Posted on 07/27/2009 6:53:21 PM PDT by Kaslin
If race were the only issue, there would be much less hyperventilation about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates' unpleasant run-in with the criminal justice system.
After all, it would hardly be the first time a black man had unjustly been hauled to jail by a white police officer. The debate — really more of a shouting match — is also about power and entitlement.
This is a new twist. Since the triumph of the civil rights movement, minorities have been moving up the ladder in politics, business, academia, just about every field. Only in the past decade, however, has a sizable cohort of African-Americans and Latinos broken through to the tiny upper echelons where real power is exercised.
I'm talking about President Obama, obviously, but also Citigroup Chairman Richard Parsons, entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and many others — a growing number of minorities with the kind of serious power that used to be reserved for whites only.
In academia, the list begins with Skip Gates. He's a superstar, one of the best-known and most highly acclaimed faculty members at the nation's most prestigious university. A few years ago, when he made noises about leaving, Harvard moved heaven and earth to keep him.
The incident that led to his arrest occurred as he was coming home from the airport after a trip to China for his latest PBS documentary. Following the traumatic encounter, he repaired to Martha's Vineyard to recuperate. This is how the man rolls.
Obama's choice of words might not have been politic, but he was merely stating the obvious when he said the police behaved "stupidly."
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Eugene hates Whitey every bit as much as Gates and his Mama did.
Author is a racist against whites. Go read some of his other editorials.
If a white guy would have acted like Gates he would have been tazed, then cuffed, then tazed again, and nobody would have said anything about it.
Who said it was unjust -- other than the usual race baiters on the left?
Poor Gates. He was so traumatized he had to go vacation on Martha’s Vineyard? Do these people realize how silly this story is?
Author is a racist against whites. Go read some of his other editorials.
Just look at his bio and biblio
Eugene Robinson
Wake up commie libs and American Blacks who hold eternal grudges! For crying out loud! It's 2009 already!
Remember that song
Just One Look, That’s all it took.
One thing about blacks, they dont worry about facts they just make up their own as they go along. If Whites stuck together like blacks, there wouldnt have been a Civil war.
Dumbest post of the day.
He is a racist and a dumb liberal
Power, racism mix toxically in Gates.
i think you are jumping to conclusions. Read what you responded to again. Then use your brain before you post.
I dont have a klan as you try to imply.
Do you have a comment or are you just making accusations tonight.
Sadly they a are wrong and racism going to get a lot worse.
Perhaps he’s right. If it were Summers, would he have been arrested? The answer? We’ll never know. The bottom line though is that writing editorials like this is basically race trading, trying to gain credibility or notoriatey by trying to make the situation worse by appealing to people’s deepest suspicions. Obviously, if the author really wanted equality and a post-racial America, he would have written an editorial which spoke about how far blacks have come since civil rights in the 1960’s. He would have written how since WE are now presidents, professors, producers, millionaires and pillars of the community, perhaps we should start acting like it and that begins with not being so insecure as to piss our pants on our own front porch when one of OUR OWN constables comes forward to make sure we are secure in our homes and neighborhoods. If we are truly assuming our share of the mantle of power, why are we still acting like deprived five year olds, reflexively returning to our most sure screed in order to get the lollipop with the least amount of effort. In the end, the author may be right (and he may be wrong), but so what, where does that get any of us, black or white? What a waste of ink!!
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