Nothing like a national he said/he said drama to add some sizzle to the summer. Of course no one–except the two men involved–knows just what went down in Cambridge, Mass. between Prof. Henry Louis Gates, the renowned Harvard scholar and Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge officer who oversees that department’s sensitivity training. But that doesn’t stop people from conjuring vivid versions–all shaded by heritage, age, experience and imagination–and sharing them around the water cooler, at coffee shops and on cable TV and talk radio.
I immediately recalled the recounted experiences of a college classmate back in the 1980′s. An attractive, well-groomed kid, the guy dressed more like a yuppie exec on casual Friday than a student at our artsy college. He is also African-American.
He had just come back from an altercation with cops in the affluent suburban New York town that bordered our college. “Why would they stop you?” I asked. His answer and expression cut through my naive, young heart. “Because I’m black.” He was stopped simply for having the audacity to stroll through the predominantly white town. It hadn’t been the first time. It wouldn’t be the last.
At fifty-eight, Prof. Gates must have accrued an arsenal of such unpleasant experiences. His as well as those of friends, relatives, colleagues ad students. So his well-earned chip was firmly affixed to his shoulder the day he was stopped in Cambridge for ” residing while black.” No one can question the police’s obligation to respond to the 911 call that alerted them to a possible burglary at Gates’ house. And Gates may have been annoyed, maybe even utterly obnoxious upon their arrival. But once Sgt. Crowley ascertained that Gates was, indeed, in his own home, he should have politely left him to stew in his own indignant juices.
No one should be hauled out of his own home for being perturbed or even down right rude( or we’d all be in trouble). Remember the police have the guns, the badges, the authority. It is their job to defuse the situation. So even if gates had been ” acting oddly,” as Crowley has said, even if he had been spewing all sorts of colorful language, the officer should have abated the moment. A simple,”Sorry to have bothered you, sir. Have a good day,” might have gone a long way. But he didn’t. And we all know the rest; we all saw the humiliating photograph of the distinguished professor in handcuffs.
Since the incident all sorts of folks–black, white, left, right–have offered opinions. Several prominent African-American professionals and scholars have recounted their own experiences being stopped for ” driving/walking while black.”
The most famous voice in the cultural chorus came from President Obama. At the end of his health care reform snooze conference, the question about the episode woke everyone up. And his response, ” The Cambridge Police acted stupidly,” set the firestorm blazing. The Cambridge Police Association–and police groups across the country–demanded the President apologize. Red meat right-wing commentatorsrs like Limbaugh, Hannity and O’Reilly had a two day feast.
On Friday, Obama did what the Cambridge cop would not: he defused the situation. He called both Gates and Crowley and interrupted a press briefing, acknowledging his words only ratcheted up the rancor. He said both men were good people who overreacted and he invited them to the White House to share a beer. And he said the incident provided the nation with a “teachable moment.”
George Will, the esteemed conservative, white septuagenarian columnist swatted the incident and the President’s involvement like a pesky fly ( such a move got Obama in hot water with PETA). ” Can you imagine Dwight Eisenhower commenting on a local police incident?” he said on ABC’s This Week on Sunday. Donna Brazille, an African-American Democratic strategist, echoed the President’s call for a national conversation on race. Will countered, ” We don’t need the President to lead that conversation.”
Maybe not. But Obama is a uniquely eloquent man in a unique position. His speech on race–given during the primary campaign–as a response to the Rev. Wright controversy addressed some prickly points on race relations in this country. Who better to challenge a still skittish and guilty nation to confront our prejudices and fears, to speak honestly about the racial divides that persist in our society than our first African-American president?
Every giant cultural shift starts with a small step or episode. Integration in the South started with Rosa Parks on that bus and other black citizens at lunch counters. Maybe the end to racial profiling can be brokered between three men sharing a beer at the White House. Let’s just hope Sgt. Crowley doesn’t ask to see President Obama’s ID.
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