Stupidity In Black And White

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a distinguished professor at Harvard University, specializing in African-American culture. Until recently, he was best known as a commentator on PBS documentaries having to do with African-American history.

Now Gates is making history of his own, whether he likes it or not. Trying to force his way through a jammed door outside his Cambridge, Mass. home, Gates was arrested by a white police officer on charges of disorderly conduct (which has since been dropped) because a woman across the street dialed 911, thinking she was watching a robbery in progress.

That police officer, Sergeant James Crowley, has refused to apologize for the incident.

Then President Barack Obama, who says he is a friend of Gates, decided to get involved. At a nationally-televised news conference otherwise devoted to pitching his health care policy, he said that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" during the incident. (He later backed off of that comment when he realized that politicians are supposed to support the police 100%.)

Actually, everybody acted stupidly in this case: the professor for losing his cool, the sergeant for violating his civil rights, and the President for inserting himself into a local issue.

African-Americans aren't the only ones who have problems with the police for misinterpreting normal behavior as criminal acts. Others of various races (including whites) have been victimized by holier-than-thou cops who think they can push people around just because they wear a badge. It just seems to happen more often to African-Americans.

Thursday President Obama, Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley met outside the White House to settle their differences over bottles of beer. We have no idea if this worked or not. But if it did, perhaps the President might be tempted to get the Israelis and Palestinians together with a case of Budweisers.

This is now being billed as a "teachable moment" in race relations, whatever that means. We've had quite a few of those "moments" over the years, ranging from "Can't we all just get along?" to "O.J. Not Guilty" to "Don't tase me, bro!", without anyone ever really learning anything. If nothing else, this incident should serve as fodder for Gates' next TV special.