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Gates’ Real Crime? Not Deferring to White Privilege
Gates’ Real Crime? Not Deferring to White Privilege
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 3:16 pm
By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Henry Louis Gates Jr. has a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University. He holds a doctorate in English from Cambridge University. He also holds more than 50 other honorary degrees.
But as a black man in America, Gates also holds a place in the collective fears of many white folks. And because of those fears, none of Gates’ pieces of paper could insulate him from the one that litters the lives of far too many other black males.
That one piece of paper being an arrest report.
Recently Gates, one of this country’s top scholars of African-American history, saw his life imitate the reality that governs the lives of scores of other black males. Upon returning to his home in Cambridge’s Harvard Square from China, where he had been working on a documentary, Gates found that the door was jammed.
Gates told The Washington Post that he and his driver, who was dressed in a black uniform, pushed for 15 minutes until they got the door open.
But somehow, a passerby didn’t see a uniformed driver or a middle-aged black man with a cane. She didn’t see a scholar or a worker. All she saw were two black men who, by dint of being black, had to be up to no good.
Before Gates knew it, a police officer was at his door, demanding that he step outside. Gates refused, but did provide the officer with his Harvard ID and driver’s license.
That should have been enough to satisfy the officer that Gates wasn’t a burglar. That should have been the end of it.
Sadly enough, it was just the beginning.
The officer, it seems, didn’t like it that Gates, this uppity Negro, wanted his name and badge number. Didn’t like it that Gates called him a racist and allegedly smarted off to him by saying, “I’ll speak with your mama outside.”
So after summoning a posse of other police officers – he apparently needed them to help him take down the unarmed, 150-pound, 58-year-old man – he arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.
That’s a charge that police tend to tweak into something terrifying if the person they’re dealing with isn’t as deferential as they would like them to be. In fact, this part of the cop’s own report says it all.
“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me,” the officer wrote.
Surprised? Confused? For coming onto a man’s porch and arresting him after he proved that he wasn’t a criminal?
The way I see it, the only thing that had this cop confused was the notion of white privilege – something that, when coupled with police power, tends to mutate into a life all its own.
It’s the notion that led this police officer to continue to question Gates – who has since been released – even after he had the information he needed to dispel any notions of a supposed break-in.
It’s the notion that made the officer oblivious as to why someone like Gates, a world-renowned scholar, would be upset about being badgered over a misunderstanding that emerged from suspicions of him being a burglar.
Most of all, it’s the notion that a black man like Gates doesn’t even deserve the dignity of being left alone in his own home or on his own premises if he doesn’t conform to a police officer’s standards of deference.
No matter that it isn’t against the law to yell at a cop.
Could Gates have handled the situation better? Perhaps. But I don’t believe it was on Gates to do that. I believe it was on the cop to walk away and leave him alone after he provided the information he requested.
But this is America. This is a place where many people in authority care more about order than justice – especially when it comes to black males. This is a place where many folks believe that black men are to be broken, not nurtured – lest they get too high and mighty.
As Gates just learned, no black man is immune from that sort of indignity – no matter who they are.
And no matter how many pieces of paper hang on their walls
Gates’ Real Crime? Not Deferring to White Privilege
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 2009, 3:16 pm
By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com
Henry Louis Gates Jr. has a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University. He holds a doctorate in English from Cambridge University. He also holds more than 50 other honorary degrees.
But as a black man in America, Gates also holds a place in the collective fears of many white folks. And because of those fears, none of Gates’ pieces of paper could insulate him from the one that litters the lives of far too many other black males.
That one piece of paper being an arrest report.
Recently Gates, one of this country’s top scholars of African-American history, saw his life imitate the reality that governs the lives of scores of other black males. Upon returning to his home in Cambridge’s Harvard Square from China, where he had been working on a documentary, Gates found that the door was jammed.
Gates told The Washington Post that he and his driver, who was dressed in a black uniform, pushed for 15 minutes until they got the door open.
But somehow, a passerby didn’t see a uniformed driver or a middle-aged black man with a cane. She didn’t see a scholar or a worker. All she saw were two black men who, by dint of being black, had to be up to no good.
Before Gates knew it, a police officer was at his door, demanding that he step outside. Gates refused, but did provide the officer with his Harvard ID and driver’s license.
That should have been enough to satisfy the officer that Gates wasn’t a burglar. That should have been the end of it.
Sadly enough, it was just the beginning.
The officer, it seems, didn’t like it that Gates, this uppity Negro, wanted his name and badge number. Didn’t like it that Gates called him a racist and allegedly smarted off to him by saying, “I’ll speak with your mama outside.”
So after summoning a posse of other police officers – he apparently needed them to help him take down the unarmed, 150-pound, 58-year-old man – he arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.
That’s a charge that police tend to tweak into something terrifying if the person they’re dealing with isn’t as deferential as they would like them to be. In fact, this part of the cop’s own report says it all.
“While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me,” the officer wrote.
Surprised? Confused? For coming onto a man’s porch and arresting him after he proved that he wasn’t a criminal?
The way I see it, the only thing that had this cop confused was the notion of white privilege – something that, when coupled with police power, tends to mutate into a life all its own.
It’s the notion that led this police officer to continue to question Gates – who has since been released – even after he had the information he needed to dispel any notions of a supposed break-in.
It’s the notion that made the officer oblivious as to why someone like Gates, a world-renowned scholar, would be upset about being badgered over a misunderstanding that emerged from suspicions of him being a burglar.
Most of all, it’s the notion that a black man like Gates doesn’t even deserve the dignity of being left alone in his own home or on his own premises if he doesn’t conform to a police officer’s standards of deference.
No matter that it isn’t against the law to yell at a cop.
Could Gates have handled the situation better? Perhaps. But I don’t believe it was on Gates to do that. I believe it was on the cop to walk away and leave him alone after he provided the information he requested.
But this is America. This is a place where many people in authority care more about order than justice – especially when it comes to black males. This is a place where many folks believe that black men are to be broken, not nurtured – lest they get too high and mighty.
As Gates just learned, no black man is immune from that sort of indignity – no matter who they are.
And no matter how many pieces of paper hang on their walls
It isnt like he was in a public space where any confusion could easily abound. 
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