Henry Louis Gates, Jr., considered a prominent African American intellectual, was arrested outside of his Cambridge, Massachusetts home. His neighbor called police about a possible breaking and entering into a home which was eventually proven to be owned by Gates. Unfortunately, this incident illustrates nothing new about race and law enforcement.
According to Charles Ogletree, a friend and legal representative of Gates, The accused
“Attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’ luggage into his home…When Professor Gates opened the door, [an] officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there. The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard.”
Gates was able to provide identification for both, but was still arrested after he exited his home to question the actions of one of the officers present. This incident reminded me of Dave Chappelle’s standup on how he did not like to ask the police for help if something happened to him stating:
“My house got robbed in New York, I didn’t even call the police, I wanted to but I couldn’t, my crib is too nice, its not that its too nice but, its too nice for me…you know how the police are in New York….soon as I open the door, they’ll be like… [Gasp]…He’s still here! [Thud]…Open and shut case Johnson! Apparently this black guy broke in and hung up pictures of his family everywhere. Never seen anything like it.”
Considering Chappelle’s piece about having pictures of his family everywhere in his home makes the arrest of Gates seem more irrational. Did the officers look around the home to see if there were photos of him and his family members? That would have clearly made this incident an “open and shut case.” Chappelle's reference to New York police, better known as the NYPD is also interesting. Two people who come to mind when I think of officers in “The Big Apple” are Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo. In 1997, Louima, a Haitian immigrant was brutally beaten, and sodomized with a plunger handle by officers after being arrested outside of a nightclub. Some of the officers involved in this incident were sentenced to jail time. In 1999, Diallo, a Guinean immigrant, was suspected of fitting the description of a serial rapist, and police sought to question him. He tried to flee the officers and reached in his pocket to show his wallet, which officers mistakenly took as a gun. Unarmed, he was killed after being shot forty-one times by four officers who were later acquitted of any wrongdoing. On July 26, 2009, ten years after the Diallo incident, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. had his own “brush with the law.” Now Gates' incident in no way compares to Louima or Diallo. New York City and Cambridge are distinctly different in class and racial composition. The issues of race and economic status, and their impact on racial profiling is one facet of American life that many major media outlets have failed to address. Hopefully Gates' arrest can bring attention to a situation that many have been trying to bring national attention to for a long time.
With the charges against him being dropped, Gates reportedly wants to do a documentary about racial profiling in light of his arrest. I wonder why it would take such an event for him to want to address these issues. Did he feel that such an incident like this would not happen to him because he was a professor at Harvard? What many people in this country need to understand is that for many people of color, being “mistaken” is as natural as breathing air. However, it should not take a situation where a person is made the victim to become an agent for social change.
President Barack Obama discussed this event in his address on health care. He said that “The Cambridge Police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.” He went on to say that there is a “long history” and “indisputable evidence” of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. Obama identified himself as testimony to the progress that has been made, but the fact of the matter is that racial discrimination still haunts American society. I commend him for recognizing that his election did not end racism, but since we recognize that there is a problem, what is our solution? There is enough scholarship that identifies the troubles facing American society. However, there is not much emphasis on correcting those ills. In the words of my Georgia brethren, “Don’t talk about it, be about it.” That “it” is the change to rectify the ignorance that plagues us all.
Great Post, III.
ReplyDeleteYou posed a great question: "I wonder why it would take such an event for him to want to address these issues. Did he feel that such an incident like this would not happen to him because he was a professor at Harvard?"
His lovely daughter, Liza, participated in an interview with CBS this morning and stated that her father, H.L. Gates "believed in the legal system" and was a "law abiding citizen." It seemed, that he, despite the extensive amount of knowledge he has regarding racial injustices in America, that HE had a "rose tinted" view of what it really meant to be Black in America. She said that he was "heart broken" because of the experience, because he, despite what he knows to be every day truth for our people, believed the best about America...
(check the video here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5181445n&tag=related%3Bphotovideo) (copy and paste)
His consideration to explore race relations and discriminatory practices (especially from law enforcement) is a wakeup call for us all. If the most prominent professor in the country (Black or White) can experience such an injustice, what is really behind the fake facade of the "United State of America?" Like my boy Andre 3000 says, "I may look funny, but I ain't no fool..."
I'd like to end my response with this: the scariest thing about this entire situation is that if he had not been in Cambridge, but in S.W. Atlanta, The West End, or Birmingham, the outcome could have been much different. I guess the triggers get pulled a little faster down South.
Just my $.02.
This is a very good post, Trey. It really does intrigue me, but does not offer surprise at all. I am glad that it received the press and exposure that it has. Unfortunately, this experience had to take place to receive coverage.
ReplyDeleteI've had the police called on me in the parking lot of a school that I taught at at 6:00 in the morning. After I dropped someone off at the airport for an early flight, I decided to check papers in the parking lot until the school opened. The custodian called it in. The police wanted to me to prove that I worked there and show identification. I guess the kids' papers and my red checking pen weren't convincing enough.
Secondly, I was pulled over for expired tags and told that they knew the scam I was participating in. As I inquired about this scam, I explained that I teach my elementary students about being responsible citizens. Again, ridiculous.
All of this is to say that it is funny to me that what people seem to be hyped about is Obama's use of the word "stupidly" in reference to the police action. Again, it is the distraction from the problem at hand of discrimination, profiling, and ignorance.
What will be the consequence/reprimand for those actions? What preventative measures/training will take place? Over and over, we see these instances and then they are swept under the rug. I don't wish this on anyone. However, I am happy that this time there is nothing (on the behalf of this individual's character) that can be used to distract from the incident. This time it won't be the illiterate, "house shoe" wearing, cursing individual that supposedly provoked the incident.
By all means, action should be taken to correct the police action. Unfortunately though, I think that it reinforces what parents need to do, as well, for survival. Someone stated that he reminded individuals not to step onto their porch...to stay within the house to avoid the arrest. It goes back to the old rules: 1. Put your hands where they can be seen 2. No sudden moves 3. All of those rules that should be transgenerational....at least if you are still living afterwards, you can do hopefully something about it.
Much Love.
OK RB, let's decide that starting tomorrow we are going to spend at least 20 minutes every day being about it rather than talking about it. Then, just to give everybody a chance to get their ish together, let's meet in October to talk about how we've been about it and critique each other about how to improve on our techniques. Then let's leave that meeting after committing to commit thirty minutes a day until we meet again during black history month to do the same or better than the Ocotber meeting. Then after the February meeting, let's commit to committing one hour a day to being about it and see how quickly we get free after that.
ReplyDeletecurtis
"I wonder why it would take such an event for him to want to address these issues. Did he feel that such an incident like this would not happen to him because he was a professor at Harvard?"
ReplyDeleteFunny you should pose that question. I think his wanting to do a documentary on racial profiling directly speaks to the reactive nature of most people in this country (which in my personal opinion is passive), rather than the proactive (which should be the norm). Let me give you a few examples: no one buys a gun for protection until they are robbed and most people don’t look into getting a home alarm system installed until their house is burglarized. I apologize for the negative comparisons but, one must realize that “we” as “Americans” whether you are black, white, yellow, or green with purple poker dots “we’ all live under the false sense of comfort or this false pretense (if you will) of “it” could never happen to me. That proverbial “it” that I speak of is anything negative that you can think of that you never thought could happen to you, whether it be home foreclosure, a home invasion, or a simple case of mistaken identity. I feel that people sit back way to often and allow things to happen, then in a reactionary manner we want to let it be known how we feel about the situation (the reaction) {passive} when we should have been trying to eradicate the problem long before it happen to us. (proactive){active}
It reminds me of a piece by Martin Niemöller who wrote:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.”
“Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist”
“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew”.
“Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me”.
If you strongly disagree with what is going on in society you should speak up and if possible act out, regardless if it directly affects you ore not. It is almost guaranteed that if this issue does not affect you well the next one will and if you are not speaking up and acting out on this one then who and why would you expect someone to do it for you.
I’m not sure if it is going to really be understood where I’m coming from with this but, all and all to make it plain lets stop talking about what has happened and lets start taking the proper actions to prevent it from happening again.
In the words of a few southern lyricist:
“Yall sit back and wait for the bullshit; While I sit back and watch for the bullshit”
I think your question about Gates' motives for wanting to do a documentary is great because let's be honest, he teaches at Harvard. Now I'm not saying that every Black scholar who teaches at the Ivy's is disconnected from the everyday struggles of our people, but it sure seems like a lot of them are.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I thought when I heard about this story is that he obviously has no idea what it's like to be a Black man in a poor neighborhood confronted with the police because he wouldn't have argued about showing identification... well, not if he wanted sleep in his own bed that night.
I definitely don't mean to insinuate that he in any way deserved what happened to him but I'm always so angry at those middle- and upper-class Black people who have to have some harrowing experience to all of a sudden realize what's going on in the world.
If it's true that Gate's didn't think something was going to go astray when the police showed up at his door maybe he should take a few trips to Boston or NYC or any city with a sizeable Black population and see how the other half lives.
And maybe, just maybe, he should stop looking to theorists and other blowhard academics to explain what's happening to our people everyday and give the stage to someone who really knows!
great post...
First of all, this is an excellent piece that you put together...very provocative.
ReplyDeleteI intentionally waited to post any response to this matter to see what exactly would come out in the news. The story is now much different than it was a week ago and I now feel much more comfortable commenting. This is yet another matter of us (Black folk) not wanting to criticize or place blame on our own. To be clear, I do not necessarily condone the actions of the police department, but their action may have been spurrded by Prof. Gates' actions. As a Black man in a huge urban area with plenty of corrupt law enforcement agents, by no means am I an apologist for law enforcement. However, having several acquaintances that are law enforcement officers, I have a different understanding of how they must protect themselves and do their jobs effectively. All of that being said, both parties involved overreacted and this overreaction is being carried into the aftermath of the situation. There needs to be a mutual apology and a moving forward of society. The fact that a Black Harvard professor was arrested for disorderly conduct and had the charges dropped is not the fish the America or Black America need to be frying so to speak. We have great social ills in this country that effect Black folk exponentially more than anyone else and Professor Gates should use this opportunity to address that and say "What happened to me should not be America's concern right now. The issue is resolved, but let's address..." Police brutality is ramapant in our communities, but this was hardly brutality and was an abuse of perceived power at best. It just goes to show that the "Ivory Tower" only protects you while you're INSIDE of it...