Professor Gates, Racism and White Backlash

Professor Gates of Harvard has been tarred by much of the media over the past few weeks. The issue of course is whether he or any other person of color has the right to claim racial profiling after what appears to be an unnecessary arrest. In the coverage of most MSM (main stream media) outlets, the police department, it’s officers and Cambridge, Mass all seem to represent paragons of racial equality based mostly on the fact that the fair city houses several prestigious universities. The question then becomes: does a higher education really eradicate the insidious tendrils of racism that still permeates certain areas of American society? The truthful response should be a vigorous “no!” Readily available evidence exists to support the reality that racism is alive and well in America even discounting Professor Gates’ recent encounter with the Cambridge Police Department. Like most police departments in the United States, the Cambridge Police Department has had its share of profiling and arresting innocent African Americans simply because they were black and perceived by the police to be breaking some law.

The interesting thing about the Gates’ incident is not all the jargon that’s erupted in the media and the blogosphere about the merits either for or against racial profiling but what is amazing is that the same old tired dialogue continues to emanate from whites and African Americans on an issue that should have been solved decades ago. A whole lot of whites still think black people are whining about racial profiling followed by the tortured logic that racism has surely gasped its last breath, and died a quiet death and that Prof. Gates’ is the “go-to person” to blame in his arrest.

What has really occurred is that this recent, very public racial discourse has brought to the surface once again that there are a whole lot of white folks who just don’t understand that racism hasn’t been legislated away and even if Barack ObamaBarack Obama were in the right place at the wrong time of night in say an innocuous American city like Elk Oklahoma, the president might in fact be arrested in the wee hours of the morning simply because few black people are ever in Elk, Oklahoma. This fact of life is all too real for far too many African American males and this fact makes a lot of white people uncomfortable because many of these same white people don’t really see anything wrong with racial profiling.

Elections are won by men/women professing to be tough on crime and what race of people, based on perceptions fomented in early childhood in families who have no direct contact with or interaction with “the other,” reinforced by the media, are linked to crimes and shackled by an apparent latent inability to successively assimilate into American society other than African Americans? It’s almost impossible not to think African American when you think about welfare queens, pimps or drug dealers

American society is overwhelmed by fear. In the security and comfort of their homes most Americans learns to fear those young, lawless and probably violent young black men. Of course, as citizens, we pay our politicians and our police forces to keep us safe from them, the other. So, what does it matter if the young men and women who are charged with their sworn oath of “ to protect and to serve” violate the rights of those people who are clearly different from us? Everyone knows, that those people, who, if the opportunity arises, would in fact steal or threaten our very security and peace of mind. They might even maim or kill one of us because of their lawless behavior. The foregoing, although odious when even lightly examined, is also a mirror for that deep rooted emotion that is the building block of unexamined racism that is alive and well in America today. And these thoughts about “the other” in American society have coursed through America’s lifeblood since the days of slavery.

These not so hidden but largely unexamined feelings are harbored by a lot of well-meaning, good people and the majority of these people would never think that they were racists in a million years.. And yet, these embraced, deeply entrenched fears about “the other” are the very seeds of racism. Vociferous denials of racism are quickly and swiftly leveled by the media to quell any evidence of the reality of racism in America. Yet, we are so fearful of “the other” that we routinely accept, elect and pay law enforcement to arrest and mete out punishment to “the other” often to ensure our safety and security. Fear has always been an irrational emotion and when most people sit down in the comfort of their homes at night most don’t want to examine the underpinnings of exactly why they fear African Americans. So, the opportunity to change perceptions about “the other” is often limited by fear and advanced degrees do little to change early and re-enforced programming.

Racism, for the most part, is a visceral, emotional response to a feeling of unconfirmed unease because of an unknown stranger, perceived as “the other.” Despite incontrovertible facts that African Americans have made enormous contributions to this country outside of slavery, many people still perceive African Americans as “the other that lives among us.” How history is taught and recorded is partly to blame. How and where we live is also a major factor in the “us” versus “the other” mentality that is the foundation of racism. And as long as human beings are perceived as “the other” by a dominant culture, then true equality will always remain elusive and unfairness and unequal treatment will continue and justice will be perceived by minorities as “just us.”