Thoughts on the Henry Louis Gates incident

Paula: I am curious to have your take on the recent incident in which Henry Louis Gates, the Harvard professor of African-American Studies, was arrested by the Cambridge police as he tried to push open the door of his home, which was stuck, after returning from a business trip. I am unsure as to whether he was arrested because he was suspected of breaking into the home or whether he became disorderly when he thought he was being accused of doing this.

Whatever actually happened, the police officer involved clearly pushed Gates’s buttons. I wonder, though, what his response would have been if his home were actually being broken into by two black men and the police failed to respond with alacrity. Would the police then have been accused of racism for assuming that the perpetrators, because they were black, were friends of Gates? I’m still confused as to what constitutes prejudice and how we know it.

In any case, it seems to me that this is a fascinating event from a media standpoint: the most prominent black intellectual in this country, who also happens to have a reputation for writing superbly about himself and has a platform (The New Yorker and most recently PBS) for doing so, gets arrested for breaking into his own home. One couldn’t put this in a novel; it would defy credibility. I notice that the Philadelphia Inquirer had a picture of Gates in handcuffs (the NY Times did not). Where, I wonder, did that photo come from? I foresee an article by Gates about the incident very soon in The New Yorker. My sense is that every black man in America understands what set Gates off, but I wonder whether you think there is ambiguity in the situation as well.

 
  Robert: This could be a good moment or a wasted moment as far as discussions of race relations go. I saw Gates quoted in a recent story saying the issue really isn’t about him and his treatment, it’s about poor blacks who don’t have the resources he has.

I can understand why Gates would have been furious and why he might have berated the officer. Once the officer knew Gates was indeed the homeowner, why didn’t he have the discipline to back off?

The officer apparently has taught classes to other officers on the dangers of racial profiling. So he most likely is aware of the particular stigma and taint an arrest carries for black people. Obviously, I don’t have all the details, but Gates walks with a cane. I don’t see how the arresting officer could have felt so threatened that he had to arrest him. The arrest just seems to be the most petty and capricious use of his authority. Why didn’t the officer apologize to Gates? Not as in apologize for profiling him, but apologize for making him show ID in his own home?

I am perfectly willing to not think the officer was a “racist,” whatever that means. But he is an idiot if he thinks that a black professional is not going to be enraged about showing his ID in his own home. I mean, any police officer working in a diverse population with black people should know this or submit his badge. To use an analogy, women don’t exactly take well to being patted down and searched by male officers. The officer in this case should have apologized and been mindful of his authority, the authority of the badge, the gun, and the criminal justice system.

There is another aspect of this that troubles me. Who exactly put in the call to the police? Now, Henry Louis Gates is many things, but shy and unfriendly is not one of them. The man is hyper-gregarious. So I cannot understand how any of his neighbors could have mistaken him for a burglar. That’s an aspect of this entire affair that troubles me. Part of me wondered if someone called as a prank to just mess with Gates. And in this case the results were disastrous.

 

Paula: I’m not buying your last point. It sounds a bit paranoid — but maybe this incident triggers that in people. I find it odd, for example, that Obama made a statement like yours at his press conference. For someone so deliberate and politically astute, it seemed like an uncharacteristic move — after all, he doesn’t have all the facts and the last thing a black president would want, it seems to me, is to alienate white law and order people based on hearsay. But it seems to me that Obama’s reaction was much like Gates’s (and yours regarding the neighbor?) — the issue pressed his buttons, aroused his anger and suspicion, and despite his admirable self-control in most instances, he spoke where he should probably have given no comment.

 

Robert: Obama has backed off of his criticism of the Cambridge police. But I don’t think my suspicion of the caller who reported Gates is any more bizarre or paranoid than the arrest of Gates at his own home. I assume Obama had his law-abiding black man’s rage stoked in the same way that Gates had his rage stoked. Didn’t we discuss rage about a year ago — in that case the rage of some Hillary Clinton supporters. Cops in big cities should know about black people’s rage and paranoia by now, and they should be able to easily work around it. I’m hopeful they will do so more often after all the discussion of this incident.