Standing at the Crossroads (with Robert Leroy Johnson)

Well. Here we are...at the crossroads again. And we got here by circumstances of time and history. Perhaps we've been at these here crossroads since forever, still trying to decide which way to go, waiting for some signs. This is the New America, after all, but it's the same as it ever was, don.

As a white-black/black-white human male of America who is paying attention, I get to hear all sides on this one. Wait, there are only two sides this time. Here's what I hear:

From the whites: "Well, there wouldn't have been a problem if he [Prof. Gates] would have complied with the officer's requests."

From the blacks: "Exactly! That's typical of how we're treated from the ghettos to Harvard. He's [Prof. Gates] probably lucky he wasn't beaten, tasered, or shot."

Both positions are correct. Gates would have been fine (but pissed) if he had indeed done exactly what the officer ordered. Sure. And, Gates is lucky he's not dead in this all-too-typical situation. Once Sergeant Crowley positively ID'd Prof. Gates, he should have also complied with citizen Gates' request for name and badge number. The ostensibly equally protected citizen had a beef to resolve. People can, in America, have beefs with cops. But once a beef arises it then becomes a matter of how said beef is squashed. Even if a pissed-off old black man is raising his voice in demand of badge number and name...should he have been arrested? In his home? This is how old dudes roll and you know I'm right. The officer could have done something to resolve the situation too. Both heads could have been cooler, sure.

Let's play a game. Let's replay the story but make the professor white this time. A little old white man. Harvard professor. Everything the same except race. Same outcome? Probably not because: 1) Nobody would have called to report a break-in and, 2) The cops wouldn't have fronted so hard. And you know I'm right (look into your heart). "Sorry sir, our mistake. Yes. Here's my name and badge number, sir. Have a good day." [See: A Cop's Perspective]

Yes the cops did act stupidly. Why? Because they COULD act in any damn way they wanted. Blue is the roughest gang in town, people. You see, there was a perfect storm of race, class, and power. This didn't necessarily happen DESPITE of Obama's New America (no whaaaaa!). Think about it...it probably happened BECAUSE of Obama's New America. Here's a police officer, he was wrong in his assumptions. He didn't catch the blacks breaking into a house but he caught a black actually living in that house. A little old man who, in turn, wanted to exercise his post-mistake constitutional rights. What is a police to do? The little old man is speaking up for himself, in America. Cop gets pissed and he decides to squash the beef the way he squashes beefs with black people. Lock that fool up! Call him "disorderly." Teach him some manners and nobody will ever know or care. But the officer never for a moment believed that this little old black man was a Harvard professor and one degree of separation from the black governor and the black president. Sergeant Crowley actually didn't know who they were dealing with. Not. At. All.

Here is an eloquent old black man (race factor) who makes more money than you, is better educated than you, and lives in a better home (class factors), yet the officer still holds the majority of power. Perfect Crash. How you like Obama's New America now?

Speaking of Barry Oh!®, here's what Dayo Olopade said this morning with regard to the president's "acted stupidly" comment:

"Obama's remarks had the authority of a lawyer who knew the specifics of the applicable law, and it gave him the chance to spotlight an initiative he worked on ardently while in the Illinois state senate, where he wrote a bill to deal with racial profiling by police officers. But his comments also carried special resonance because he is a black man in America."

I don't know Ms. Olopade, but she sums my reaction quite well. About time somebody said something. Remember, even then-Senator Obama had a difficult time getting a cab...in America. What do you think the cops would have done to him in this situation, the young eloquent professor Obama?

Sorry white people. You lose this one. Until you live in the black shoes, you'll never, ever know how wrong or typical this situation is. Even you crybaby liberals will never, ever get this one.

And black people, pay attention to this one. It's important. It could be you or me next time. Like I've told my friends, every time the police slow down to eyeball me in my neighborhood down the block from my home, I steel myself for the beating I'm going to get when I calmly and eloquently ask, "Why do you need my ID, officer?"

We're at the crossroads in The New America...just sayin'. We need some more time and history I guess.