<p>Not that it matters because the bozos have their empty minds made up, but Obama never once has mentioned color. What he first and then second said is that police shouldn’t be arresting a man in his house - no mention of color - when they know it’s his house. In his second comment, he elaborated by saying “unless there’s a serious disturbance.” In another comment, he spoke about the arrest in his house of a 60 year old man who uses a cane - again, no reference to color. </p>
<p>The refusal to watch the actual clips and acknowledge what Obama actually said would be sad if it weren’t a symptom of the deep hatred so many Americans have toward a half-African / half-white man being President. It’s ironic, too, because Obama articulated exactly the stance that any conservative would naturally find attractive, that the police shouldn’t be able to come into your own home and arrest you when you object. That is why we had the Revolution, but that is only remembered, it seems, when the person speaking is a conservative. </p>
<p>Then again, Obama isn’t a citizen, was born in Kenya, is a Muslim and likely a Nazi too so why should we believe he actually said the words the cameras record coming out of his mouth. They might have been dubbed and he was really saying, “Kill Whitey! Get 'em!”</p>
<p>She was indeed a good citizen. I blame the fact that she was called a racist on the cop. It was he who reported falsely that she had told him about two black men with backpacks. The transcript does not bear him out. She was asked about the men’s skin color and never once said that either was black (or, had a backpack). She was also unsure whether what she was seeing was a b&e.</p>
<p>Crowley set her up for being called a racist.</p>
<p>I would have advised the President not to have said what he said, but not because he wasn’t right and not because I don’t agree with him. Crowley did act stupidly, and after thinking about it, knew it, and lied in an effort to look better.</p>
<p>That explanation does not give anyone the right to call her a racist!</p>
<p>Further, President Obama could have a huge teachable moment in recognizing her efforts for being a concerned citizen–something many people ignore in this day and time. Let’s see if President Obama can capitalize on her efforts and really make a teachable moment out of this situation. Does anyone think this will happen???</p>
<p>Yeah as a black guy who is going to Yale and who heartily deserved it, attitudes like this are just rude. I experienced stuff like this from people who had no clue about anything that I do, and I would ask that you really consider how rude this is.</p>
<p>^^ I agree with, Pizzagirl. It’s poor form to resent someone for getting into their dream college. So they may have gotten AA? You don’t know for sure, and to be honest, it doesn’t matter. HYP is three-quarters athletes, legacies, minorities, and developmental admits anyway. Do you resent rich kids that have been GROOMED for college admissions? They didn’t do anything to be born rich! Do you resent athletes? They don’t bring any revenue to HYP. Do you resent legacies? Most of their parents don’t really donate anyway. Do you resent developmental admits? Many of them didn’t do jack and STILL got in because of their parents finances.</p>
<p>I don’t care whether the President comments further or not. The teachable moment may be that cops lie when they screw up. Most people who know them well or have dealt with them in a professional way knew that already. Most black people already knew that too.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don’t think white kids realize that it is not the minorities taking thier spots. After you get admitted they let you see everyone who gets admitted and where they went to high school. And overwhelmingly the majority of kids went to schools that were literally groomed to send them to Yale and other ivies. Out of the 336 who applied from Houston, 13 or so got in and 5 of them went to the one of the most prestigious high schools in Houston. It really is the private school kids who get the biggest breaks.</p>
<p>Obviously you meant “What you experienced is a small dose of what many middle aged black people have experienced from racist white people.”, to which I respond you are absolutely correct. It is just a small dose, and indeed it is not even that. I could actually work with this, likely even helping the lady understand that I hadn’t seen her and that she ought not include me with racists. Those black women were not employing racism, but were obviously responding to their own encounters with racism combined with historical racism. They unfortunately projected it on Keymom here. But it still was a reaction to some action that came before it. Had that action not existed, the reaction would not have existed.</p>
<p>Now, I think it was very wrong that they did this. But someone saying of a white woman “she is uppity and thinks she is better than blacks” is radically different from a white person saying “he is a jungle monkey”. The first statement obviously represents a recoiling from some perceived signal of superiority. The latter is an actual signal of assumed superiority. These are not the same things, and we ought not confuse them as we do here. The latter is true racism. The former is not, but is something akin to prejudice. Both are wrong, but not equally. In fact, if I had only to deal with whites who were hurt or angry that I thought I was better than they, well, I just would not have much of a problem.</p>
<p>She has suffered for simply being a concerned citizen; President Obama is the leader of our country–someone that represents our country. He brought up the “teachable moment” issue. How about President Obama doing the right thing??? Instead of just inviting the cop and the professor to the White House, how about including the lady that truly was trying to be a solid citizen in all of this??? He is continuing to make a statement by inviting the 2 people at the heart of the situation, but missing another important moment to show the rest of the citizens of this country that doing the “right thing” is honorable, after all- no matter if you are balck, white, purple or yellow!</p>
<p>And now I’m sure Northstarmom has been well enlightened by your making trivial her lifetime of experiences with racism, Pinkslip. Now, for sure, she must understand that centuries of black oppression against white America has been equally damaging, and indeed equally prevalent, as white oppression against blacks. I’m sure she’s very thankful for the lesson.</p>
<p>I’m going to be honest: a lot of outrage at Affirmative Action is just crypto-racism. It has nothing to do with merit. It has everything to do with the age old perception that blacks are intellectually inferior and are thus incapable of achieving academic success. If the problem with Affirmative Action was with unfairness the majority of people rallying against it would also strongly oppose athlete recruiting, legacy admissions, and developmental admissions, all of which disproportionately helps white applicants. But many, if not most, don’t. I don’t have to wonder why.</p>
<p>It’s OK to hate the black kid for getting into HYPS, but the rich kid that was basically funneled in, the legacy that had a 40% chance, and the athlete who’ll inevitably major in Jock Studies are all perfectly acceptable. Having your parents donate millions of dollars isn’t merit. Being born to an alum isn’t merit. Athletics at HYP bring in no revenue, so athlete admits are hardly justifiable by any argument regarding merit. So what’s the big deal about checking a box that says you’re black? More often than not, admission officers would be able to tell ANYWAY.</p>
<p>If you’ve got to resent someone or something, resent the schools. No one is forcing them to admit URMs by 3 more percentage points.</p>
<p>There would have been nothing wrong in reporting that two black men were breaking and entering if indeed this was what she was seeing. But she did not. She was very tentative both as to what she was seeing and whom she was seeing.<br>
It’s the cop who wrote that she told him that. The tape clearly shows that she said no such thing. Now why did the cop fabricate this exchange? Why was it important to him that she be the one who reported seeing two black men with knapsacks?
Given that he was wrong in arresting Gates, I think he tried to do some CYA by spreading the likely charge of racism more widely. Gates claimed he never said anything about “yo mama” to Crowley. After reading the transcript of the tape, I’m inclined to give him more credence than I originally did.</p>
<p>“She has suffered for simply being a concerned citizen; President Obama is the leader of our country–someone that represents our country. He brought up the “teachable moment” issue.”</p>
<p>professor gates referred to her as a nice lady, said he was going to send her flowers and worried that she felt – i think the word he used was “intimidated.” and that was before he knew that she never said anything about black men with backpacks.</p>
<p>but of course she did the right thing, and i think cambridge pd might have released the tape of her call earlier.</p>
<p>I could fill out at least 75% of a college application for him, and more likely in the range of 90 - 95%. I went to a small school; everyone knew everything about everyone, from class rank,to SAT scores, to the scope of extracurricular involvement, primarily because all the smart kids did the same ECs (I was an exception, to some extent). He definitely had things to offer those schools, but it was nothing that differentiated him greatly from other white applicants who I know were rejected in his favor. While black, he was upper class (no FA from any school), so there was no compelling story about any hardships he had to undergo. Our school was surprisingly unracist; everyone liked him, at least outwardly. His ECs were run-of-the-mill for HYPS applicants; they stood out in our school, but were not in the applicant pool. It was a similar combination of leadership, light sports, and music. His SAT scores are at (to use an HYPS school) Stanford’s 25%, his ACT at their 50%, and subject test scores somewhere in between. If he was white, I firmly believe he would have been rejected by at least one of the mega-reaches he applied to (of three), most probably two, and possibly three. That is why I got annoyed when people were so amazed with his results - they were completely ignoring the influence of affirmative action. I don’t think he wasn’t deserving of getting into multiple HYPS schools, because most of the honest applicants are, but I likewise don’t think he would have gained the acceptances he did were he not African-American.</p>
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<p>This is funny. You ask me a question attempting to ascertain my knowledge of the person in question, and then continue under the now clearly incorrect assumption that was all I knew of him. Why even ask those questions, then, if you were going to disregard their answers? </p>
<p>Moreover, I did forget the parenthetical that I’ve moved beyond it unless a racial issue negatively affects me, which after my Stanford SCEA rejection, did. Its why I would dedicate any effort to evaluating this student’s success in college admissions in the context of his racial background, as I have done. And I didn’t really recoil as much as just classify his success as partially a result of his race - its not like I refused to talk to him or talk of him afterwards.</p>
<p>Lergnom: That’s a very interesting point that I did not notice until you pointed it out. It is true that Obama focused on a man being arrested in his own house, and not on whether it may have been racially motivated. Thanks for adding this to the conversation.</p>
<p>(and can I assume you’re a mongrel, just as Obama sometimes calls himself?)</p>