Warren Goldstein: Why This White Guy Was Not Arrested While Trying to Break into a House NOT His Own

July 30th, 2009 4 Comments

4
Comments

Skip Gates Last October I flew to Sarasota, Fla., and arranged to stay at the home of a friend who was traveling at the time. She mailed me keys and an address.

I landed late and took a cab. When we pulled up in front of the house, which I’d never seen before, it was very dark, so I asked the cabbie to wait while I let myself in.

The keys didn’t work in the front door. Or the back door. With rising anxiety — it was 11 p.m., after all — I called my friend, but she wasn’t answering her cell phone. We tried the keys in both doors again; no luck.

Just before heading back to the airport, where I figured I could find a hotel, I tried my friend again. This time she picked up.

I explained my problem, describing the front door — and she started laughing. “You’re in the wrong place. You’d better get out of there before someone calls the cops.” We were on the wrong street.

While the driver was consulting his GPS, sure enough, a cop appeared behind us. We stopped; the cop came over; the cabbie explained; he and the cop had a chuckle; the cop returned to his car; we drove on to the right place, and the keys fit. All was well.

I thought of this story when I read about the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates after entering his own house.

The worst thing that happened to me was that I had to feel stupid and frustrated for 15 minutes. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t be able to talk my way out of any problem.

That’s because my story involves four white people — the cabbie, my friend, the cop, and me. I think now it’s fair to say that there isn’t a black man in America who could tell a story like mine.

Gates is probably the most famous black professor in the world, and was in his own home in one of the most liberal cities in the entire country. Of course he was furious. Still the white officer arrested him — even after he knew it was Gates’ home.

My hope is that lots of white folks will finally get what our African-American brothers and sisters have been trying to get through our thick skulls for about half a century now. It’s different being black. No matter whether we think we are racists. And anyway, no person of color believes any white person who says, “I’m not a racist.”

Every day, we white people benefit from being white, from white ancestry, and from acting as if we deserve the benefits of being white.

When we hunt for housing, real estate agents regard us more favorably. We don’t get followed by store security. We get better deals from car salesmen, more generous treatment from juries, and — despite myths of rampant affirmative action — our kids rarely compete with equally qualified African-American kids because so many urban schools, where most black kids are educated, are flat-out disasters.

Racism thrives in many places — in hospital emergency rooms, in bank loan departments, in country clubs and churches and synagogues and universities. And in police departments.

White cops treat black men as criminals all the time — all the time. And the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) everywhere defends every white officer who gets caught out — even on video.

In Cambridge, the city and police department dropped the charges, calling the incident “regrettable and unfortunate” — not the PBA, which gave its “full and unqualified support” to the officer’s actions.

The incident even provoked President Obama, who’s stayed pretty far away from race issues since being elected, into saying that the police acted “stupidly.” He’s since backtracked and invited both Gates and the officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, to the White House for a beer. It’s a great start on what needs to happen.

But it’s only a start. We need to transform police training top to bottom on the subject of race. The fact that the Cambridge cop taught the class about racial profiling suggests there’s a good bit more work to do on the subject. Then we can start on banks, credit card companies, churches, synagogues and universities.

Gates has always had flair — for figuring out new ideas and new trends, and for generating publicity. I don’t wish upon him the fear he must have felt in his doorway, treated like a criminal in his own home. But he may have given white Americans one of the best teaching moments about race that we’ve ever had. If only we pay attention to it.

—
This piece originally appeared on the website of Minnesota Public Radio.

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4 Comments »

Jag Pop said:

Firstly, I am a liberal (who except a white liberal would use the word “firstly”?).

At least I believe I am. The white part is for certain, I had no surprises in the mirror this morning. The liberal part is my opinion, though lately I have to pigeon-hole that belief with what happens to the refrigerator light when the door is closed.

Secondly, let me get this out of the way. I thought your story was good. It kept my attention, had a touch of humor, was familiar as it was something that could happen to me.

I am not even going to address something that you missed entirely: Gates wasn’t arrested for attempting to break into a house, he was arrested for…(I am not going to tell you, go look it up).

What I am going to address is something else that you are missing, something quite essential. Racism is a two way street. That is, there are whites that exhibit racism and there are blacks that exhibit racism. There are whites that are on the receiving end of racism and there are blacks that are on the receiving end of racism. (I am not forgetting that there are other forms of bigotry, for example, religious bigotry.)

There are power differences between the two groups but that does not shrink the essential fact to a state of unimportance.

Gates, as I understand, exhibited racism. The investigating officer was treated from the get-go by Gates in a particular manner because of the officer’s particular race.

What should be learned by the country from this entire episode is that people are the same. They have the same rights and they are capable of possessing the same wrongs.

Having learned that lesson people can move on to the next lesson.

[Reply]

# 30 July 2009 at 6:19 am

uncajoe said:

It seems to me that Lucia Whalen, the 911 caller who reported the incident, got caught in a media fury simply by being a honest citizen.

She made NO racial assertions or assumptions until asked to do so by the 911 dispatcher and then it was very reluctantly. It seems the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, may have embellished the police report by adding the “two black men” phrase to her statement.

Does this mean he had already pre-judged the suspects? Only Sgt. Crowley knows for sure but it sure appears that way to me.

[Reply]

# 30 July 2009 at 7:09 am

SomeDude said:

To the first commenter, he was arrested for pissing the officer off. Not a crime.
And what poignant in the story is that, the cop that approached the blogger did not ask for ID, did not “investigate further,” . . . he laughed it off and took the blogger at his word.

Gates was awarded none of these privileges.

Take a second and imagine being in your house, and a cop coming in and demanding to see your ID.

[Reply]

# 30 July 2009 at 1:54 pm

Jag Pop said:

Somedude, come on. You are making me work hard to sweep up after you. (Is it worth it, I ask myself. Something tells me you aren’t teachable.)

1) He was not arrested for “pissing the officer off”.

2) He did not “take the blogger at his word”. The blogger was with a taxi driver. The taxi driver was a witness and it was the taxi driver to whom the police officer spoke – not the blogger (read it again).

It would be useful to know if the taxi driver and police officer were at all acquainted – a not unimportant detail, to say the least.

3) “Gates was awarded none of these privileges”. What would have happened if Cambridge Officer Crowley had first encountered Gates’ limo driver and had not had to deal with a man that had just flown back from China, had a respiratory infection and had been frustrated by a door on the final, final leg of his long, long journey.

Would the limo driver have been courteous and reacted to the situation responsibly? Officer Crowley was awarded none of these privileges. He was berated and insulted and accused by an uncooperative stranger from the very get-go.

4) “Try imagining a cop entering your house and demanding an id”.

The initial request for id was done outside the house. Only after Gates was uncooperative and hostile did the officer enter the house. The initial request was for Gates to bring his id outside.

[Reply]

# 30 July 2009 at 8:20 pm