Friday, July 24, 2009
TRANSCENDING RACE? HOGWASH!
Brent Staples gets it just about right in todays NYTimes.
President Obama, Professor Gates and the Cambridge Police
I watched the police sergeant who arrested Gates this morning on CNN. He is casting himself as the victim.
Talk about not getting it.
I read elsewhere in the Times that very few blacks were surprised at Mr. Gates' treatment or at the over reaction of the Cambridge cop. This is quite normal operating procedure.
Did you know that you shouldn't walk outside in a situation like this? Inside your home you can say what you fucking want. Outside, well you see what happens.
Power is also involved here. Who is on top. A successful black man in a nice house near Harvard Square. Even if you know who he is, he has to be brought down a peg.
Gates, himself, said in an interview, that the only black family immune to this kind of incident was the one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
And that may be just about right.
Add Hispanics to this. And Muslims, the obvious ones. You have the mix for this shit to happen.
I won't bring up "the gays". Let's just roll with race and color today.
By the way, it is interesting that while Obama sanded the edges of his comments the other night, he basically has held in tight proving Staple's point. Obama is not about finessing race or race issues. He is not the "magic negro" or the whiter than thou black who makes us white folk feel so good about ourselves.
Labels: Administration Obama, race
