Well, he could have said "I had just gotten back from China. I was tired and cranky about my sticking door, and just plain worn out. I said and did things I shouldn't have, and I'm sorry for that. I still think the officer was a bit aggressive, but the main fault was mine and I take responsibility for it."
Under the circumstances a reasonable and gentlemanly response worthy of respect. End of story.
But, no. Professor Gates' knee-jerk reaction was one of oppression, bias, and victimhood. I remember vividly an incident in a department store back east. A very large black woman had been stopped just outside the store by two (white) plainclothes store security people, one male and one female. She was yelling and blustering and being as in-their-face as she could while they pulled merchandise, some still on hangers, out of her big shopping bag. "You doing this to me 'cause I'm black!" she said. It could have been laughable were it not so sad.
The good professor reacted the same way. And then so did our president. That knee-jerk reaction, on both their parts, puts the lie to the myths about post-racialism in our society.
The "let's-have-a-beer" charade just made it worse. Cheap, tawdry, manipulative, and cliché-ridden. (What? No single-malt, no chardonnay?) And, of course, Joe had to come on board, too. Enough already!
A sorry spectacle all around.
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4 comments:
Prof Gates and President O both forgot something real basic.
They didn't apply the "Golden Rule" to their actions or words.
Each further compounded things with unfounded claims (Kids that is called "telling whoppers.")
There's a long established tradition in some parts of the black community that any kind of wrong doing can be excused by a person's "blackness." I once asked a black guy who owned a shop near my office about this and he said it was a scam used by people who were too lazy to lead honest lives or accept responsibility for their own actions. Since this man works his ass off 7 days a week, his opinion carried some weight.
@ The Hermit
From knee high on, we were taught there are two public measures of a Man:
His Word
and
His Work
and that there was much else that mattered (internal measures, like faith were not applied to strangers in this judging-up.).
Kind of was implied that you had to have other values, like sound judgement, moral direction and such to make it on the Work & Word measure.
When people self-victimize, like the "blackness thing" they have compromised Their Word.
As you point out, that compromised is often because Their Work isn't much either.
Sad....
Sad may be the fact that the President of the United States took part in this farce in defense of a "brother" (remember the "stupid" part?) even before he knew the facts. To me it was like he was saying, "You people get it yet?" Yeah, I get it and I don't like it! And there is a lot more I don't like.
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