Did America Just Realize Obama Is Black?
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What John McCain and the Republican machine couldn’t accomplish in months of campaigning, it appears that Sergeant Jim Crowley accomplished in a little over a week. It appears that America is finally starting to realize that Barack Obama is a black man.
The meteoric rise of this President has been marked by his preternatural ability to speak about race in a way that mainstream white people understand and find acceptable. He speaks to black audiences about personal responsibility and family values: lessons that white voters who have been watching too much of The Wire think all blacks desperately need to hear. He won’t get muddied in affirmative action, and when he speaks directly about race to white people he engages with decisive intellect and powerful eloquence. I mean, this is a black man that turned the White House tennis court into a basketball court and didn’t take any heat for it.
But when President Obama was confronted with a cop who arrested a black man who was lawfully in his own home, Obama failed to carefully translate his thoughts into the mainstream language so many want to hear. Instead, Obama said that Cambridge police officers acted “stupidly.” And now Obama is paying the price for not displaying appropriate deference to the police.
Welcome back to the tribe, brother Obama. Don’t pay your declining poll numbers no nevermind. After the jump, can we just agree that light skinned people and dark skinned people have a slightly different relationship with the police?
The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that Obama’s approval ratings are on the decline. He’s down to 53%, eight points off his 61% approval rating in April. Some of that is health care. A lot of that is people realizing he’s not a God and our economy smells like the funk of forty thousand years. But I think some of that is Gatesgate.
Another NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 27% of Americans think that Professor Gates is more at fault for getting arrested than Sgt. Crowley. But it gets better, 29% of respondents think that both men are equally at fault. That means that 56% of the poll respondents think that Gates was somehow at fault for getting arrested in his own home. Only 11% of people think that Sgt. Crowley was more at fault for making an arrest on charges that were dropped almost immediately.
Only in America can a man get arrested on charges that are dropped a week later, yet not get the benefit of the doubt against the police officer who arrested him.
But it seems to me this, almost reflexive, trust of police officers explains how Obama made his first racial misstep since he’s been on the national stage.
In one America, police officers are trusted and respected members of the community. They represent safety and order. In another America, cops are often well meaning civil servants that “act stupidly” all the time. It doesn’t mean that cops are bad people, it just means that the difference between your average beat cop and your average DMV employee is negligible.
And I think both Americas are right. (Let’s put aside the third “fringe” America that views police as the paramilitary wing of an oppressive government.) If your experience with the police has been cordial and helpful and you are happy when they show up, then it is totally fair to trust them. If, on the other hand, your experience with cops involves more harassment than help — then you are right to view police action with a certain level of skepticism.
It appears that Obama thought it was wrong for the cops to show up in a man’s home and arrest him. And he said so. This was bad? This was jumping to a conclusion based on incomplete facts? This was racist? I don’t think so. This was a black man saying “Hey, sometimes the police harass and arrest black people for no good reason.” There isn’t a black man in this country who isn’t aware of this empirical fact. And in the specific case of Professor Gates, it is factually clear that Gates was arrested for no good reason.
Trust me, getting messed with by police for driving while black or talking loudly while black or living in your own goddamn house while black sucks enough as it is. Don’t compound the offense by telling black people we can’t bitch about it.
Black people are somewhat used to living in a world where trusting police officers is the norm. Are there a white people out there who have never met a black man who does not slavishly believe arresting officers? Living a life of racial seclusion is not something that I would brag about to the Wall Street Journal.
Of course, Obama isn’t just any random black person, he’s the President of the United States. He’s the President of all of it, and he has to act like it. I think he is.
There have been 43 other Presidents. 15 of them allowed African-Americans to be held in bondage, 20 more sat idle by while racial segregation further delayed legal equality. Of the 9 post-civil rights era Presidents that can even legitimately claim to have been the representative of “all America” Obama is the only one we know of that judged a 58 year-old academic superstar to be more credible than a cop.
In a true multicultural society, no one group has a monopoly on what is right or what is true.
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I think the lesson here is, if you see suspicious folks lurking around the home of a black man, don’t call the cops. Of course, perhaps it was the sort of neighborhood where neighbors don’t actually know or interact with each other, so it would probably have been best to just not call the cops at all.
Frankly, Gates’ behavior was inexcusable, he should have saved his venting for his shrink, blog, or outraged article to the NYTimes. However, the libertarian in me doesn’t buy the ‘fighting words’ excuse for the cop, and unless Gates actually touched the cop, being cuffed and hauled away was an overreaction that was worse than stupid if you ask me.
If I were subjected to that rant, I would have clubbed the shit out of Gates. This is why I’m not a cop. (Additionally, if I were President, and some tinpot dictator threatened my father’s life, I would have the entire US military mobilized within 24 hours to take that f–ker out. This is why I’m not the President.)
I still think all cops should have badges with integrated flash-memory camcorders and GPS, tamper-proof and admissible as evidence in a court of law.
Both acted stupidly. There are good cops, there are bad cops, there are incompetent cops, there are fake cops, there are mad cops, there are nice cops, and there are happy cops. Bottom line is this, you have to be careful of how you conduct yourself when you are confronted by police. That doesn’t change regardless of ethnicity.
In this situation, the police made a mistake, but it was obviously escalated by Dr. Gates. I don’t blame him for being frustrated and angry when all of this went down, but I’m sure that any white guy who acted that way toward police would have been treated the same way. I have seen it happen before. It is not always strictly about race. I think that this was a situation in which two egomaniacs didn’t want to back down.
The cops responded to a call in which a neighbor reported a break in. This was not like some instances where a cop sees a black man standing in front of a door and just stops to harass him. This is totally different. Also, there was no physical brutality. I really don’t think that this had anything to do with race.
If there is any evidence showing that this was a racially charged incident, please point it out. Definitely two egos involved here.
I just saw this on HuffPo: Two law enforcement officers who remain anonymous identified by CIA to have recently run a computer “criminal check” of President Obama. Think they’re looking for payback?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/30/two-georgia-officers-accu_n_248020.html
Officer Crawley mishandled the situation. After he found out that Gates lived there, he should have left. Did Gates say rude things, yeah, was Crawley agressive, yeah. Freedom of speech means you can tell off a public servent who is in your house without good cause. After he found out he lived there, there was no good cause for him to stay. The arrest was stipid.
Those are some telling numbers Elie. Not sure if i’m a mainstream white person, or just a regular ol white person… But to me, this appears to be more closely related to what happened to Clinton with the whole Lewinsky scandal. The guy was perfect, and it just ate up the republicans to no end, because they could never build a substantive platform from which to attack him (let’s hold our breath on healthcare). So they Seize a hold of this one utter non-issue (i mean he’s the president, commander in chief of the world’s most powerful army – i think the guy has the authority to determine if a cop acted stupidly) that they know will ignite anyone that’s waiting for a reason to hate the president. Their herd always takes the bait.
No,the guy wasn’t perfect. He was sneaky and he had game. That was about it. Oh, he also balanced the budget which is something that we are still waiting to see again. Will we ever see it again?
In response to another comment. See in context »I like what you did with this piece, especially the brief look at what Presidents have historically done (or not done) with respect to racial issues.
My favorite line: “Only in America can a man get arrested on charges that are dropped a week later, yet not get the benefit of the doubt against the police officer who arrested him.”
But the absolute best part: the link to the Thriller video. Brill.
I concur, you are exactly right about past presidents looking the other way in regards to race. Thanks to Truman for integrating the military and to Lyndon Johnson for obvious reasons.
In response to another comment. See in context »