Gates is NOT a racist, period!...
Yeah, he acted like an asshole. He could have handled things differently. The cops were doing their job, but took it alittle to far arresting him. They did right hanging around to get a read on him and to make sure he WAS the primary and legal resident. The fact that there are inconsistencies between the police report speaks volumes. In the final analysis if Gates hadn't behaved like a belligerent asshole virtually from the moment he opened his door, this whole brouhaha would never have occurred.
But, Colin Powell said it best: "Once they felt they had to bring Dr. Gates out of the house and to handcuff him, I would've thought at that point, some adult supervision would have stepped in and said 'OK look, it is his house. Let's not take this any further, take the handcuffs off, good night Dr. Gates.' "
It ridiculous to see that racial bias is still so pernicious that the credibility of a world-famous Harvard personage whose acumen, professionalism, and personal character have been found to be in good standing, who is both well-regarded in his community and a respected scholar, is somehow trumped by that of a cop who no one knows anything about except for maybe a few, grasping details that only have been released as a defense tactic. And to see that Gates is still being hotly derided and belittled and villified, even when evidence comes out that the cop might be a little loose with facts...well, yeah, I'm going choose Racial Bias for $2000, Alex. That's the most parsimonious explanation.
Ive been to Harvard many times to visit a freind who studied law there. Harvard's Du Bois Center is not a "radical" assortment of crackpot sixties holdovers. It is a respected center for research on the African diaspora, and a racist nutjob couldn't run it.
People have vilified Gates, completely ignoring a career in the public eye, if the guy was a crackpot that screamed "RACISM!" every time something didn't go well, he wouldn't be as well-regarded as he is. He's not Ward Churchill. Gates publicly spoke well of Larry Summers, at a time where Summers had a very public spat with Cornel West, probably the most prominent Black scholar there next to Gates - and a friend of Gates' as well, and Summers had invoked the ire of virtually every community of color as well as women. Gates is not seen as a guy who'll get out front of an issue and rally the students; that's more how Allen Counter and Cornel West (when he was there) roll. That's not a dis, but just how he is. Shit, it would have to be at Harvard, right, where everyone eats caviar, spits at common folk, and has handservants at their beck and call
Forget about the stupidity associated with investigating a man for breaking into his own home and then arresting him for expressing displeasure and even (*gasp*) demanding to have the cop's name and badge number in a testy manner. if a white Harvard professor of Gate's celebrity had been arrested for essentially being a crotchedy old man, absent would be the pages upon pages of strenuous defenses on behalf of some beat cop. Of all things, that's what sticks out to me the most in Gates-gate. But since this thread is about the President, we?re now watching the ?beer summit? in an attempt to smooth over a political gaff.
.
Facebook
Twitter