In which racism is not actually dead (thank you, Boston Globe commenters)

[rymenhild]

Via catamorphism: Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and one of the world's most distinguished scholars of African-American literature, was arrested last week in front of his own house. Apparently, having some difficulty with his front door lock, Professor Gates attempted to break the lock open... and some passerby or neighbor called 911 to report that a black man was breaking into a house in Cambridge. When a police officer arrived and asked Professor Gates to step out of the house and provide his information, the professor said, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" and refused to leave his house or identify himself.

They arrested Professor Gates for disorderly conduct. He was released on the same day, and a Harvard Law professor is taking his case.

Take a look at the police incident report (PDF). Then read the comments at the Boston Globe article, including this gem of utter logic failure:

Enough of throwing down the race card ... we have a Black President now, so that tired old ship has sailed. The guy got indignant like any self-important Harvard professor does, pulled the old "Do you know who I am?" routine, and got arrested as a result.

That's not what happened. Professor Gates came to the attention of the police because, as he said, he is a black man in America. Because he's an eminent and spectacularly well-connected black man in America, he's unlikely to get into any lasting trouble because of this arrest... but hundreds and thousands of other black men in America don't have the professor's advantages.

Edit: I am freezing this post. This is not aimed at any specific commenter. Because I'm crossing the country tomorrow, I won't have time to monitor the discussion, and I'd rather close the post before anything more incendiary is said in my journal.

Also, you might all be interested to know that the charge against Professor Gates has been dropped. I think we can all agree that that's good news.

Comments

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[agonistes]

Regardless of whether or not this is actually what happened, I feel it necessary to point out that the do-you-know-who-I-am defense is not, in fact, grounds for arrest. Morons.

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Gah. Yes. I'm more infuriated about the bit that goes "A black man is president of the United States and therefore this incident cannot possibly be linked to racism," but yes.

Besides which, the do-you-know-who-I-am defense is perfectly logical when a person, accused of breaking into a house, can prove that it's actually his house and he actually lives there.

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[newredshoes]

*headdesk. headdesk. headdesk.*

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[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

Massholes are not without their charm....

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[deviouslint.livejournal.com]

Eurgh. This depresses me - as it always does when I've discovered that I'm giving the world at large too much credit. SO MUCH FAIL.

If they've started arresting people for breaking into their own homes, I'm in lots of trouble. Idiot!Lint locks herself out at least once a year. Oh, wait, I'm a white girl - I couldn't possibly have any evil intentions for breaking into a building! /sarcasm

(Thanks for keeping me posted on the news, here, though. Honestly. Bostonians, you are always assholes - this week, you are also idiots.)

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

That's all I can do too.

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[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Oh, my fellow white Bostonians, always with the frothy mix of plain vanilla racism and rainbow sprinkles of self-righteousness, topped off with a contemptuous cherry.

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Charm, or something like that. D:

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[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

I'm sticking with "Charm" because it will keep the contact embarassment/rage to a minimum.

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Siiiigh.

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[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Honestly - assuming for the purpose of argument that the facts in the police report are true, I think we ought to have reached the point, at least in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where someone who was admittedly attempting to force a door open can respond to a police officer's request that he talk with him without yelling at the officer and assuming the officer was racist. I would like passersby to report anyone trying to force my door open, even if it turned out to have been me. There's no evidence the passerby wouldn't have made the same report if the people involved had been white, and per the report Gates didn't even know she'd described him as black. Per the report, he made no effort at all to respond to what could have been a well-intentioned mistake. Also, if a person reports a crime in progress to an officer, the officer doesn't have the privilege of ignoring it because the person, in describing the participants as black, might be racist. And in pretty much every police report I've seen, witnesses of all races describe the people they've seen by race or skin tone. Barring the odd defendant who wears a multicolored clown wig, it's the most obvious physical characteristic of a person. That said, if Gates produced some evidence that he was the homeowner and the officer showed a disinclination to believe him (as with the neauroscience professor's story), that might be another story. And I don't think I've ever seen a newspaper comments section that didn't make me want to abandon my faith in humanity. But if he did start screaming racism at the officer without bothering to explain that he had a perfect right to break into the house, when all the officer had asked to do was talk to him, it might be possible that the racial dimension of this particular incident was on his side.

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[arcana-mundi.livejournal.com]

Skip Gates is not a man who pisses in the wind. He's formidable, quiet-spoken, brilliant. This should be interesting.

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[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

I have no idea why this all posted as a single paragraph. My apologies.

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[arcana-mundi.livejournal.com]

I think these are all valid points. I have to wonder if the situation actually was handled reasonably by the officers. If it had been, I expect Gates would have had a different response. He's not a spaz or a reactionary.

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[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

(Of course, even assuming a given set of facts, written facts don't convey nuances, such as tone of voice, that might have been relevant.)

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

It happens! You've made interesting points, which I think I'm going to read over several times before I respond.

I suspect you also have much more experience reading police reports than I do.

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[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Congratulations, you win the award for "maximum verbiage devoted to denying that a racist situation is racist that I've seen this week."

That said, if Gates produced some evidence that he was the homeowner and the officer showed a disinclination to believe him (as with the neauroscience professor's story), that might be another story.

He showed his driver's license (which, presumably, contained his address) and Harvard ID while he was inside the house. The officer arrested him after that (for being uppity, I can only assume) What more are you looking for?

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[cliosfolly.livejournal.com]

What infuriates me--in addition to the rampant racism, which is its own special brand of fail--is how the police, caught doing something stupid, refuse to back down and initiate an arrest anyway.

In the case of Prof. Gates, the police are presumably going to get called out for their actions, but as you note, so many other individuals don't have the ability to leverage their reputations or notoriety to address what's going on. And even the act of issuing what basically amounts to trumped-up charges gets set aside as just the bad behavior of one or two individual police, when in fact it seems to be a consistent abuse of power from city to city.

ETA: I should add, in spite of my irritation at these activities, that I've gained the impression, over conversations with a friend of mine who is a policeman, that regulations pretty much push police towards issuing some sort of ticket as a way of validating a pull-over or other inquiry (though not always).

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[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I agree with your points about the incident, but I'd like to insert a Journal Owner Note: please don't start an argument here. Reasoned debate is welcome; ad hominem insults aren't, and this post is right on the edge. Thank you.

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[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

While I'm quite happy to avoid commenting further, I have to say that even if you thought my comment was rude, it's not an ad hominem argument.

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[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

According to the police report - which my comment was assuming to be true for the sake of argument - the officer identified himself and said that he was investigating a report of a break-in in progress, and Prof. Gates began yelling that it was none of his business and that he was a racist police officer, and went to call the officer's supervisor to tell him that there was a racist police officer at his house. I'm not saying it happened that way. I've had friends on the receiving end of a police report that I know from personal observation was blatantly inaccurate. I also take seriously the stature and known character of the people involved. I intended only to say that IF it happened that way, the order of events is important. If the officer got a report, of any sort, of a break-in in progress, and simply knocked on the door and asked to speak with the person who answered, that by itself is not racist. I just don't think the fact that there's almost certainly more to the story, and that that more to the story is likely outrageous, justifies painting as outrageous a version of events that might have been reasonable were it true.

On that point - at the time I got this comment I was in the process of constructing an addendum to my previous comment emphasizing that I was NOT making any comment about the ultimate propriety of the disturbing the peace charge (which I know zilch about), much less arresting Prof. Gates and placing him in handcuffs (to which I don't have anything to add to what's already been said). I just don't think it's unreasonable, by itself, for the police to conduct a cursory investigation of any report of a person breaking into a house, as long as they're prepared to close the investigation just as quickly when presented with proof the person lives there. Maybe it's a narrow, pendantic sort of point, but I'm a pendantic sort of person.

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[fleurdelis28.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It'll be really interesting to see how the facts end up coming out - clearly we don't have nearly all of them. Also, as I was saying below, even assuming a completely accurate police report, things like the officer's tone of voice and demeanor could make a HUGE difference in how the situation came across.

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[cursor-mundi.livejournal.com]

Situations like this make me wonder why no one called the cops when I was climbing through my second story window on a ladder, aided and abetted by my Feudal Overlord (owner of the ladder) and our mutual Crusader-Jedi Comrade...

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[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of inclined to trust the judgment of a 58-year-old scholar who has spent most of his life thinking about race in America, as well as walking through life as a black man in America, as to what is and what is not racist.

I am kind of incredulous that I even have to say this.

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[cerusee.livejournal.com]

Aw, for fuck's sake.