<p>I’m not assuming the cop was racist. I think it more likely that the police would have never been called had Gates been white but that is speculation. I think the cop did a poor job of handling the situation - maybe because he was a bully - maybe he was inexperienced - maybe he was embarrassed and that made him angry. By the time Gates was handcuffed, there were several officers there. I think they could have walked away - so what if Gates stood on his porch ranting for a few minutes - that’s not illegal.</p>
<p>“I exclaim with obvious and unfeigned surprise that I didn’t realize it.”</p>
<p>So now the cop is a drama critic, and he’s supposed to give you extra credit for giving a realistic performance?</p>
<p>What owlice said post #177 is the crux of the matter: white people treat other white people rudely all the time, and it’s no HUGE deal. But when they treat black people the same way, it’s suddenly racism.</p>
<p>I’m white, and I managed a retail store for a long time, and the vast majority of the arguments I got into were with other white people. They thought I was being unreasonable and rude and I thought they were being unreasonable and rude. I even stepped outside with one white guy for a fist fight.</p>
<p>But when the same rude-on-rude confrontations happened between minorities and me, occasionally they’d claim I was being racist, when in fact I was just treating them like I treated white people.</p>
<p>People need to understand that you could wipe clean the racism from eveybody’s heart, and there would still be confrontations between people, and sometimes these people would be of different races.</p>
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I agree that 99% of Americans don’t know who Professor Gates is, and while I know his name and have heard him speak lots of time on NPR, I hadn’t seen enough pictures of him to know what he looked like. But I do know all my neighbors that are within sight of my windows. I don’t necessarily know all their names or what they do, but we say “hi” to each other and occasionally see them at neighborhood functions.</p>
<p>While Gates may have overreacted, I think the police were clearly in the wrong here. They should have left as soon as he produced ID.</p>
<p>I do, however, empathize with the professor’s feelings. I have found the attitudes of some police officers to be extremely annoying, and when you are on your own property and dealing with it, I can see feeling pretty enraged. Additionally, the homeowner may have a world view which is somewhat skewed toward a different era, but still today there are a whole lot of news stories about African Americans accidentally being shot by cops (and certainly disproportionately incarcerated). </p>
<p>When Northstarmom posted stories about a lot of AA people who had been accidentally killed by police, I thought I’d Google to see if a lot of Caucasians had also been victims of the same accident. There were hardly any! I knew that prisons were filled with AA males imprisoned for crimes for which many Caucasians get off, but I was surprised at the accidental shooting situation. There is good reason for there to be extreme wariness (mistrust, anger) on the part of any AA towards cops or the court. On the other hand, you still cannot lambaste an individual police officer and expect to have a good outcome.</p>
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<p>Again, and again … why this intense effort to twist and churn facts. There are reports --including the press release by Gates’ friend, Ogletree-- that recite the facts of the incident. Why is it so important to present the fictional image of a poor black man victimized by a bullying police force? </p>
<p>Gates was arrested on his porch in front of half a dozen police officers and numerous witnesses. He was not asked to step outside to be arrested. He followed the departing police officer outside and was further irritated by the presence of MORE police cars. </p>
<p>Read the Gates press release; “As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number.”</p>
<p>When I first read this, I thought this was satire. Sadly, it’s true.</p>
<p>"New research by psychologists at Stanford, Pennsylvania State University and the University of California-Berkeley reveals that many Americans subconsciously associate blacks with apes. The findings also show that people are more likely to condone violence against black criminal suspects as a result of their broader inability to accept African Americans as fully human, say the researchers.</p>
<p>Published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, “Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences,” is the result of a series of six previously unpublished studies conducted by Stanford’s Jennifer Eberhardt, Pennsylvania State University psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff and Matthew C. Jackson and Melissa J. Williams, graduate students at Penn State and Berkeley, respectively.</p>
<p>The research took place over six years at Stanford and Penn State under Eberhardt’s supervision. The subjects were mostly white male undergraduates who were subliminally flashed black or white male faces on a screen for a fraction of a second before being asked to identify blurry ape drawings. The results showed that the subjects identified the drawings much faster after they were primed with black faces rather than with white faces.</p>
<p>“This was actually some of the most depressing work I have done,” said Eberhardt. “This shook me up. You have suspicions when you do the work — intuitions — you have a hunch. But it was hard to prepare for how strong [the black-ape association] was — how we were able to pick it up every time,” lamented Eberhardt…"
[Subliminal</a> Experiments Uncover Deep-Seated Racism](<a href=“http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20080110221353data_trunc_sys.shtml]Subliminal”>Subliminal Experiments Uncover Deep-Seated Racism - ScienceAGoGo)</p>
<p>Northstarmom
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<p>This notion of “white privilege” is itself a form of bigotry. It is not OK to paint an entire race of people with such a broad stroke. If a gentleman who is Caucasian makes the generalization, that does not mean it is so.</p>
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<p>I’d assume he was a bully who was suffering from testosterone poisoning because someone made the mistake of giving him a little authority.</p>
<p>Frankly, I think that anyone who maintains that a black male in our country does not have excellent reason to be wary of the police is being disingenuous.</p>
<p>Northstarmom
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<p>That study sounds questionable to me. Isn’t it possible that people would be quicker to identify redheads after seeing pictures of baboons, or Caucasians after being flashed photos of ghosts (or white cotton candy, or a beige leather sofa)? I don’t get how the conclusion is supported there.</p>
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<p>Huh? It’s a huge deal to me. That’s why I usually avoid forums like this.</p>
<p>Twenty years ago I had an experience with bad policing (see lergnom’s excellent post #138). The cops were white. I am white. They questioned, challenged, and bullied me for more than two hours over my assertion that a man had broken into my house and was hiding. They refused to search the hiding place thoroughly. Eventually my husband arrived, and I went to a neighbor’s house to rest my seven-months-pregnant body. The SWAT team was called, and within two minutes they brought the guy out handcuffed.</p>
<p>My point: I understand why Skip Gates got belligerent. When you combine the real existence of racial profiling (which some on this thread apparently believe to be fiction) with the feeling that public servants are not doing their jobs effectively, you can get kinda testy. I approach all interactions with law enforcement officers with armor on.</p>
<p>By the way, if you have any experience with urban living, you know that break-ins aren’t committed by people who stand on a front porch for 15 minutes in broad daylight trying to get the door open. We watch out for each other, but I would not have called 911 in that situation. For those of you who don’t know your neighbors: that’s sad. Maybe you should have a block party.</p>
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<p>I wondered about that, too. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Malcolm Gladwell, who is himself bi-racial, talked about a study with similarly negative conclusions in his book Blink. He said that HE had the same negative associations when tested.</p>
<p>“That study sounds questionable to me. Isn’t it possible that people would be quicker to identify redheads after seeing pictures of baboons, or Caucasians after being flashed photos of ghosts (or white cotton candy, or a beige leather sofa)? I don’t get how the conclusion is supported there.”</p>
<p>I trust the research because of the university affiliations that the researchers have, and because it was published in a major journal that only publishes articles that a panel of top researchers approves.</p>
<p>Also check out this link that has information – including tests you can take – that have to do with a Harvard study on implicit racism. It also has the test that Malcolm Gladwell took.</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to Project Implicit - Information Website](<a href=“http://www.projectimplicit.net/about.php]Welcome”>http://www.projectimplicit.net/about.php)</p>
<p>“'m white, and I managed a retail store for a long time, and the vast majority of the arguments I got into were with other white people. They thought I was being unreasonable and rude and I thought they were being unreasonable and rude. I even stepped outside with one white guy for a fist fight”</p>
<p>I’m surprised that you’ve kept your job. Managers are expected to calm situations, not engage in fisticuffs.</p>
<p>“and certainly disproportionately incarcerated”</p>
<p>Because why–they commit disproportionately far more crimes. DUH.</p>
<p>^I think you must be joking. For anyone reading this who might not know that…</p>
<p>I don’t need to find a study to know what is up on this one. I have seen with my own eyes that if you are caught with drugs and are Caucasian, you will probably go to rehab. If you are African American, you will probably go to prison. Both people needed treatment. One got it.</p>
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<p>Barrons, No. What’s disproportionate is the conviction rate and the lengths of sentences meted out by judges and juries – after people of different races commit crimes of equal seriousness. </p>
<p>The logical question to ask is, in X location, of all the arrests for breaking-and-entering, disorderly conduct, or manslaughter… how many black arrestees were convicted and served time, versus how many white arrestees.</p>
<p>And before one of the males onboard decides to stereotype me or my ideas (or those of other women) because of being a middle-class white female, please know that I spent several years teaching inside the world’s largest maximum security prison (Jackson, Michigan). I was not afraid to stand up in front of convicted murderers and rapists week in and week out, to deliver college courses, with an armed guard posted outside the classroom. For much of that time, in my first year there, I was very visibly pregnant and taught until a week before delivery. There are many, many stories out there. White skin privilege is something I was accorded but do not accept.</p>
<p>So watch yer stereotyping – in all directions, please.)</p>
<p>We all keep talking about incidents that happen in THIS country, and how bad things are in THIS country. But I would posit that we are much more evolved in terms of racial rapport in this country than in a lot of other countries.</p>
<p>I have to repeat that I’m glad this unfortunate incident happened to Dr. Gates, as regrettable as it is. It just sheds light on how much more work we all need to do in bridging the divide between races, and I don’t just mean white to black, but also black to white, and inclusion of Asian, Arabic, Hispanic and Native American cultures in the national conversation. A little respect, consideration and application of the Golden Rule could go a long way. Somebody needs to remind the police of that fact as well, it is many times not necessary to act like the Brute Squad to enforce the law.</p>
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<p>The Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry published Fleischmann and Pons’ nuclear fusion claims in 1989, and now most scientists consider cold fusion claims dead. Venerable publications err rather frequently, as they are always jockeying to be the first to announce something.</p>
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<p>Who has maintained that? I certainly haven’t.</p>
<p>I would not characterize yelling “You don’t know who you’re messing with” at a police officer as evidence of being wary of him. If Gates were, indeed, wary of the officer, would he have had the officer follow him into his house? There was no one else in the house; I should think that the best thing to do would have been to step outside, to be much more visible. Wouldn’t that have made more sense?</p>
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<p>Certainly happens in suburban neighborhoods! And geezermom, your experience sounds awful! Did any of the officers apologize? Did you file a complaint?</p>
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<p>Do a google earth look at the street. It’s high-density housing with lots of apartment buildings close by and busy main streets on both ends of the road.</p>