Martin. Medgar. Malcolm. Jimmie Lee. Harry. Viola. Andrew, James and Michael.
These are the names of just a handful of the people who were murdered fighting for our freedom.
I've long said that there's nothing and nobody who could ever make me ashamed of being black. Right now, that theory is being tested. My pride in my race is being severely strained. Not over something as lame at the BET Awards or the existence of Flavor Flav, but because a black man was illegally arrested in his own home, and far too many of us think it was his fault for having the nerve - the gall! - to know his rights and stand up for himself.
What a bastard.
I admit my disdain for the police is pretty high, and I don't apologize for it. But I'm not crazy, either. Like most black Americans, I know the routine if I'm ever pulled over or detained. Hands on the wheel. Move slowly. Don't even think about doing something as crazy as asking for a badge number - that's some Hollywood shit. (The jury is still out on whether it's safe to have your license and registration in your hand, since it could be mistaken for a weapon.) Speak softly and politely and for the love of God, smile. And keep smiling. Keep smiling when you're pulled over for driving a raggedy-ass VW Jetta in the "good" part of town. Keep smiling when you're pulled over twice in the same night while driving your boyfriend's expensive Audi. Keep smiling when you're sitting on the curb in your army PTs and a pair of flip-flops while the cops - who are doing an illegal search of your car - won't even toss you your jacket. Keep smiling when you're stopped at the door of any store. Keep smiling when you wake up in the morning, moving stiffly to examine the bruises on your arm, it could've been worse. Keep smiling or else it could very well get you killed.
Sometimes you get sick of smiling. So when Dr. Henry Gates got arrested for little more than LWB - Living While Black - I got a little excited. This was a man who could actually afford to stand up and fight. This was a man who could put a spotlight on the egregiousness of racial profiling and overzealous police officers who measure their penises with with nightsticks (or masturbate with them). Sure, bells went off at my head at "beg my forgiveness", but I was chalking that up to my MTV Generation* fear.
And then - Jesus tap-dancing Christ on a cracker!!! - the president spoke up in Gates's defense. President Barack Obama took a break from channeling his inner Cosby and finally said out loud that yes, people of color tend to be disproportionately stopped - and even harassed - by police officers. Okay, so I could've sworn I heard Rev. Wright chuckling somewhere, but I pushed that out of my head, along with the sudden aching in my right arm. I went to bed and slept for 16 hours straight, convinced that finally - finally! - justice was going to be done. Not that shaky O.J. Simpson kind of justice, but justice for a man whose innocence couldn't be denied by anybody. I couldn't wait to party at the newly christened Gates Square in a couple of months.
When I woke up, I was in Bizarro World.
The general public was enraged, but not with Sgt. Jim Crow(ley). They were furious with the president. Not only had Crowley still not apologized - not even for arresting a man in his own house when the burglary charge turned out to be bogus - but Pres. Obama was all but apologizing to him. Dr. Gates (last seen fighting "for justice for all the black men in America") was contemplating having a beer with this man. Black people were mocking Gates for not following "the black rules" when it came to being arrested. Over and over and over, I kept hearing this phrase: He got what he deserved.
Why?
Better yet, how?
Being a jerk in one's own home is not illegal. Refusing to step outside and show your ID to a police officer is not illegal. Talking about a cop's mama is not illegal. Disorderly conduct? Please. On the other hand, false arrest is illegal. Refusing to give your full name and badge number is illegal. If it's true that Dr. Gates wasn't read his rights while being arrested (or before being questioned, IIRC), then that's illegal as well. Oh, and calling for backup after Gates had provided Crowley with two forms of ID was a bit of a jerk move.
So with all due respect, Mr. President, Sgt. Jim Crow(ley) is not an "outstanding police officer." He's not a hero. He is, to quote one of my favorite movies, a big baby who doesn't know his thumb from his dick. He is hiding behind a badge, a blue line and a racial divide. I've yet to read a single article that suggest Gates is guilty of anything; at the most, it's"they both were in the wrong." Well, one was possibly in the wrong, and one was breaching his duties as a public servant.
White privilege: when you can be hailed for NOT doing your job.
I'm sick of hearing about how it wasn't smart for Dr. Gates to talk back to the police officer. I'm sick of hearing about how what we, as ordinary black Americans, would've handled the issue. I'm sick of hearing about his white wives and his trip to Ireland and his smarmy Harvard ways
But being a media-whoring asshole whose trip to Nigger Alley came way too far along in life doesn't warrant being arrested. It is not illegal, nor should it be illegal. Any so-called good American should be outraged - and they would be, if Dr. Gates was white. If Dr. Gates was white, James Crowley would be little more than a mouth-breathing lughead who terrorized a poor old man far above him on both the economic and social ladder. He'd be little more than white trash.
But this is kind of a non-issue now, isn't it? Now that the charges have been dropped and (black) feet have been held to the flames, it's pretty much over. An event that Dr. Gates basically pimped - at the expense of the feelings and experiences of black people - is now being considered a 'teachable moment'. People are desperate to move on. The president - who is recovering very well from his double knee surgery due to extreme backpedaling - is being hailed as a peacemaker. Peace, as usual, is coming at the expense of the disenfranchised.
"I'm going to
This should not be happening. 50 years ago, this wouldn't be happening. Dr. King and Malcolm X didn't see eye to eye for most of their lives, but at the very least, both of them would've had strong opinions about this matter, wouldn't have been afraid to say so, and probably laughed at the idea of having drinks with the oppressor, at least until he admitted he was dead wrong.
Sometimes, I really think we don't get it. The assassinations of Dr. King and Senator Robert Kennedy were 40 years ago, which is chronologically a blink of an eye. The grandmother of my great-grandmother - who died only eight years ago - was a slave. The Dallas Independent School District wasn't legally declared desegregated until 2003. (It is now over 90% minority; Dallas is over half white.) Yet the powers that be threw us Affirmative Action - which primarily benefits white women - housing projects and The Cosby Show, and we've been sitting at the front of the bus with our feet up and hands behind our heads ever since. Then we mock Revs. Sharpton and Jackson when we're too lazy (or fearful) to stand up and give them our seats. These were men who were on the front lines during the Movement, and yet we're so pampered and scared that we lambaste Rev. Sharpton for supporting a black man for having the nerve to protest a false arrest.
We laugh at him when we should be apologizing.
And to Martin. And Medgar. And Malcolm. Jimmie Lee. Harry. Viola. Andrew, James and Michael. They're long gone, and we're so complacent in the scraps of freedom that they sacrificed their lives to give us that we haven't stepped up yet.
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*Generation Y is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Sorry.
