confirming exactly what many of us believe them all to be.
Anything that continues to affirm the truth makes liberals want to run away from the discussion. They need a better white cop black victim incident to bring this back to the forefront. It will happen, but its incidences like these that remind me that my views are not wrong when it comes to blacks and their attitudes and hatred towards whites. Whether its Tyrone the thug harrassing kids in school or Michelle Obama hating her country, they are all pretty much the same and those like Bill Cosby that try to break the stereotypes have to be even more frustrated because their own race continues to show its true color.
Racism between blacks and whites will disappear when the Israelis and Palestinians make peace.
Therefore its ultimately about surviving. As the black population increases, they will take over more and more through the election of people like Obama and the leadership positions in education occupied by more people like Gates and the white people will retreat to small enclaves or another country. It may take some time, but in 100 years we will be present day Zimbabwe.
My first thought when I heard about this incident and read some of the details was that Gates immediately saw a chance to bolster his black bona fides and wanted desperately to push the situation to the point of arrest.
Does Attorney-General Eric Holder think that President Obama is a “Coward” for not speaking openly about race? He should, shouldn’t he?
After all, Obama merely cited the notion of disproportionate racial pull-overs/stops, and ignored the elephant in the room of the disproportionate number of crimes committed by minorities.
This point is hardly ever examined, and if it is, it’s cast through a lens of the crime somehow being someone else’s fault – for not “Providing Opportunities”, or some such mystical notion.
As long as Obama, Gates, and the rest of them keep talking about “Talking about” race, such issues will never actually be discussed, because you are encouraged to think that it’s a problem which can only, in the end, be addressed by – surprise! – the Government.
Personal responsibility? You are a racist.
Disproportionate criminal activities? You are a defender of profiling.
Restoring Dignity to the family structure? You are a racist, colonialist, and a Republican, to boot.
So, “Deep Brain Diarist” and the rest, go right ahead; I set your script up for you.
I just read where a Boston policeman has lost his job over making a racially charged remark in an email about Gates. The Boston mayor immediately suspended the police officer, and advised he will be removed from his job.
Big Brother is watching. Beware.
never thought I’d say this but I feel like I’m on the Daily KOS site. What a bunch of self important ignorant fools you all are. Hit me with your best shot.
Essential vdh
My #66 comment. I should have added that when Institutions like Harvard employ people like the “Brilliant Professor Gates” on his brilliant merit, Harvard is also wanting the Government Funding that goes with this kind of race baiting “education”. A Smart Move, hey this is Harvard.
It’s called “African American Studies” and is needed to qualify for the AA and PC check list that all Government funded activities now must show. People must be counted and accounted for.
Harvard is exceptionally good at this. Quotas, Sensitivity, all the Utopian good stuff. An Alice in Wonder Land approach in “education” (indoctrination) to keep African Americans who want a degree in African American Studies interested.
What a concept, sadly for the “white kids” is does not work, except for those who now wish they were black and want this AA and PC to apply to them. It shortens their education costs since they then do not need a degree in Math, Engineering or anything else that would take work. Sorry about that
To keep the course current, the “Brilliant Renowned racist professor Gates” from Harvard studies methods of being racist to hone his skills for the Studies course work. His coworkers at Harvard praise him highly for his brilliant qualities. It is not easy for Professor Gates, no matter how brilliant he is.
To simplify African American Studies conclusions dug up by the Brilliant Gates: The African Americans built America even in the face of slavery and racism. They fought in the civil war to free themselves. They had to work so hard in the face of these hardships they are looking for reparations from the other white deadbeats who they carried on their backs, while building America.
There are more conclusions in African American Studies but will stop here. After all it is a complete discourse on Racist America in African American Studies at the elite institution of Harvard taught by the Brilliant Professor Gaits, Friend of Obama.
Of course it has a practical current objective. It’s key intent is to justify today’s very high percentage of African American population on Welfare, in Prisons, in drug dealing, prostitution, street crime, murder, breaking and entering, Acorn, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the Rev Wright and all the good stuff that no one wants to miss out on in America. We own it. It ours. We did it. Amazing.
That’s why we need Harvard to show America the way. Brilliant and sensitive. To lead America to the “truth” and a level playing field. Equal Opportunity, No discrimination what so ever. Distribution of everything according to need, like water seeks its on level. Harvard, our great “father confessor”, allowing us to confess our “sins”, allowing the Brilliant Professor Gates to accept our sincerest apologies allowing Gates to decide if he sues us or forgives us thus leading us into the promised land of Communism with Obama as the Judas goat also from Harvard. I think.
Essemtial vdh.
#97 Da Baby Bear, Get off drugs and maybe you will know where you are. Not just feel that you are there.
This race stuff get more silly everyday.. It’s so childish to discuss race, First who created race??? God didn’t create race, but created us in his image.. So you people have been fighting and arguing over skin tone for thousands of years… LOL!!! This is hillarious. Like what kind of choice do you have in the color or tone of your skin? None, no choice. So you are going to dislike another for something he/she had no control over.. It is so funny. Example Gates is a Harvard professor and all this talk about AA and PC is stupid. If police came up on me and I was trying to get in my home, I’d probably still be at the station today and nobody in the world would know or even care… SO LETS stop the race thing it’s a fame thing… Although racism is here, because some people still like arguing and fighting of skin tone… LOL, skin tone.. But it is a fame thing.. Look at the stories concerning famous people some average joes did similiar things or had similiar things done to them, but the outcome was alot different. So all you people saying black, white, and fighting for your skin tone?? How about on your next application you select “HUMAN”….. oh my goodness skin tone….
Candidate Obama wanted a discussion about race in the US. Well now he has it, but it’s not on his terms and he and Gates are looking out of touch on the issue. I would be more sympathetic with the black cause if they would just stop voting for candidates that perpetuate the sorry state of urban schools. They, politicians and the schools, are a national disgrace.
Gatesgate mattered to me because of what it revealed about this President and his rush to judgment on ideological grounds.
I see the incident parallel to the way Obama spoke about his white grandmother (here, a typical white cop, there a typical white person) and I also see intimations of Obama’s “wise Latina” choice for the supreme court.
There is a certain arrogance, coupled with a certain condecension, in some of our persons of coloUr who are determined to use their (very limited, not too expansive) takes on “race” in America to set things aright according to what can only be described as an extremely narrow perspective. And a tedious perspective, at that.
Gatesgate was a teachable moment indeed, but not in the way Barack Obama might try to construe it.
Jeremy, Black people are not even the largest minority in the U.S. at this time. They have been overtaken by the Hispanics. This is mainly due to the strict Catholicism of Hispanic culture and it’s prohibition on abortion. You see the largest percentage of abortions occur in the Black community. This isn’t spoken of publicly but it is funded, supported by legislation and encouraged by “Progressive” (“I don’t want my daughter punished with a baby”) politicians and “community organizers”.
According to the U.S. Census:
Whites: 66%
Hispanics: 14%
Blacks: 13%
Asians: 5%
Indigenous: 2%
They have a serious hill to climb to overtake the White population. And they aren’t breeding at replacement rates. Depending on immigration legislation and it’s effect on the Hispanic population we may see a significant increase in their percentage in the next census. But this will be largely mitigated if the economy doesn’t recover and the construction and agriculture workers don’t return.