Epic Oops. No Sir, No Racial Issues Here!
Note to the Cambridge Police: if you’re looking to avoid embarrassing publicity on the subject of racial profiling, do not arrest prominent African American Harvard racial-relations professors for attempting to get into their own houses. This Thursday, Cambridge, Massachusetts, police arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, apparently for forcing the front door of his own home in broad daylight with the help of his chauffeur after the front door stuck. (Gates apparently had already opened the back door with his key.) According to the Washington Post, police said they received a report of two black men in backpacks breaking into the house from a neighbor. (Gates was wearing a blazer and leather shoes, and the “break-in” occurred shortly before 1 pm.) Despite the fact that Gates apparently showed them both his driver’s license and his Harvard ID, they arrested Gates as soon as he stepped out onto the porch and hauled him away, causing a descent of other Harvard professors on the police station. (Quite a mental image, isn’t it?)
Short of arresting Cornel West on his doorstep or trying to tackle the president, it’s hard to imagine a poorer choice of a black man to arrest from an embarrassment standpoint. While I obviously don’t know how upset Gates became while trying to explain himself and get the first police officer’s name and badge number, it’s difficult to imagine how they could have felt very threatened by Gates in his own home, as he’s not a physically imposing man. Gates is now saying that his experience has inspired him to make his next project a study of racial profiling in America. The Cambridge police had better hope they don’t have any more embarrassing incidents before then!
