The arrest of Henry Louis Gates, and all that has followed it provides countless different angles to explore, but I want to just focus attention on the following. First is the little-known fact that this wasn't an isolated incident. There's a persistent problem with blacks at Harvard suffering from police harrassment. From the Boston Globe last August: (H/T Jesse Taylor at Pandagon)
It was the quintessential college scene: dozens of students from the Harvard Black Men's Forum and the Association of Black Harvard Women picnicking on the Radcliffe Quad, playing capture-the-flag and running relay races at their end-of-the-year field day.
But just an hour into the festivities on the sunny afternoon in May 2007, the fun screeched to a halt. Two campus police officers rode up on motorcycles. Were they students, the officers asked. Did they have permission to be there?
The young men and women, dressed in Harvard T-shirts, would discover that a fellow student in a nearby dorm had mistaken them for trespassers, according to students who were there and whose account was confirmed by Harvard officials.
The incident, which ignited criticism from black students and faculty, highlighted the prejudices that many black students say they continue to face at Harvard, not only from police, but from classmates, as well.
More from that article on the flip, including some brief descriptions of other such incidents.
Second, is the fact that Obama's initial response was refreshingly honest and real: For the police to arrest someone in their own home, just because the person is upset? Calling it "stupidity" is kind.
But, third, that momentary honesty doesn't really accomplish anything, beyond giving us a rush. That's why I--someone who's generally infuriated by the walk-back routine--am actually quite pleased with Obama's followup. The fact is, Gates may very well have been wrong about the officer--but only because the most widespread problem we face today is "Racism Without Racists" (aka "colorblind racism"--see the book by the same name by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva here.), the persistence of subconscious racial attitudes that have a pervasive, pernicious impact on black, Latino and other minorities' lives, without any conscious animosity on the part of whites who harbor such attitudes. And anything that helps us make some headway in sorting through the deceptive intricacies of colorblind racism is a good thing.
Fourth, special bonus points for outing the plain old-fashioned racism that still lurks in many parts of the GOP/conservative establishment, trying to exploit the persistence of colorblind racism. (See, for example, "Gates arrest: GOP congressman still on political warpath.") As Obama's sudden shift in tone struck a chord with the police involved in the incident, and presumably with many millions more white Americans, the hatred-fanning GOP/conservative dinosaurs were caught flat-footed. And that's a very good thing, indeed.
The experience of blacks at Harvard is significant because it both provides an immediate background against which Gates could not help but see his own experience, and because it epitomizes the experience of all blacks in America, no matter how high they may rise on their own as individuals--they can still find themselves treated as nothing more than anonymous members of a subordinate group without even a moment's notice.
Here, then, is some more of the article quoted above the fold:
"The alarming thing is that this happens in one of the most progressive towns, the most progressive university, and there's this reluctance on behalf of students to even acknowledge that there is some covert racism going on," said Bryan Barnhill, a Harvard senior and former president of the Black Men's Forum.
Barnhill said he would like to see Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust deliver a speech that makes it clear Harvard will acknowledge and address racial misunderstandings and biases.
"Rather than just focusing on the Police Department, it would be a brave step if the president would ignite a broader and more honest discussion about race," he said.
That's a very key point. If white community members persist in seeing black community members as outsiders who don't belong, the police are not at fault for that. The entire community needs to be involved in self-examination. It can't be shuffled off onto any one individual or group. It is a systemic problem. Some can clearly be more responsible than others, but no one gets a free pass.
Farther down, Gates himself is one of several members of the Harvard community quoted:
"We have to have zero tolerance," Gates said. "Any example of racism is one example too much, from the police or any other sector of Harvard University."
A particularly helpful part of the story--for whites who really may have no clue--was a sampling of some black experiences that show what black Harvard community members have to put up with:
Interviews with black students and faculty reflect a perceived climate of underlying racial insensitivity on campus that goes beyond the police. The students recounted incidents when they said white students made them feel as though they do not belong. Their sentiments echoed those of W.E.B. Du Bois, the university's first black PhD, who famously said, "I was in Harvard, but not of it."
Some white classmates assume they are outsiders, black students said, even though they live in the same dorms. Black students account for 8 percent of the school's 6,600 undergraduates.
Sangu Delle, president of the Black Men's Forum, recalled an incident last school year when a white student followed him into his dorm's computer lab and questioned his presence.
"He basically treated me as if I were not a student, as if I had broken in and was a thief walking through the halls of my own dorm," said the 21-year-old junior.
Encounters with police, black students and faculty said, further fuel their sense of not belonging.
S. Allen Counter, a well-known neuroscience professor, said two officers stopped him as he walked across Harvard Yard in 2004 and threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification. Not believing Counter was a professor, despite his three-piece suit and tie, the officers entered Thayer Hall and questioned students about his identity.
Hours later, Counter learned that he had been stopped because he fit the profile of a well-dressed robbery suspect.
"What offended me most was . . . seeing the faces of my students who said, 'Dr. Counter, they interrogated us about you,' " said Counter, who also heads the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.
Tim Turner, head of the Black Student Association, said a police car pulled up as he and minority high school students he mentors in the Harvard Crimson Academy played Frisbee this summer next to the Malkin Athletic Center.
"The worst part is that the high school students notice," Turner said. "They automatically feel like they have targets on their back."
J. Lorand Matory, a professor of anthropology and African and African-American studies who cochairs the black faculty association, said that establishing a police community board - made up of faculty, police, administrators, and students - would help solve problems and build goodwill. But Longbrake said the university has no plans for such a board.
As white people, we are daily, hourly, minute-by-minute recipients of privilege. Was can say, "Hey, I don't want it." But there's no giving it back. The least we can do is take some responsibility to match that privilege, and the very least we can do in terms of taking responsibility is to learn about what blacks and other minorities around us have to go through in their lives, so that (a) we're not so totally clueless and (b) we can help make it stop.
Near the end of the article, we're told something more about the incident that illustrates the context which helped bring it about:
After police rode away from field day in May 2007, the black students learned about a series of e-mails over a dormitory e-mail list accusing them of ruining the lawn, just weeks before a graduation ceremony would be held there. The black students pointed out that days earlier, a group of mostly white students had held a bash that included alcohol and a slip-and-slide that muddied the freshly seeded lawn. No one alerted police.
Finally, the piece concludes:
"People cannot forget," said Natasha S. Alford, former president of the Association of Black Harvard Women who graduated in June and helped organize the field day. "If people forget, the exact same thing will repeat itself."
This is not your grandfather's racism. It's a good deal more slippery. But that's all the more reason to take it seriously. And this week, remarkably, we've had some very good signs that we may make some real progress in understanding what we're up against, and how to move forward... together.
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