Realities in the Arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates

Tweet by brennonbortz to The Huffington Post

O WOW! I just saw Henry Louis Gates in LGA acting like a damn superstar waving to folk. Somebody tell his uppity self to stop. Lmao.

Tweet by NaleJBonz to The Huffington Post

I have been watching the news about the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with great interest. As I have previously written, I had the privilege of meeting Mr. Gates last January and found myself not only charmed but very moved by his actions and words. He is a bright, effervescent man with a passion for history and a firm determination that all people are equal. In short, I found him an inspiration (see my previous post entitled “The Theory and Practice of Rainbows” for a contemporaneous discussion of my introduction to Professor Gates).

However, I wasn’t present at the time of his arrest and cannot comment on what actually occurred other than to note that my impression of the man I met last January and the various descriptions of Professor Gates in the many blogs and commentaries discussing his arrest are wholly incompatible. Given the number of people in the blogs and commentaries with firm opinions about how he behaved that July day, I am compelled to assume that at the time of his arrest there must have been a crowd of somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 in attendance outside of his Cambridge home. How this many people could have been forewarned of the event is nothing short of miraculous and must be an indication of the power of mobile electronics – nothing else could explain such a phenomenon. One wonders if its ephemeral organizers sold tickets to what could only be described as the first-ever “Racial Event Rave”.

Since a crowd of this size is highly improbable and remains unreported by what is laughingly known as “the Press”, I have to assume that none of those with a firm opinion about Mr. Gates (or about Sergeant James Crowley, the police officer involved, for that matter) were present at the arrest when it occurred. I also have to assume that none of these self-confessed expert witnesses are blessed by a higher power with paranormal observational abilities.

In other words, none of these bloggers and commentators have a clue what they are talking about, but they are uniformly firm in their resolve not to let their lack of knowledge get in the way of their having a firm opinion about what actually happened. Ignorance of actual facts is, apparently, no reason not to assume a version thereof convenient to personal prejudice.

I find this “ability” to intuit “facts” from afar to be greatly more interesting than the story itself. The events of that July day were nothing more than a high level replay of common, garden variety events which occur daily in this country when folks of two or more races have occasion to interact. Simply put, race is still a destabilizing factor in this country even though we have spent the last several decades working hard to eliminate it as such. While the simple fact of Mr. Gates’ arrest is proof that we have yet to succeed in achieving a race neutral society, the reaction to the arrest by all of the know-it-alls and true believers is a far more telling measurement of the distance yet to travel toward that goal.

I say this simply because one can only know the Truth of something unseen and unobservable through the strength of one’s own convictions and beliefs. All of us have a belief structure which we apply to what we see and hear, and, using that structure to make sense of our sensory input, we arrive at conclusions that are personally meaningful. We use that belief structure to interpret matters which occur before our very eyes, and we also use that belief structure to interpret that which we have been told about but have not seen.

In doing so, sometimes we reach conclusions that are insightful, but more often we simply reflect our lack of understanding, lack of empathy or lack of knowledge. If there is one single lesson which all of us can learn as a result of Professor Gates’ arrest, it is to think before publication. In days of yore, becoming published was dependent upon others printing our words, and they did so only after subjecting us to editing. Today anyone – yes, even I – can publish without another’s permission, much less another’s editing. If that statement doesn’t scare you, you know not what you are about to do.

That so many could swear that they know the truth of the events of that day or, more tellingly, that so many could characterize Mr. Gates’ behavior in some manner when they weren’t there to observe his behavior for themselves (often using words or phrases dripping with the prejudice long displayed during our national history of racial discrimination) demonstrates that racial prejudice is alive and well in America. When so many can look from afar through their personal lens of verity to find Mr. Gates acting “uppity” (in the words of NaleJBonz), I can only conclude that that racism persists immediately below the crust of our good manners and eagerly awaits any opportunity to manifest its ugly self.

Not only is racism alive and well in our country, but the level of our debate on the subject has yet to pass beyond sophomoric. While I have long felt that we were making progress toward a race neutral society even if we weren’t yet perfect, this debate has made me reconsider how far we have really come. Admittedly, much of the commentary I have read is not of the type set forth above and I do not mean to denigrate everyone who has commented. However, all too much of the commentary is of the type that assumes either (a) that Professor Gates was guilty of something (loud, disruptive behavior, lack of respect for the police, uppitiness) or (b) that Sergeant Crowley was guilty of something (lack of respect for blacks, stupidity for not accepting the fact that Gates was in his own home, racial profiling).

I am certainly not against anyone having an opinion about something they haven’t personally witnessed – if I was, I wouldn’t be writing this blog entry. I am not against anyone drawing a general conclusion from these events as I, myself, am doing. As to the event itself, my conclusions are that it is very likely (a) neither man was at his best that day, (b) the matter should have ended when it was confirmed that Mr. Gates was in his own home, and (c) the police showed less than perfect professionalism in the manner in which things were handled. In fact, I think President Obama’s characterization of the entire affair as “stupid” is the best summary of events to date for the stated reasons.

But my beliefs about the matter are as peanuts when compared to the outpouring of stereotypical conclusions on the Internet about the participants themselves by people who were nowhere in the vicinity of Cambridge on the day in question. Forget the events of the day; treat them as only the backdrop to the enormous, resulting outpouring of raw sewage on the subject on the Internet. Consider, instead, what that outpouring means to us as a society. What it means to me is simply that we still have a long road to travel; we cannot yet be at the half way mark to a race neutral society when there is such conclusive, massive, public evidence that stereotyping remains rampant in many people’s consideration of events unseen or unexperienced.

As I have written this, I have wondered about my own lack of posting of stereotypical comments about Sergeant Crowley. In fact such commentary exists and I have read it and found it equally disheartening. And, I considered posting examples of such commentary since is as disturbing to me as the quotes posted above. I have not done so, however, because I do not know Sergeant Crowley. I have, however, had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with Professor Gates and I have the privilege of having a childhood friend of his as a friend of mine. I posted the above quotes not to give them prominence or credibility, but simply because the opinions they express about Mr. Gates are so contrary to the extraordinary man I met last January. I have no similar basis with which to compare Sergeant Crowley.

Consider these quotes as my muse for the purpose of this posting – a dark, sinister, ugly muse, but a muse nonetheless.