Harvard Professor Taken into Custody in Racist Arrest
Henry Louis Gates Jr., 58, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, was arrested at his home yesterday for disorderly conduct. In a nutshell, Gates, who is black, was arriving home from an international trip when he found that he could not get in the front door of his house, which sits in a tony neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He asked the driver to help him wedge the front door open. Someone saw them and called the police on suspicion of a break-in. The cop arrived and tried to assess the situation. Gates was agitated that the police had been called. Were they suspecting him of breaking into his own house? As someone who has studied race for most of his adult life and who lived his entire life as a black person, he was understandly pissed off. It was the worst nightmare coming true. He’d done all he was expected to as a black man. Got good grades, went to school, earned a college degree and graduate degrees, played nice, and here he was being threatened with arrest because he was becoming ‘disorderly’. You’re damed right he was becoming disorderly. It would be enough to make any black person go nuts. So he was handcuffed last night in the Arrest Heard ‘Round the World. This event will surely be talked about for months and years to come.
Here is a Boston Globe story on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates.
See this commentary on the Henry Louis Gates arrest.
Here is the official police report on the Gates arrest.
Bio of Henry Louis Gates.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:59 am
I find this whole thing appalling! I adore Gates and this whole store just drips with racism. Have you read the statement by his lawyer? http://www.oliverwillis.com/2009/07/21/henry-louis-gates-statement-on-his-arrest-by-cambridge-pd/
July 22nd, 2009 at 9:37 am
Rhea, it’s enough to make any white person go nuts. You accuse me of breaking into my own home, and continue the interrogation after I show you my ID? I’d get disorderly, too.
July 23rd, 2009 at 6:29 pm
We have three observations about the Harvard professor incident:
1. We find it interesting that the fact that this was the professor’s home was evidently not established early on way before the dispute escalated;
2. We find it fascinating that the versions of two members of society, who most would ordinarily view as responsible and honest citizens (this obviously does not include politicians), would vary so dramatically from a factual point of view.
3. Finally, considering that the reading and viewing public were not present at the scene (and thus have no first hand knowledge), and that there is no video tape to our knowledge of the sequence of events and what was said, how so many have formed conclusions, and made assumptions, about who did what and who was wrong.
There are some things which Professor Gates might have considered upon the arrival of the police, no matter how incensed he may have been.
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Thanks, everyone, for commenting on this.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Police are paid very little to do a thankless job.People hurl remarks at them all day long. I have so much respect for them laying their lives on the line as I do soldiers. I think of it daily
July 24th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
[...] arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police. I won’t rehash the whole Gates arrest story here, but I want to talk about my dismay at the comments all over the Boston/Cambridge area [...]