Salt

Ever since Professor Gates was arrested (and then released) the other day, I have tried to apply a huge grain of salt to the whole affair. Yes, this is easy to do for me becauseI am white and have never experienced racism - HOWEVER, grain of salt nonetheless.

While it is certainly likely that the officer was simply doing his job and arresting an unhelpful combatitive man, it is also just as likely that the cop was racist and just profiled the whole situation.

And while it is likely that the officer was asking unneccesary questions and not answering Gates' simple questions, it is also equally as likely that a man who has probably experienced racism before approached the entire situation with his OWN prejudices against the cops and wasn't gonna be helpful no matter what.

I was not there, so I'll never reallyknow what happened, so again - grain of salt for everyone involved.

Now, every piece of reporting out there I've seen have all said things like travesty, racism, profiling...no grains of salt from anyone.



Except now.....

Read the following article from Dr. Boyce Watkins (originally appearing on the website thegrio.com). Watkins says: "What is abundantly clear is that this is NOT the case of a poor Black male being exploited by the racist, classist power structure. "

And then there's the picture....

















I see a policeman with his hand out trying to calm Prof Gates down....I see Prof Gates look like he's yelling "Help".....I see a black officer in the foreground....I see him cuffed in front (which is actually a sign from the cops that they didn't really feel threatened by him)

what do you see?


ETA - I was just reading over this entry and realized I didn't link to the article.... idiot..."DD"