What Is Up With This World?

I was going to leave this story on CNN and the other major news outlets, but after reading some of the asinine comments posted on one of my favorites blogs, I felt compelled to write something – anything – about what Henry Louis Gates, Jr. must have experienced late last week. That ignorant, racist, hostile mentality that showed through those posts is very likely what led to that very incident, in some way, shape or form.

The Setup

How many times have you locked yourself out of your home – or a better question might be, how many times have you come close to locking yourself out of your home? Imagine doing so. What would you do? Would you look for the spare key that a lot of homeowners leave under the doormat or a nearby flower pot? Of course not – who does that in this day and age? Would you call a relative or friend who has an extra key? What if you did not have anyone to call? What if you figured you could force open a door or window? After all, it is your home. YOU pay the mortgage. YOU pay the insurance. It is YOUR home. If you want to force open the front door, you can do it, right?

The Okeydoke

WRONG at least if you live in an upscale area of Cambridge, Massachusetts you may not be able to do so. Earlier today, prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge lodged against Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the incident, Gates was arrested at his home near the Harvard University campus in quaint Cambridge, Massachusetts last Thursday by officers with the Cambridge Police Department. A neighbor apparently phoned authorities and reported a suspected “burglary”. She reportedly told police that she observed at least two African-American males on the porch of Gates’ home and that one of them was attempting to force his way into the home.

Damage Control

The city of Cambridge issued a statement that Gates’ arrest "was regrettable and unfortunate." Certainly I was not there and I would be the first to admit that sometimes the media goes off half cocked or blows things out of proportion in order to sell advertising space. Could that be what happened here? I suppose it is possible. Do I believe that is what happened here? Ummm, no, probably not. I am sure that upon the officer’s arrival, Mr. Gates probably was detained. Could anything have been done differently? Who knows? Certainly the responding officer has a duty to the neighbors, the homeowner and even himself, to make certain that he detains any suspect or suspects.

Frustration

Mr. Gates apparently became distraught when the officer would not listen to him as he declared that he IS the person who resides in the home. When the police arrived, Mr. Gates was in the home on the phone and he had already disabled the security alarm.

Collateral Damage

We can look at this from a standpoint of what must have been going through the officer’s mind, but I think what probably needs to be understood more than anything is what was going through Mr. Gates’ mind at the time all of this was occurring. I am certain from the various comments I read that this was one of the only times as of late that he has experienced such treatment.

Regardless of what may or may not have been the officer’s intentions, one must take time to attempt to understand the history of this country as it relates to racism. I have heard a lot of people lately make the statement that “everything is OK now” and although times may have changed somewhat and situations regarding racism may be somewhat better than years ago, by no means has it been eradicated. Hundreds of years of pain and grief cannot be completely erased by the fact that we have made great strides toward equality. Despite those strides, many of us have had experiences that lie just below the surface or we are well acquainted with situations from the past that are brought to the surface when an incident such as this occurs. A little understanding goes a long way, especially when speaking of racism and its detrimental effects.

I believe what people fail to realize the most – or even want to consider – is what that must have felt like to Mr. Gates. Imagine trying to explain to a police officer that you were merely attempting to enter your own property. Imagine having to do that in the first place. Your own neighbor called the police? How does that feel? Now imagine that the police will not listen to you and that you are becoming increasingly frustrated trying to explain to the officer that you were merely attempting to gain entry to your home because you made the mistake of misplacing your keys. That in and of itself is frustrating beyond words, but couple that with the fact that minorities have (historically) been the subject of racial profiling more often than not. Imagine that part of your career has been spent trying to bridge the gap between races and that it entails fighting the “powers that be”, so to speak, in that you are the director of a research department that constantly struggles to overcome racism and all that it entails. Until we, as a people, put ourselves into others’ shoes, we cannot move forward. It does not matter what race you are, what religion you are, what you do for a living, your level of education, where you are from, where you “are at” – none of that matters – at least not until we all try to get along and understand the struggles with which each of us has had to deal.

I do not know anyone from the Cambridge Police Department. For all I know, there may not be a racist among the ranks. For the point I am attempting to make, none of that matters. If the circumstances that are being reported surrounded his arrest, I do not blame him a bit for becoming irate. I would have done the same thing, given those circumstances, and if I were in his shoes, I would certainly have come “unglued.” As it turns out, Mr. Gates was returning home from a trip to China. When he discovered his door jammed, he asked his driver to help him gain entry to his home. Little did he know what was about to take place. He had to have been fatigued. He just flew from half way around the world.

Walk the Walk, Talk the Talk

I would like to believe that many of us are enlightened as to the life experiences of those around us. For those of us who are not, I suggest we walk that proverbial mile in others’ shoes before passing judgment. You might not like it, because you just might get sores on your feet . . . Kudos to all of us who do stop and think before passing judgment on others.