Famous Harvard African American professor Henry “Skip” Louis Gates, Jr.’s arrest has the networks and interwebs buzzing about the appropriateness of the arrest and the racial issues that still may exist in America.
CNN’s American Morning presents perspective from one of Gates’ neighbors. He questions the fairness of police conduct.
“It has a certain comical aspect...on the other hand, as a person of color, you have to wonder if he was treated as any other professor would be.”
On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Tina Brown of The Daily Beast says this is a wake-up call for the country.
“It’s a staggering thing. And I think what it is is a wake-up call because we’ve got a black president. We think we’ve made strides. Nonetheless, a distinguished African-American scholar who’s locked out of his own house...”
The Daily Beast features a blog piece by Toure.
“After the arrest of Skip Gates, the most important black academic in the country, we can put all that kumbaya we’re-post-racial crap in the toilet.”
UK’s The Daily Telegraph focused on the issue of Gates’ propriety in his dealing with the arresting officer.
“I won’t comment, except to say: read the police report, It doesn’t just depict Gates playing the
race card; it describes him flinging a whole pack of 52 race cards at the officers. And it doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
The New York Daily News has the police report up. In it the officer says when he asked Professor Gates to step outside of his home, Gates said
“Why? Because I’m a black man in America?”
Gates, who possesses a degree in English literature from Yale, is editor of The Root. The Root also posted a statement by Gate’s lawyer explaining the details of the arrest from Gates’ point of view.
In the statement, Gates’s lawyer says the police followed Gates into his home and continued to insist Gates step outside the home.
The Texas Civil Rights Review weighs in, indicating that yelling at the police is a protected speech act.
“He was arrested at his own home for allegedly being "loud and tumultuous" in his denunciations. Has a person no right to protest?”
Do you think the arrest was justified? Do you think looking at America as “post-racial” is premature?
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