Comments on: “This is what happens to black men in America”

By: Abby Ferber

Abby Ferber — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:48:41 +0000

Thank you for sharing these insights!
I wrote a blog on the HuffPo about this responding to an infuriating column in The Nation last week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-ferber/whether-gates-or-healthca_b_261277.html

By: tinfoil hattie

tinfoil hattie — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 11:54:16 +0000

I suppose you know by now that the woman who made the call did not mention anything about race in the 911 call until the 911 operator asked her about it. Never did the woman reporting the incident say anything about “two black men with backpacks.” We have Crowley to thank for that distortion.

By: Karen

Karen — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:09:34 +0000

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

By: Kate Harding

Kate Harding — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 02:59:19 +0000

Right, Meg, but that goes to what’s been said upthread. Gates, or anyone else in that sitch, could have been committing a crime, but the police have no right to hang out just to see if maybe there’s a non-obvious crime going on. Presumably, they ran some kind of check on the address that would have turned up a restraining order. In the absence of one, there was no reason on earth for them to stick around and argue.

[edited for clarity]

By: Meg

Meg — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:33:02 +0000

I read your article and I completely agree with everything you said. However, there is one time when you can break into your own home. Many women file restraining orders on men who live with them. The person with the restraining order could potentially break into their own home. I’m not saying that was the intent of the arresting officer, but that situation would be a possibility.

By: Lu

Lu — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:37:47 +0000

OK, sorry I’m double-posting, but I re-re-read Lori’s comment, the part Steven Augustine quoted, and it sunk in even further. Whoa! That is some pithy remark.

I was in an airport on Friday, and they had CNN or Fox or something on, and they were playing the press conference where the Cambridge police were blabbing on about this incident. I had to walk away. When I came back, they had callers on the line to give their opinions. There was a woman from, I think Utah or Nebraska?, and she was of the opinion that Gates was in the wrong and it wasn’t racist to arrest him. Then she gave her hand away by going on about how “there are black colleges, but no white colleges,” and so forth, so obviously race couldn’t be a factor (because dontcha know that black people have a lot of special rights that white people don’t, so what are they complaining about?).

By: Lu

Lu — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:31:42 +0000

Lori, when I heard about that resolution to force Obama’s apology, I was so disgusted. It’s a white man trying to force a black man—even if he’s the frickin’ President of the United States of America—to apologize to another white man. Yes, although the president is, in a sense, the ultimate authority figure, in principle no one should be above the obligation to apologize when it’s called for; I’m not arguing that. But that’s not what’s going on here. It’s using this incident as an excuse to knock President Obama down to size, and race is a huge factor in it. And I declare the burden to be on the congressman to prove me wrong.

By: Jennifer P

Jennifer P — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:27:29 +0000

WORD. I’ve been trying to explain why this has made me go so completely ballistic, and you nailed it, in every single respect. Idiot white people, please do not implicate the rest of us in your complete and utter cluelessness, insensitivity, and defensive backlash.

I’d just add one hideously depressing reaction: my well-meaning but clue-limited mom, who said, “It’s so awful what they did to him. It makes me glad I’m not black!”

Um, yeah, because injustice to other people always makes me feel really grateful for my white privilege. Sigh.

By: A Sarah

A Sarah — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:07:13 +0000

Right effing ON, Lori!

By: Caitlin

Caitlin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:57:06 +0000

they believe that white people have every right to resist the government but that black people must show appropriate deference to authority at all times. Well, exactly. Because white people are righteously defending their homes and families, but black people are dangerous.