Skip Gates' African-American Lives

so much so that I
forgot to be annoyed with
gates' chumsy manner

Henry Louis "Skip" Gates.

I'm still vaguely obsessed with this series. I think my favorite bit was the picture of Chris Tucker's 1920s relative who looked like ... well, it looked like a promo shot of a 20s period piece starring Chris Tucker. Also: Chris Tucker's family! His sisters!

This was really great.

In honor of squirrel police's post, I'm going to go to the bathroom now.

Gates was ARRESTED last week ...

... for "breaking in" to his own house after the lock jammed

(and "exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior" toward the police)

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/harvard.html

didnt this happen a couple years ago w/ another black harvard history prof?

just in time for black in america 2! black people fever...catch it! oh wait

boston comments section very much in character

it's depressing for a while and then suddenly it gets better and even, in a couple spots, funny!

oh wait, then it gets depressing again, never mind

reading the police report makes it clear that everybody involved was acting totally shitty, though in the case of gates it is more than a little justified.

still, it's unbelievably boneheaded idea to snark at a honky cambridge police 'Ya, I'll speak with your mama outside,' no matter who you are, or what your credentialing.

Sad story all around.

the real crime is gabbneb calling him "skip"

totally

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.

this is an idiotic set of sentences. it wasn't 'racial profiling' it was racism

this is closer to racial profiling:

Counter, who had called Gates from the Nobel Institute in Sweden, where Counter is on sabbatical, said that Gates was “shaken” and “horrified” by his arrest.

Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The well-known neuroscience professor, who is also black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.

the real crime is gabbneb calling him "skip"

I call him Skip all the time.

you talk about Gates all the time?

Yes. ALL THE TIME.

huh

someone is getting fired.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/21/us/AP-US-Harvard-Scholar-Disorderly.html?_r=1&hp

every single telling of this story I've read pisses me off so fucking much, they might as well be titled "Harvard Professor Gets Uppity, Arrested"

I'll never forget the disgust and horror on Gates' face
when genetic testing showed he was 50% white. Quite
revealing.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, August 7, 2006 5:22 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i never knew squirrel police was skip gates' doctor

Squirrel_Doctor

every single telling of this story I've read pisses me off so fucking much, they might as well be titled "Harvard Professor Gets Uppity, Arrested"

^^

yea, it's fucked

wtg cambridge police!

It's kind of like, out of all the professors I would expect to escalate that type of situation, Gates is near the bottom of the list in terms of likeliness, so basically wtf mainstream press.

xp: in fairness anyone with any passing familiarity with Cambridge police shouldn't be surprised that they'd have someone on staff who would do this

He recounts being called Skip for a good portion of his life. So, gabbs was right - it was a self-applied nickname.

wait, was there actually any controversy about calling him "Skip"

http://www.demotix.com/news/arrest-h-louis-gates-jr

okay wau he looks so much like my great-uncle there it is terrifying

wow

that is so fucked up.

i can't imagine what that would feel like--i would be FURIOUS

HLG's statement made through his lawyer

This makes me fucking furious.

do not read the comments on that root article.

Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University.

the stupidity of cops is truly astonishing. like, would some alarm bells go off there and say gee maybe i should not go aggro on this guy?

He didn't go aggro, he went stealth!

yea xp, he produced identification immediately - driver's license displaying the address as well as harvard identification. shit should've been wrapped up in about 15 minutes

People should have to pass some sort of iq test before they are allowed to comment on sites.

opening news stories up to comments is the internet's biggest botch job to date.

If anyone ever develops an app to block comments they should win a nobel prize.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072101771_pf.html

Re: Henry Louis Gates, Arrested [Jonah Goldberg]

Lots of e-mail has come in since last night when I posted about Henry Louis Gates's arrest. The responses from readers are interesting in that they reflect a divide running through conservatives I've noticed before. About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong. The other half, give or take, think that the cop was transparently to blame for the whole mess. That's a gross generalization of several dozen e-mails, but I think it reflects how conservatives, like Americans generally, are of two views when it comes to cops. One side is inclined to distrust them, see them as potential abusers of authority — mere men with badges and guns. Another side is deferential to police. That is not to say they condone abuse or sanction cops being above the law. But they give cops the benefit of the doubt for a host of reasons.

I'm more in the latter camp. I think being a cop is a very tough job, requiring a lot of patience and decency, with lots of headaches. And, I believe that citizens should err on the side of trying to make cops' jobs a little easier. Yes, I've had confrontations with police before and I don't think they were always in the right. But as a matter of instinct, that's where I come down. But I know plenty of conservatives — including many relatives — who instantly assume the cops are just taking advantage of a little power and are loathe to defer to them.

I don't think this divide is unique to conservatives. As I say, I think it runs straight through the American, and, no doubt, human heart. But it's interesting in this context because I think conservatives are expected to be far more deferential to law enforcement. And, when I read the Gates police report, I immediately sympathized with the cop who had to deal with a very high-status guy trying to bully the cop in part by accusing him — unfairly, by my lights — of racism. It's very interesting to read lots of conservatives offer good faith disagreements.

About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong.
About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong.
About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong.
About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong.
About half the readers think Gates is hilariously in the wrong.

hoping heads fucking roll

I would love to see this happen to all of the people thinking that. xp

In fairness, I don't know how I'd react if a professor type starts shouting about "narratives" in my face.

hat's a gross generalization of several dozen e-mails, but I think it reflects how conservatives, like Americans generally, are of two views when it comes to cops.

classic!

In fairness, I don't know how I'd react if a professor type starts shouting about "narratives" in my face.

I'd get the fuck out of his kitchen, but that's just me

t's very interesting to read lots of conservatives offer good faith disagreements.

"conservatives have interestingly variable levels of pity and sympathy for police officers who arrest famous black men in their own homes"

I wish Jonah Goldberg's face would just spontaneously explode.

And, I believe that citizens should err on the side of trying to make cops' jobs a little easier.

yeah sure i believe in treating cops ok too until they start acting like dickheads and/or not believing that i live in my own house.

This guy considers himself the "philosopher" of conservatism and writes "It's very interesting" at the beginning of a sentence.

The thing about this whole stupid conflict is that it wouldn't have happened had dude just given his name and badge number.

Fair guy:

Henry Louis Gates, Arrested [Jonah Goldberg]

What a crazy story. Here's the Boston Globe account. Here's the police report.(PDF). I'm generally a fan of Gates and a lot is still unknown. But at minimum, I think it's interesting how the Globe's coverage is immediately and almost entirely about the alleged racial angle. If I were the arresting officer, I might wonder why my version of events deserves so much less credulity. Then again, I might not.

If I were the arresting officer I would not be capable of reflective, self-critical thought. Go Boston cops!

I wonder, is it worth looking at the differences between taser grandma and Skip Gates or is that just begging for tears and clusterfuckery?

i think u know the answer to that

It doesn't help that there's no actual video of the Gates confrontation.

ile's crack team of video analysts will be at a loss for sure

New definition of 'uppity': cops who won't ID when asked.

Tears and Clusterfuckery: The new album from The ILX Mods. Features such hits as

"The Ballad of L0uis J@gger"
"Hot Metal Chix (in our Bedz)"
"It's a Mod's Mod's Mod's World"

Cambridge cops way worse than Boston cops for this kinda shit when I was defense lawyering in the area.

This story reminded me of:

http://www.entertonement.com/clips/kntrpwmnmh--He%27s-Still-HereDave-Chappelle-Dave-Chappelle-Killin%27-Them-Softly-Comedy-

Cambridge police have always been trifling. They are no HUPD, that's for sure.

charges dropped

haha you think?

I immediately sympathized with the cop who had to deal with a very high-status guy trying to bully the cop in part by accusing him — unfairly, by my lights — of racism

haha arresting him is a pretty poor counter on this front, though

it's true, though, evidence suggests that "proposing unflattering things about a police officer" is in fact an arrestable offense that people just forgot to write down or legislate about

I mean this is a side issue but there really does seem to be some aspect of policing or police training or police psychology that completely prevents some officers from saying easy time-saving things like, I dunno, "I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you, but obviously we have to investigate reports as they're called into us, and yes my name is 'Anderson'"

Which is, like, how most humans behave: "Hey, did you take my sweater? Oh, you clearly didn't? Sorry, someone else said you did, didn't mean to accuse you of anything."

seriously, I guess living in a "dangerous" city might make me biased, but if I were a cop and I see a dude breaking into a house and claiming it is his house, I'd ask him to prove it by showing ID and a piece of mail belonging to him in the house, and if that was corroborated, I'd go on my merry way to deal with more serious crime or get donuts and coffee or something.

I mean this is a side issue but there really does seem to be some aspect of policing or police training or police psychology that completely prevents some officers from saying easy time-saving things like, I dunno, "I'm terribly sorry to have bothered you, but obviously we have to investigate reports as they're called into us, and yes my name is 'Anderson'"

lol otmfm

Lesson to be learned: Never engage in an argument of any sort after having flown back from China to Boston. That flight will kill anyone's ability to deal rationally with anything.

um ?

seriously, I guess living in a "dangerous" city might make me biased, but if I were a cop and I see a dude breaking into a house and claiming it is his house, I'd ask him to prove it by showing ID and a piece of mail belonging to him in the house, and if that was corroborated, I'd go on my merry way to deal with more serious crime or get donuts and coffee or something.

They'd have the name of the owner of the house as soon as the got the call. It'd be piped into their laptops, or called over the radio. The moment Gates gets up from reading the NYT or whatever and answers the door and identifies himself, they don't even have probable cause anymore. Shows ID, should have been the end. Even if he didn't show ID, without a warrant the cops could have identified him in other ways (just one - knocking on a neighbor's door).

I'd be belligerent and pissed, too. I don't hesitate to argue with cops and make their jobs harder. It hasn't gotten me arrested yet, either.

Not arrested, but cuffed, in my case.

This is a 5'4" 150lb older black man in an expensive polo shirt WITH A CANE and a LIMO DRIVER trying to get into his house at NOON in CAMBRIDGE. The woman who called it in a damn fool, and the arresting officer and the gaggle of police officers who came with him need some common sense training.

Any sign of the woman who called in all of this? Chicks or it didn't happen.

I'd be belligerent and pissed, too. I don't hesitate to argue with cops and make their jobs harder. It hasn't gotten me arrested yet, either.

I did get arrested for arguing with cops, but that was because I refused to show them ID until they described in better detail what I was suspected of having done.

maybe she thought showing up in a limo is a popular new way to do a burglary without getting caught

maybe she thought red polo shirts were the outfit of choice for local cambridge gangs.

maybe the cop can get a job working for BART!

the laffs keep coming. Jack Dunphy:

I suspect the officer won’t be taking Mr. Gates up on the offer. The claim that Gates had been “profiled” is ludicrous. Police responded to a 911 call from a witness who described two black men she believed to be breaking into a home. If contacting a black man then found inside that very home is deemed to be “profiling” then the term itself has been stripped of its meaning.

And though arresting Gates may in retrospect be seen as imprudent, to suggest he was hauled in on some trumped-up charge is to accept the following as true: Gates did not in fact behave as the officer described in the report but was instead as meek as a lamb, and despite the lack of legal cause the officer fabricated a case against him even after becoming aware of his exalted status as a Harvard professor. Straining Gates’s credibility even further, the arresting officer would have had to believe his fabrication would be supported not only by all the other officers who had gathered at Gates’s home, but also by the woman who had placed the original call to the police and the “at least seven other unidentified passers-by” referred to in the police report.

That second paragraph is nigh-unreadable, it makes me cringe so much

yeah i've stopped reading dumbassery/National Review on this sort of thing

I think what really happened is cop didn't respond well to ID request, Gates mentioned consequences, cop forced arrest scenario to create shitstorm about how a black man should behave with authority to take focus off his insubordinate behaviour (tough shit cop, it's insubordination the second you dodge an ID request) and oh look elitism!

These conservatives whine about the sanctity of the home yet are cross when a "high-status guy" exercises the right to get fucking pissed about being mistaken for a burglar in his own home.

i think it's because they don't like black people, i dunno

interview w/ Gates at the Root, talks about arrest

I think what really happened is cop didn't respond well to ID request,

no--the cop would have arrested Gates the moment he stepped on the porch. the ID request was just icing on the cake

^Article said he invited the cop in, produced his own ID in the home and THEN the cop said to step outside.

-- Jack Dunphy is an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department. "Jack Dunphy" is the author's nom de cyber. The opinions expressed are his own and almost certainly do not reflect those of the LAPD management.

Article said he invited the cop in, produced his own ID in the home and THEN the cop said to step outside.

I’m saying ‘You need to send someone to fix my lock.’ All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And I thought, ‘This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said ‘Officer, can I help you?’ And he said, ‘Would you step outside onto the porch.’ And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, ‘No, I will not.’

My lawyers later told me that that was a good move and had I walked out onto the porch he could have arrested me for breaking and entering. He said ‘I’m here to investigate a 911 call for breaking and entering into this house.’ And I said ‘That’s ridiculous because this happens to be my house. And I’m a Harvard professor.’ He says ‘Can you prove that you’re a Harvard professor?’ I said yes, I turned and closed the front door to the kitchen where I’d left my wallet, and I got out my Harvard ID and my Massachusetts driver’s license which includes my address and I handed them to him. And he’s sitting there looking at them.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/gates.arrest.reaction/index.html

Jelani Cobb, an author and professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, says it's troubling on many levels when "one of the most recognizable African-Americans in the country can be arrested in his own home and have to justify being in his own home."

um Jelani, I don't know how to break this to you, but the vast majority of America had no fucking clue who Skip Gates is before this debacle

And though arresting Gates may in retrospect be seen as imprudent, to suggest he was hauled in on some trumped-up charge is to accept the following as true:

"I should have known the Terrator didn't mean us any harm when the sword of Omens didn't obey me. And anyway, it was just plain stupid to assume it might be bad…"

who are the most recognizable african americans in the country?

1. will smith
2. michael jackson, RIP
3. barack obama
4. michelle obama
5. jay-z
6. denzel
7. shaq
8. ???

randy jackson

Would it be impolitic to observe that Gates acted just a wee bit cockish here? Who gives a shit if you're a Harvard professor, dude.

NB I have read no blogs about this or anything so no doubt a million people who I probably disagree with about everything else have said the same thing already so I want to take this opportunity to disassociate myself from whatever else it was they said

yeah this is pretty cringey:

I was in jail for four hours. I told them that I was claustrophobic, that I couldn’t be in this cell. And a very nice police officer said here are some of your friends and I could talk to them one at a time in the interview room until the magistrate came and signed the form allowing me to leave. I was there just between 1:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m., which is an interminable amount of time. I spent the rest of the time in another room, slightly bigger, and my friends just had to sit there and wait. And it was kind of like a Senate filibuster; we had to tell stories in the prison cell.

i mean, it's nothing compared to being dragged off your own front porch for no reason

yeah Tracer you're right, because he said "Don't you know who I am, I'm a Harvard professor!" he totally deserved to be arrested and handcuffed on his front porch

tho, i suppose saying "i'm a harvard professor" might be appropriate considering he was on harvard-owned property, not "do what i say, peasant" but "i belong here" -- but yeah there were definitely class aspects to this complicating the racial ish going on.

but i'm more interested in/outraged by the, ahem, assumptions of the initial reactions from some quarters...

xp

ugh that gates interview is terrible

yeah Tracer you're right, because he said "Don't you know who I am, I'm a Harvard professor!" he totally deserved to be arrested and handcuffed on his front porch

that's not what Tracer said.

did gates identify himself as "skip" to the police officer? this is the crucial question.

I did get arrested for arguing with cops, but that was because I refused to show them ID until they described in better detail what I was suspected of having done.

― actually a decent question y'all fucked up with ironic bullshit answer (sarahel), Wednesday, 22 July 2009 10:50 (6 hours ago) Permalink

I have a (black) friend who, in the late-Seventies (early-Eighties), felt he had enough free time and inclination to do the research and writing and filing required to sue a city and police department for the reason of having been arrested for not producing ID. And he won ($$$).

(Not that your case is exactly the same.) ()()(((())))(((())))(()() <----- extras

Umm blarg, why even go over it, and this is totally repeating myself, but:

- I do think that's obviously true that this isn't "police profiling," insofar as if people are going to report you for going into your own house police do have to respond, but that's actually part of why the whole thing surprises me, because it seems to me that it would be EXTREMELY easy for the officer to say "okay, you live here, and I can absolutely see why you're annoyed, this sucks for you, but obviously we just have to act on the calls we get, so now that that's settled sorry for the inconvenience and have a nice day," and maybe even say this happily and nicely, out of relief that you haven't REALLY rolled up on two burglars you're going to need to physically confront

- Not sure anyone expects that Gates as "meek as a lamb" (or was in any way required to be meek as a lamb) -- my guess is that he was in the same neighborhood of prickishness as any "important" upper-middle-class person who gets off a long flight and then has police approaching him in his own home expecting a burglar, which is pretty prickish, but being non-threateningly huffy with police officers remains legal, so long as you're not disobeying legitimate orders

- I think Gates should probably bake about 40 pies and go around to all of his neighbors introducing himself, just for fun

um Jelani, I don't know how to break this to you, but the vast majority of America had no fucking clue who Skip Gates is before this debacle

― Lisa Simpson = a fictional bitch (HI DERE), Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:35 AM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

But mightn't he be a celebrity in his home town? And isn't Jalani lamenting the low public profiles black have in the U.S.?

the pie idea is fantastic

black & white cookies would be better

But mightn't he be a celebrity in his home town?

hahahahaha um

There's not much I can add to that other than "Welcome to Cambridge!"

At the very least the second point holds water.

Never Waste a Good 'Racial Incident' [Roger Clegg]

Even if race played some role in how Professor Gates was treated — who knows? — the Left is, predictably, exaggerating the sociopolitical significance of it all. And I’ll go further than that: I suspect that, as soon as the police arrived, Professor Gates realized he had been handed a great opportunity to play the victim and advance his agenda, and he decided to milk the incident for all it’s worth. And he’s still doing it. That’s too bad, since the last thing African Americans need in 2009 is to buy into more victimology.

BTW, I should add that I have a lot of sympathy for the police, and not much for people who make it harder for them to do their jobs and who aren’t willing to cut them some slack. Here’s a good article on that from today’s Washington Post, of all places.

"police have a hard job, which may or may not include reading the text a driver's license and being polite to people in their own homes."

The second point does hold water; all I'm saying is that Jelani is (understandably) operating from a very tiny, academic bubble if she thinks Skip Gates is one of the country's most recognizable African-Americans. It's kind of akin to a biochemist/sf geek reacting in shock and dismay that the average American can't identify Isaac Asimov by picture.

I wonder if conservatives realize how tone- and reality-deaf it sounds for them to say they don't see any racial dynamic in something like this. I feel like some of them use this faux fair-minded tone to pretend not to understand or acknowledge something most Americans, wherever they fall politically or whatever they think about race, will readily concede: if people see two black men struggling with a door in a wealthy neighborhood, they are more likely to call the police than they would for white men in the same clothes, with the same manner, in the same situation. And this sorta sucks when one of those men happens to own the door. (And any police officer with half a brain should be aware of this and handle situations accordingly.)

(I also think conservatives misunderstand what bothers people about this, or the extent to which it bothers them. And some are apparently unable to discuss an unfortunate thing that happened to one black person without escalating it into a whole overarching paternalistic solution to some sort of updated Negro Problem -- "the last thing African Americans need in 2009 is to buy into more victimology!" So ... god forbid anyone should find out that mildly infuriating things can happen to you in a nice house in Cambridge that sort of stem from your race?)

(why am I even typing, there are probably people over there who were outraged about Ruby Ridge or Waco but figure public order demands Gates be arrested for getting mad at a guy in his house)

Tone- and reality-deaf commentators on this subject haven't necessarily been conservative. Last night was was yelling at Chris Matthews and had to take a breather. Not that C.M. isn't an asstard normally, but his borderline racism was too much.

was was was was was

I just wonder how much they genuinely do not acknowledge those realities, and how much they are sort of bracketing them in order to "look at things objectively"

- I think Gates should probably bake about 40 pies and go around to all of his neighbors introducing himself

oh please oh please oh please oh please

nabisco, can you pull a Mordy and email your (as usual thoughtful) posts to NRO?

Would it be impolitic to observe that Gates acted just a wee bit cockish here? Who gives a shit if you're a Harvard professor, dude.

― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 22 July 2009 16:56 (2 hours ago)

his harvard affiliation was relevant because the house itself is owned by harvard - the university leases it to him, it's university property

this really helps to frame the issue imo

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/crime_control_/2009/07/nightmare_on_ware_street.php

mark cl I didn't know that and I see that others have mentioned it too, which definitely makes the statement less cockish.

It's a pointless avenue of speculation anyway - there is no way to know exactly what was said and what the personal power dynamics were in that situation.

What is very knowable is that this is just another example of the kind of quotidian racism that happens day after day everywhere.

So for that reason I'm a little surprised at how surprised Gates was by it. Because it is so quotidian, which he knows. But if I got arrested in my own house I'd be pretty hot under the collar too.

not to speculate too much about Gates's heart or brain, but there are a few phrases in things he's said about this* that make me feel like he may have actually been lucky enough to forget a bit. not just because he's successful, or times are better than they used to be, but also because he's old, and surely someone in his position can begin to feel like it's over, he's a hugely successful academic walking around with a cane who does not need to worry about being arrested. and while I'm sure there are many less-privileged (and younger) black men who might chuckle a bit at that, I wonder how much that informs his reaction, and I think there's something possibly good about that, that instead of writing such things off as unavoidably quotidian, he might be the one taking the zero-tolerance approach, huffy or privileged as that might seem, or however much it might pale in comparison to worse things happening elsewhere.

* ("last night there were #X black men in jail and I was one of them," or similar)

Does Cambridge/Boston have a significant black population?

cambridge not really to my knowledge, boston yes but boston is essentially segregated by neighborhood.

I mean, to be honest, these are the things that really get to people and cut deep, those moments of feeling like no matter what you do, no matter how far you've come, how hard you've worked, how much you feel like a real part of your community, there may come these brief, minor moments where you're being reduced to your race and cast back out, and those can be pretty meaningful to someone who's spent years working and proving his way in

(it's in that sense, to be honest, that I could understand saying "I'm a Harvard professor" even if it weren't referring to university property; it'd be less an elitism and more a cry of "exactly how far do I have to come for this not to happen")

this really helps to frame the issue imo

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/crime_control_/2009/07/nightmare_on_ware_street.php

I liked this quite a bit.

thanks for those posts nabs

oh and ALSO (sorry to post a lot) -- if it seems somehow overly huffy or elitist to you for anyone to feel like success or privilege should shield someone such things, keep in mind the wisdom and narratives that lots of black people hold, ESPECIALLY around Gates's generation, which is that the best personal antidote to racism is to be better, smarter, harder-working, to succeed in the face of everyone who says you can't, etc. -- that is an amazing mindset that's produced some of the best people this country's ever known, but imagine you sorta did that and life was good and then oops, for a second it didn't matter

I don't think it's overly huffy or elitist at all ... for the reasons you mention, and also, there's frequently a double standard for white people in that regard.

Stuff like this happens to white people, and also to women. Any law-abiding person from any background who is approached in an authoritarian, hostile way by a cop on their own property - never mind arrested for what seem to be reasons of ego - has every right to feel aggrieved by that.

cue Paris Hilton ...

oh totally -- just speculating about how this might feel significant on a whole larger level if you happened to be Gates

(and yeah, sarahel, wasn't addressing that post to anyone in particular, just thinking through the reaction some in his position would have)

I wasn't even thinking of Paris Hilton. GAH.

MOOOOOOOMMMMMM!

the Guardian article about this, I have come to realize, is very incomplete

who'd a thought

LOL xpost user preference irony!

Look, I am in London where police are extra-schmucky w/'breathing while black/brown' issues and *anyone* who challenges police about cause or procedure gets an extra portion of terrorism-related stinkeye to engender compliance. Authoritarian conservatives bashing heads to feel better about themselves in a world where more and more people think they suck is no new thing.

Breaking! Obama has essentially called Cambridge police stupid for arresting a man in his own, proven home.

oh and ALSO (sorry to post a lot) -- if it seems somehow overly huffy or elitist to you for anyone to feel like success or privilege should shield someone such things, keep in mind the wisdom and narratives that lots of black people hold, ESPECIALLY around Gates's generation, which is that the best personal antidote to racism is to be better, smarter, harder-working, to succeed in the face of everyone who says you can't, etc. -- that is an amazing mindset that's produced some of the best people this country's ever known, but imagine you sorta did that and life was good and then oops, for a second it didn't matter

― nabisco, Wednesday, July 22, 2009 4:39 PM

Nominate for Nabisco Post of the Month and that's sayin' something.

That Gates question to Obama was a landmine. I think it was a little imprudent for him to say the Cambridge PD acted "stupidly" even if it's true.

Dunno, most of the negative comments out there are kvetching about health care and Birther complaints.

Birther stuff just looks more stupid by the hour, not the day.

LOL wonder if Obama has also been stopped in Cambridge for breathing while black, once upon a time.

Obama: "I was stopped for breathing once"

who are the most recognizable african americans in the country?

1. will smith
2. michael jackson, RIP
3. barack obama
4. michelle obama
5. jay-z
6. denzel
7. shaq
8. ???

I'd guess that Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Beyonce, Snoop Dogg, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Jesse Jackson, Magic Johnson, OJ Simpson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Sidney Poitier, and Eddie Murphy are all pretty high up there.

Maybe replace Snoop Dogg with Aretha Franklin and Whoopi Goldberg.

^^ Al Sharpton, Samuel L. Jackson, Kanye West, Morgan Freeman

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v354/)v(3thuD/urkel_mugshot-1.jpg

Although hey Skip Gates made the top 572, and that includes dead people!

is Skip Gates more recognizable than Soulja Boy?

hell no

it's a silly thing to rank but even among African American professors I think Cornel West is a bit more 'recognizable' than Gates

^^^ OTM

also nabisco is completely OTM throughout this thread

Michael Jackson. World-wide.

Esp. w/ all the recent coverage, in case anyone in far Lapland or the Borneo rainforest had forgotten what he looked like.

He could have opened the lock of Skip Gates's house with his nose. Better than a credit card in the door-crack.

so now the president has weighed in and the culture war is on!

but honestly i think the whole spectacle is now really enervating and saddening and i am trying to ignore it. i don't want to know what bill kristol thinks, i don't want to read liberals dissecting what bill kristol said, etc etc...

yeah there is sort of not enough there to have a whole worldview-competition over

or at least any worldview-competition just involves people projecting competing worldviews onto something that is real and factual (and ultimately small) and therefore sort of resistant to worldview-projection

I think it's a conversation that needs to happen as part of a larger discussion on inappropriate behaviour on the part of police; the public needs to draw a line in the sand about how uh peace officers will be expected to behave going forward. Don't get trapped in false comparison rhetoric, don't entertain critics who say you should be humble in the face of nasty or vindictive police, and for fuck's sake don't let anyone call the guy an elitist for complaining about how he was being treated.

Waiting for Obama to say 'oh I misspoke, Skip did have his keys...'

but honestly i think the whole spectacle is now really enervating and saddening and i am trying to ignore it. i don't want to know what bill kristol thinks, i don't want to read liberals dissecting what bill kristol said, etc etc...

Oh yes you do

I might pause before casually accusing other Americans of acting stupidly unless I were confident I knew what I was talking about.

I can confidently say that Kristol is acting stupidly, then.

yeah i don't think anyone cares what Bill Kristol thinks

except fred hiatt...

the WaPo op-ed page is the propaganda wing of the Heritage Foundation.

Um, guys...

The charge against Gates was dropped on Tuesday. The police department issued a statement saying the incident "was regrettable and unfortunate" and should not "be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department."

Crowley, however, has refused to apologize, and he told the radio station he did nothing wrong. He added he was surprised that a man as educated as Gates would start yelling epithets about Crowley's mom, part of the incident that never made it into the police report.

"That apology will never come. It won't come from me as Jim Crowley. It won't come from me as a sergeant in the police department," Crowley told WEEI.

i dred that he's gonna get off scott free

I was trying to ignore that. also lol velko

sorry if this was already posted/linked:

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts - The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on understanding racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class about racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The course, called "Racial Profiling," teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from," Fleming said.

Obama has said the Cambridge officers "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates last week when they responded to his house after a woman reported a suspected break-in.

Crowley, 42, has maintained he did nothing wrong and has refused to apologize, as Gates has demanded.

Crowley responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused, flew into a rage and accused the officer of racism.

Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday.

Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw "two black males with backpacks" trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed.

Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

"I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And No. 3 - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he followed procedure.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent. I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts as he himself stated before he made that comment," Crowley told WBZ-AM. "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

see when i read that the cop was an expert on racial profiling, the first thing i thought was: oh then he must be really good at it.

^^^^^^^^^ yes

lol @ right-wing blog talking about how this guy "once gave mouth-to-mouth to a black basketball star"

blog(s)

think about all of the diseases he put himself at risk of catching! xp

The GOP seems to think it's participating in some sort of butthurt competition.

tbh i think the GOP is built on a foundation of butthurt

Eh?:

Haas also revealed, in response to reporters' questions at the news conference, that Gates's house had been broken into before the incident. He did not specify exactly when the break-in had taken place.

"Well see, we knew we had to make sure he wasn't being a Communist."

"That apology will never come. It won't come from me as Jim Crowley. It won't come from me as a sergeant in the police department," Crowley told WEEI.

WEEI is a sports radio station, FYI.

It won't come from me as Jim Crowley. It won't come from me as a sergeant in the police department," Crowley told WEEI.

But will it come from his alter ego, The Profiler?

http://gawker.com/5323874/the-911-call-that-got-henry-louis-gates-busted

The Cambridge Police Department has released the 911 call that led to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates. The caller didn't say the men were black, and she said they could have just been having trouble with their keys.

Lucia Whalen, the Harvard Magazine fundraiser who called in the report of a break-in at Gates' house after she saw two men forcing the door open, makes it very clear that she wasn't sure a crime was being committed—she apparently had been urged to call the police by another neighbor she passed on the street, and didn't seem to want to be involved at all. From the call:

Whalen: I noticed two suitcases, so I'm not sure if these were individuals who work there—I mean, live there.

911: You think they might have been breaking in?

Whalen: I don't know, because I have no idea... I don't know if they live there and they just had a hard time with their key, but I did notice that they kind of used their shoulder to barge in.

911: Were they white, black, or hispanic?

Whalen: Well, there were two larger men. One looked kind of hispanic, but I'm not really sure. And the other one entered, and I didn't see what he looked like at all.

haha so basically the person who acted the most rationally in this whole matter is the person who made the call that sparked off all the nonsense

haha so actually Gates was approached here as fitting the description of a potential Hispanic burglar

or wait, I guess that'd have been the "larger" driver

Maybe Crowley had just seen a trailer for "The Collector" before getting this call.

Pretty damning of Crowley IMO.

i keep wondering why gates thought it was "ridiculous" that a police officer had arrived at his house after he had visibly broken into it. that doesn't add up. there's a lot that doesn't add up (like why the incident didn't end after he'd presented his ID). i am sort of sick of thinking about this, though.

As for what beer they'll drink, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs noted Monday that the president hoisted a Budweiser at the All-Star Game in St. Louis earlier this month, while Sgt. Crowley told the president he was more partial to Blue Moon. Gates told the Boston Globe he likes Red Stripe and Beck's, but the White House doesn't stock foreign beer.

lol

"i keep wondering why gates thought it was "ridiculous" that a police officer had arrived at his house after he had visibly broken into it."

Uh didn't he let himself in through the back door?

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/aide-resigns-over-facebook-posts-on-harvard-arrest/

Well I'm glad she's out of a job.

these people are astonishing to me

o-dumb-a

^sub-morbius

I bet she complains she got fired because of "reverse racism".

you'd expect a deputy press sectretary to be a little more discreet about weighing in on controversial topics under your real name to the entire internet, but yeah i guess the 'gross negligence' aspect of the firing will be completely lost on her

Landor's candor

Uh didn't he let himself in through the back door?

only after gates had put his shoulder to the front door and failed to get in. which is what i assume tipped the "neighbor" off that there was in fact a man breaking into gates' house.

he didn't break in though--he went in through the back door. he tried to break in

"my mistake, i can see now he was only trying to break in - i think he's let himself in through the back - false alarm"

Yeah once you ask the guy for prove that he lives there and he provides it, yeah it is a false alarm.

He didn't even try to break-in. He had a key and the front door was jammed. When my bathroom door was stuck in my old apartment I wasn't trying to "break-in" to my living room when pushed hard on it to get out of the bathroom.

christ these guys can't even agree on beer

I don't have a huge issue with Jim Crow(ley) being rude to Gates initially, but as soon as ID was provided that should have been the end of it. The arrest was spurious; Gates was lured out of his house specifically so he could be humiliated because he hurt Crow(ley)'s feelings. There's no other reason for him to be arrested, particularly since he proved that he lived there, plus the inconsistency between the police report and the 911 call doesn't make sense unless Crow(ley) talked to someone else who claimed to have made the 911 call (maybe the original old lady?) who screeched "TWO BLACK MEN, OH NOES" at him.

(sorry I'm still lolling at "Jim Crowley")

Yeah once you ask the guy for prove that he lives there and he provides it, yeah it is a false alarm.

absolutely - i'm talking about the original caller's pov

it's just weird to me that gates claims to have said "this is ridiculous!" when the police first arrived - no it's actually the way it's supposed to work

u must be a pretty mellow guy tracer

I don't suppose anyone ever gets exasperated at being questioned about being in their own home after getting off of a long plane ride and being jetlagged all to hell. Totally unreasonable, unfathomable reaction.

i realize that my background and life experience is pretty difft to prof. gates' but if i managed to break into my own house in broad daylight i'd be a little pissed off if the police didn't show up

yeah long time flying back from china into newark then sleeping a little but probably not good sleep then driving up to MA and not being able to get into your own house and then some dick cop asks you for ID in your own house, totally acceptable. why would he get pissed

gates has states by the way that he's glad the cops showed up. this is just a guess, but he's probably less happy about being arrested in his own house

has stated

the questioning and playing out of the situation after i.d. was produced is bizarre and seemingly impossible to justify and quite possibly racist - the stuff preceding that seems about as normal as can be

considering the greater metro boston police's immaculate record of race relations i don't see why gates would react this way at all, right???

for the life of me gates sounds really clueless about being on the business end of police power. i think he jumped to the "this cop is racist" conclusion because, well, what other reason would a cop possibly have for bothering me? the answer seems to me that cops are dicks to everyone, all the time, for no real reason at all, as part of their job description. the juicy race matter here is obscuring a far more prevalent authoritarian element. and yeah gates seems mystified that the cops would even be there in the first place

this has been said six million times but REGARDLESS of gates reaction to the police officer the PO has a responsibility to remain courteous and level-headed EVEN IN THE FACE OF A VERY SCARY OLD BLACK MAN WITH A CANE ACCUSING HIM OF RACISM

Gates' initial reaction just scans to me as a "oh great, what's next?" reaction after not being able to get in after a long trip; it's like, "front door is busted, then the police show up. What's next, are you gonna arrest me? uh wait that was rhetorical..."

the questioning and playing out of the situation after i.d. was produced is bizarre and seemingly impossible to justify and quite possibly racist - the stuff preceding that seems about as normal as can be

well yes, right up to where Gates asks for Jim Crow(ley)'s (lol) ID and instead of giving him the info, Crow(ley) baits him into going outside and then arrests him

i mean tracer you sound v. close to "yeah well they were both at fault" which is sort of insanely frustrating to me--gates is not and should not be held to the same standard of behavior as the police officer!

yup, all other elements of the situation pale in comparison to the arrest, which was, say it with my brothers, stupid

two guys fundamentally misunderstand each other and get into some kind of pissing match, one guy is in his own home, the other is armed and has the legal authority to detain

i mean tracer you sound v. close to "yeah well they were both at fault" which is sort of insanely frustrating to me--gates is not and should not be held to the same standard of behavior as the police officer!

plus the escalation Gates did (repeatedly asking for name and badge number) was perfectly legal and within his rights, and occurred after the entire thing had been shown to be a false alarm

And the most irritating thing about this is that if dude had just given his name and badge number, Gates would have maybe filed a complaint, it would have gone nowhere and none of us would be talking about this!

you would think a guy who gives racial profiling classes would be pretty well aware of the fact that he hadnt done anything wrong up to that point and that giving his name and badge number was not only required of him by law but wouldnt have gotten him in any trouble

but lol i guess not

maybe this was all an elaborate plot to get into the White House

OBAMA LOOK OUT, IT'S A TRAP

mister crowley

what went on in your head?

It does bother me that this douchewad is going to end up getting free beer at the White House just for being a dick.

I bet you $10 he'll assume Obama will serve chicken wings and malt liquor, then tell FOX News that he was pleasantly surprised they didn't.

i hope to jesus they DO serve malt liquor and chicken wings

um

If I were Obama I would give him stir-fried chicken wings with a watermelon-lychee dessert.

Commie.

I would serve him something laced with ex lax.

this is sort of pointless to even go into but I feel I should mention that I can understand how, if you're an older long-time upper-middle-class homeowner standing in front of your home with luggage fiddling with the lock, and then you go around back and do a little tug-and-shove to get the door open, and you're with someone, you might actually just consider yourself to have been fooling with a sticky door, and not entirely have it register that it'd look like a break-in to anyone, what with it being your door to do what you like with. as a young non-homeowner I can't even fiddle with my keys too long in front of my nice building without fearing someone might think I'm up to something, but if Gates has gotten to a point where he feels that comfortable with his home then good for him. (so far as I can tell here it also sounds a bit like he was confused due to being on the phone with Harvard about someone tampering with his lock, i.e. he was in the mindset of calling for assistance, which would sort of inform your response when someone immediately showed up looking at you)

I guess not "homeowner" but "esteemed resident of the nicer faculty housing"

Eh, if you're tenured you are basically the homeowner unless they decide to tear the building down.

Dan, couldn't most people of colour in Cambridge easily imagine something like this happening, if not to them, to someone well-known?

Gates was mystified as to why he was being treated like a perp in his own home; I'd probably blow my top if some cop treated me with the same disrespect. When Crowley called for backup, he referred to Gates as the 'uncooperative' resident. Anyway, I don't know what planet y'all are living on but here on Earth, cops can spend a long time directing traffic/trapped behind desk if the right important person complains to the right police official at the right time, and if Gates would have been white or female, that's probably what Crowley would be doing right now.

we're all living on Earth, suzy

speak for yourself, I'm on vacation

Cambridge cops suck. I could easily imagine something like this happening to me with them, which is why I try not to be in situations that involve them. By contrast, every interaction I've had with Boston/Somerville police has been great, even when getting ticketed; very calm, courteous and efficient in imparting whatever info they needed to impart aside from the guys who came across brusque because of their accents.

I don't care how nice Ofcr TotalBro is, I try not to be in situations that involve cops, period.

Thing about Crow(ley) makes me think how weird it is that a guy named Gates has gotten so wrapped up in a home-invasion controversy.

I don't know if this is your experience around Boston, Dan, but I've always felt like proper city cops tend to be in a place where ... if you present as remotely non-threatening (or middle-class, or whatever), you are just not the sort of problem they're after, whereas cops in "nicer" places will have, umm, more rigorous standards about considering people undesirable and coming at them aggressively? I dunno.

That's kind of true, not gonna lie.

I find this foofaraw mostly inane. From the 911 call and Crowley's background, there's every possibility that this is less about racism than about standard operating procedure police dickishness.

Some things do interest me about this incident, however:

Because of the transient nature of University life, coupled with the presence of lots of young people and potentially lots of political 'trouble makers', do police forces in places like Cambridge or Berkeley have a different relationship with the populace than in non-college towns?

How can two neighbors NOT know who lives in that house? I can understand, though only vaguely, how they might not know Gates, even though he's been on TV a zillion times on a zillion different channels but how did they not know who he is. It strikes me a squite odd, 'cause I know LOADS of people in an acquaintance-type way in my rather densely urban 'hood and I sure as shit would know if Skip Gates was my neighbor. Also wrt to the polite (unspoken) racism aspect of this. Assuming that his race was one of the determining factors in impelling the first witness or the caller to contact the police, again, how the heck did you not know your neighbor was a BLACK MAN?

I am genuinely curious about the racial/political/class-based/social aspects of this and other private citizen-police officer encounters. I am a middle-aged white guy and have only been pulled over or accosted by the police a few times but I can assure you that I am always scrupulously deferential and polite regardless of the cops' demeanor which is often dickish to the extreme. Would that have worked for Gates? Would it be a 'correct response' given the history of police abuse and racism?

Oh, and lastly, I find it amusing somehow, that Officer Crowley probably never, ever thought when he was dispatched that day that the POTUS was going to be commenting on it.

there's every possibility that this is less about racism than about standard operating procedure police dickishness

fwiw I agree with this up to a point, that point being that in Cambridge police are more likely to be dickish authoritarians with you if you aren't white (see, for example, the officers who gave my wife a ticket for running a red light at an intersection she DIDN'T DRIVE THROUGH).

In general, the city of Cambridge HATES Harvard, so the university probably did play into the dynamic here.

How can two neighbors NOT know who lives in that house? I can understand, though only vaguely, how they might not know Gates, even though he's been on TV a zillion times on a zillion different channels but how did they not know who he is. It strikes me a squite odd, 'cause I know LOADS of people in an acquaintance-type way in my rather densely urban 'hood and I sure as shit would know if Skip Gates was my neighbor. Also wrt to the polite (unspoken) racism aspect of this. Assuming that his race was one of the determining factors in impelling the first witness or the caller to contact the police, again, how the heck did you not know your neighbor was a BLACK MAN?

the initial reports that it was a neighbor were unfounded--it was a woman who works in the neighborhood. and as came out yesterday when the 911 call was released, she didnt even see gates, just his driver, who she seemed to think was latino.

In general, the city of Cambridge HATES Harvard, so the university probably did play into the dynamic here.

Town vs Gown dynamic?

Max, wasn't the caller a neighbor, though?

michael, max just said she wasn't a neighbor

nope--there should be a few posts about it above but it was apparently a woman who words for the harvard magazine (the offices of which are nearby) who seems to have seen the driver and gates attempting to get it (but not close enough to mark their race) and then told a neighbor, who encouraged her to call the police

xpost - I guess it makes sense -- city cops are happy if you don't seem to have killed or robbed anyone lately; nice-neighborhood cops get to worry if you're loitering or making noise. (I mean, in this instance I cannot possibly imagine a police officer in a dense mixed-income part of a city bothering to waste time arresting Gates; they get into a lot worse stuff than getting yelled at, and have much better things to do with their time.)

xpost - yes, the thing about all this "authoritarian cop" stuff is that you are a lot more likely to get it if you are poor, or non-white, or any of a bunch of other factors (including "male," really)

Caller worked nearby and did not positively identify anyone or affiliate them with any group. In fact, she said she thought the people might be residents returning home.

My cop uncle would never have allowed himself to become emotional or butthurt in that situation because to do so would be unprofessional. Being appropriately polite to members of the public was, to him, an important part of making his job easier down the line. I don't know what rep the Minneapolis cops had for classism/racism in the early '80s but I've been present when members of the public have been chewed out by cops for introducing a racial element.

Cops already know it is never a good idea to get into a battle of wits with someone who can call the mayor, the governor or the chief of their police force. Gene Robinson's take is not so different from mine.

(I mean, in this instance I cannot possibly imagine a police officer in a dense mixed-income part of a city bothering to waste time arresting Gates; they get into a lot worse stuff than getting yelled at, and have much better things to do with their time.)

totally OTM

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/07/gatesgate.html

That said, I suspect that the arrest (made by an officer who seems a fairly decent fellow, judging from the interviews I’ve seen) was motivated as much by what might be called gownism as by racism, probably more... When Gates whipped out his Harvard I.D. and told the cop he didn’t know who he was dealing with, his fate, I suspect, was sealed.

Got it, max.

What I also find interesting from growing up in a relatively rich town and then liaising with the police there, years later on film shoot, was how different their relationship to the populace was. In SF or LA or Oakland, where I had worked, the cops were tough and a little contemptuous of the citizenry. In the rich suburban town they were scared of the citizens, scared of their power in city hall, and since the jusitifcation for their existence wasn't in preventing lots of assaults or solving lots of murders, it had to be in making the unwashed and unwanted toe the line regarding the idyllic gentility of the little town, i.e. picking on the poor, minorities (many of whom commute to work there in some domestic capacity or as unskilled labor) and anybody too far from the acceptable norms, and all this in an ostensibly tolerant and liberal Northern California town.

Interesting link, suzy.

Like most of us, I've followed this story all over the web, and I have to say that the ILE discussion is the most reasonable I've seen. Elsewhere, it can make your blood boil, the need to find fault with Gates, apportion blame "fairly", etc. Just sayin'.

As a white male, it would be too easy for me to dismiss racism as a factor in this situation, and I do suspect it played a part (albeit unprovable absent Crowley confessing or suddenly talking like Mark Furman or something), but I also agree with everyone who points to the cop's dickishness/unprofessionalism.

As someone who was handcuffed in my own driveway in front of my young son after a routine traffic stop, I'm no longer under any illusions (even if I were in the first place) about the potential for bad behaviour in some police officers. The scariest part is that I also think it isn't "just a few bad apples", it's otherwise decent people being part of a culture that both tacitly approves of such behaviour and then tries to cover for it after the fact.

Oh, and yeah, some bad apples too,obv.

They'll drink beer, as the world has been told repeatedly -- Blue Moon for the policeman, Red Stripe for the professor, Bud for the president.

So Skip can't even drink an AMERICAN beer, he has to drink JAMAICAN BEER

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/07/28/the_picnic_table_summit.html?wprss=44

Why is the president drinking Bud anyway? It's Belgian now.

It's not the overt racism of calling someone a name, but the covert racism of thinking a black man isn't entitled to act like a rich, famous man in his own home whereas a white guy would just be 'blowing off steam'.

It's not racism, but the patronising 'little lady' treatment a lot of cops dish out to women can be just as toxic.

Best LOL I ever had from cops v. people situation was a couple of years back in Orange County, land of asshole popo. I was on a press trip and the hotel I was in was crawling with skateboarders and journalists. Cops suddenly burst in our otherwise mellow room at 11pm and started trying to 'evict' paid-for guests. Everything stopped. I advised the officer to be EXTREMELY careful how he spoke to five journalists in front of as many witnesses, and to please remove his mirrored shades if speaking to us at all. Cops left in 60 seconds, empty-handed and without evicting anyone.

(why is the prez drinking Bud when it's distributed by his former opponent's wife's company? is more to the point also Miller is the only union beer, and it sucks, so...)

maybe the prez is drinking bud because they were out of GREY POUPON

is there an obama-drinking-on-the-job meme out there yet?

i don't really want to give traffic to any of the google results for "obama drinking on the job", but it appears that way, yes

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/tny/2009/07/a-beer-with-obama.html

so the new yorker is mcsweeney's now?

pretty sure "Shouts & Murmurs" has existed since the 30s

what i get for not reading the new yorker, but this:

OBAMA: So hey. Hey. Seriously. What happened?

CROWLEY: What? You mean with the thing?

OBAMA: Yeah.

CROWLEY: Oh. I thought he was a burglar because he was black.

GATES: And I was a jackass because I assumed he was a racist Irish cop.

wow.

is there anything worse than shouts and murmurs? seriously. besides star wars fan art.

genocide

child abuse

rape

murder

bigotry

would have found that funny if it had ended with the Crowley line, honestly -- making humor even-handed is a pretty unfunny game

gettin warmer max

the movie "my sisters keeper"

I think the Saunders/Palin S&M was the last one I got significant laughs out of, though I have some vague memory of a good one by a woman, having something to do with planes, or children

nabisco that one was terrible! an entire page of a woman who, get this, thinks kids on planes are annoying

i can't tell if you guys are making fun of the new yorker or if that was a real shouts and murmurs or what

also, nabisco, you really brought it in this thread.

was the saunders thing even a shouts and murmurs? i remember it being something else, as though the nyer editors were able to admit that it was way too funny to be relegated to the shouts and murmurs shitheap

k no longer feeling bad for confusing it with mcsweeneys.

o god children on planes

http://students.cup.edu/sac9223/Jerry_Seinfeld.jpg

max that movie sounds like "the island" with less running around

i dont know if its worse than genocide but its certainly worse than shouts and murmurs

destroyer I think you are mostly doing McSweeney's a favor by associating the decades-old short uppermiddlebrow light-comedy writing format that specifically with them

I remember nothing about the children and/or planes thing except thinking some of the sentences were good

Saunders/Palin was indeed an S&M, you can google it, due to it's on the internet

Horseshoe thank you and please consult ILX dreams thread

maybe mcsweeney's is now providing the new yorker with exact genetic duplicates of shouts and murmurs articles so that the new yorker can continue to live

Saunders/Palin was indeed an S&M

^^ this is one of those "dangerous" phrases that could mean many different things

Tracer you are doing this specifically to incite my whole "why does everyone think the reader contributions on the web are McSweeney's" thing, aren't you!

it's a periodical that's mostly short stories, and this short-humor writing thing has been done pretty much like this at least since Robert Benchley, if not before

(it's gotta be well before, actually, but I can't think of who)

I'm pretty sure it's as old as various ancient Greeks.

nabs it's not the format but the quality that is the issue here.

at least ac/dc: the board meeting was funny.

haha destroyer that was the point I was trying to make!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/powell.palin/index.html

"Adult supervision", ha!

I loved the lady on the plane S&M but that kind of language appeals to me.

Woolcott wrote S&M from '29 till the mid-Thirties.

larry wilmore on the daily show last night: hahahahahahahaha!!!!

"Yo mama? How many decades has he been holding that in? Did he call him a jive turkey too."

(i'm paraphrasing)

it's on the daily show site. the "race card" segment:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

very gabbnebian use of skip by mr. wilmore too

Are the Soviets going to launch a pre-emptive strike when they know the president will be good and drunk by 7pm est on Thursday?

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1187845

ftr as of when I posted this, the comments section wasn't frightmarish

also lol @ this dude, way to go

Judge Napolitano defends Gates on FOX News:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYo6dR0tf_I

haha the comments are golden if only for this:

why is some people still filled with hate that's the Devil in side them you need Jesus

sonofsam ? +1 Good Comment -2 Poor Comment

yeah I lolled at that

to be fair, maybe this guy's dad is just named Sam

Anyway, I don't know what planet y'all are living on but here on Earth, cops can spend a long time directing traffic/trapped behind desk if the right important person complains to the right police official at the right time, and if Gates would have been white or female, that's probably what Crowley would be doing right now.

Hahahahahaha oh suzy can you please find this Platonic right important person this young white female get even the female district atty in my county to think maybe some cops really fucked up how they handled sexual assault charges I made? btw I am Earthling.

sry to walk into thread and be like 'hey look at me guys' ;_;

Can't respond. Trying to diagram Abbot's first sentence.

i'm not sure that's the important part! sorry, abbs

put 'help' between 'important person' and 'this young'

Female upper middle class was the equivalency implied w/Gates BTW. I got what Abbott meant.

Abbott, former college suitemate is asst AG in CO, you are NM, yes? Don't know if M is licensed for yr state but depending on what you need I may be able to ask...

I'm in NM, yes.

okay this latest bit exposes seedy underbelly andcet andcet but is mostly just LOL. what is it with racists and clowning themselves in public?

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/officer_suspend.html

comments droll as ever and you won't have to wait for it

Bigots and racists think that *everyone* thinks the way they do but "just won't admit it".

Every time I see below the line comments like these I wish news sites would apply the same standards as letters to the editor ie. toss it if they cannot spell etc.

suzy this only works for youtube but it's better than nothing.. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7115

I never, ever read the comments on YouTube. I was thinking that the one media career that could benefit all those subs rattling around looking for jobs would be 'comments section gatekeeper'

there is one particular irish ilxor who is doing just that!

Why doe the officer get fired, but Professor Gates doesn't get disciplined by Harvard for being a racist? Talk about a double standard.
Posted by will July 29, 09 05:23 PM

yeah!!!

the crickets are deafening
*leaves forum in disgust @ the obvious hypocrisy of it all*
Posted by courtney July 29, 09 05:24 PM

this is arguably the greatest comment in the history of the internet

about 90% of working white males probably used similar verbage to describe Gates The Moron in an email or in conversation when hearing the full details of the story. This is a non-issue.
Posted by FJ July 29, 09 05:52 PM

i think i speak for all of ilx's working white males when i say that FJ has a point here

Fooie Jagger

ok re: that officer story, i have to admit i found this hilarious:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/30/gates.police.apology/index.html

In Barrett's e-mail, which was posted on a Boston television station's Web site, he declared that if he had "been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance."

Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham's writing as "jungle monkey gibberish."

He also declared that he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."

Barrett's comments were taken out of context, said his attorney, Peter Marano.

"Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially," Marano said. "He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man."

Oh lawyers.

wow

Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey

I could stare and stare at those words for days

1. It's appalling
2. It's hilarious bcz it's so wtf
3. It looks like a somewhat forced anagram of another sentence, the ones that rearrange a Lincoln quote to come up with 'I saw Grouch ram Oprah aside' or something.

//˘ ˘/ / / ˘ /// / ˘ // ˘˘

yvonne abraham is not black iirc

http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Photo/2007/10/29/1193679375_0845.gif

The White House Beer Summit [Michael Warren]

Today’s racial-healing beerfest at the White House will have a patriotic flair to it. President Obama planned the bull session with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley for today on the White House lawn. Yesterday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told some in the press pool that Gates will be drinking Red Stripe, Obama will have a Bud Light, and Crowley will have a Blue Moon. Their beers of choice are conveniently shortened to “Red, Light, and Blue.”

Blue Moon has an unwarranted reputation for being less manly than your average brew, but leave it to Crowley, the tough cop, to blast that stigma to pieces. Red Stripe is a Jamaican import, which sort of clashes with the patriotic theme of the beer summit. Obama’s decision to have a Bud Light reminds me of Clinton-era polling. Could the president have picked a more middle-of-the-road, poll-tested, non-controversial beer? All in the name of unity, I suppose.

In three sentences he's insinuated that Gates is unpatriotic, that Obama's a cynical poll watcher, and Crowley's got a big dick.

Obama's a SECRET MEXICAN.

That is my offensive Mexican stereotype, sry guys = they drink Bud Lite.

fwiw i think maybe barrett's choice of epithet was a distortion of the more common "jungle bunny"??

"jungle monkey" is a bit redundant imo, but maybe allows for a greater degree of deniability?

i should maybe stop trying to figure these ppl out, tho

It's becoming easier and easier to detect which people talk shit using words they don't know apart from hearing other bloviators use. It's the absolute reverse of people like my unce who read a word like 'decadent' and don't know how topronounce due to dearth of folks able to discuss it in Big Lake, MN.

riiight

I've just never been able to figure out how people fail to use correct spelling in day to day life WHEN MOST OF WHAT THEY READ IS SPELLED CORRECTLY.

'I saw Grouch ram Oprah aside'

This is a hilarious fake anagram!

http://www.theawl.com/2009/07/minutes-of-the-meeting-between-gates-and-crowley-at-the-white-house

Wow you really don't have to go far to get to the Biden gold!
Roughly the fourth thing said:

BIDEN: (Brightly) I used to be a lifeguard with some black fellas! Good, clean guys. Spoke well!

The Biden bits are pretty great!

sub-New Yorker.

Perhaps, but it still made me chuckle. I like the wizard-of-oz shtick.

Faces of America is the weirdest mix of pious multi-culturalism and celebrity gawking yet it's really, really good.

Just watched the season premiere of Finding Your Roots. I love that show.

I love it too. Wait until you get to the second episode. Michael K. Williams is such a particularly sensitive soul in the best way.