I am a white woman. I moved to California in 1983, and I’ve received a lot of speeding tickets between then and now. I have less of a lead foot now that I have kids, but I still find the odometer rising from time to time. Except for the last time I was pulled over, EVERY SINGLE TIME I have received a ticket. Without fail. I have never verbally abused an officer. I have never complained. When asked for my license and registration, I have handed them over promptly without fussing. But except for the mercy of the last officer who pulled me over, I have never gotten away with speeding. I have paid dearly for the fines and traffic school. I hate that. But I will not make the incident worse by getting in an officer’s face.

That is why I read the story of Henry Gates and Officer James Crowley with incredulity. If an officer showed up at my house thinking I was a burglar breaking in, I would politely and speedily prove that I was the owner. And I would thank the officer for tending to my house so promptly. Not so with Gates. He immediately took offense to being questioned. He screamed and hollered threats at the officer. When asked for his identification, he pulled out his Harvard University ID!! What kind of idiot does that? Why doesn’t he just pull out his library card for all the good that does? As a professor myself, I have a university ID card. It does NOT state my address on it! The officer needed ID to prove the man was in his own house. But no. Gates had to “hump” Crowley’s leg, to let him know who the big man really was. It wasn’t the blue collar Crowley. Oh no. It was the prestigious educator from none other than Harvard University, a man who pals around with the police chief and mayor. He is an important man. And he (hump) is going to let (hump) Sergeant Crowley (hump) know it!
This is one of those “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” moments. If Gates’ house were really being broken into, and the police did nothing, blacks would be screaming about how the police don’t care about them. As it stands, the police were quite thorough in investigating the incident. Their only problem was a man whipping out irrelevant identification, screaming racism, threatening to get the police chief and mayor on Crowley’s hindquarters, and creating a disturbance that frightened his neighbors.

Then the big man himself, Barack Obama, had to weigh in on the case, even though, by his own admission, he didn’t have all the facts. He said the police acted “stupidly”. Well, how about this, I think Obama oppresses Michelle. I say this with confidence, not having the facts on their relationship, but having a cursory knowledge of the history between men and women in general. I am confident in making a sweeping generalization about something that is none of my business. (Of course, I won’t let that stop me.)

First, Obama says the police acted stupidly. Then, with the ensuing outrage, he issued an anemic apology, not for what he said, but for his unwise choice of words. As though choosing different words to say the same thing would have been fine.

Well, after inviting Crowley and Gates to the White House for a beer, and a chance to talk, Obama proclaimed it would be a teachable moment. For whom? Crowley and Gates? Obama? Us? Well, since he proclaimed it on nationwide television, I can only assume he meant us.

So today, I’m reading a news article about the meeting, and it appears Obama is “…fascinated by the fascination about this evening…” Oh wow. Is it the same fascination we beltway dolts have for the likes of Brittany Spears and Michael Jackson? How condescending. Yeah, it could have been three guys “just” having a beer together at the end of the day. What fascinates me is Obama’s fascination with the whole spectacle, his incessant yammering about it, his attempt to portray himself as the mediator between God and man, blacks and whites, by taking the attention so squarely fixed on these two men, and then pulling them into the White House, where he too can bask in the limelight for a while. Obama, do you want us to see you as just a regular person, one of the guys? Why don’t you act like one and mind your own business? You and Gates suffer from the same condition—and it isn’t the scars of racism in America. Because of both your social and economic status, you see everyone else as far beneath you, worth a little pat on the head but not mutual respect. You want to “teach” us ALLLLL about racial conflict by stirring up a little of your own. The way I see it, this isn’t about racial conflict at all. It is about the rich and influential having a go at someone of lower social status.

You might want to teach us one thing, but we are most certainly learning another.

Filed under: Politics
by The Hipster