Friday, July 24, 2009

Get a clue people

Get a clue people.

I was just reading about what happened to Heny Louis Gates Aka Skip Gates. And I really think that it’s funny that people still don’t understand how race plays a small role in this. The officer was just doing his job, but he didn't have to arrest the man. HLG had just come home from China…First off do you even know how long that flight is. So naturally he’s probably in a un-rested bad mood. Now put yourself in his shoes. You just come home and your front door is jacked up. So what do you do? Go around back and you come in that way. But your nosey neighbors call the cops because they see suspicious action.

But all you trying to do is get into your house. Seriously this reads like an old Dave Chappelle joke. So you’re in your house resting from a long flight and here comes a cop asking you if you live there and if you are alone in the house and if the house is yours. Man you just got back from China and you’re tired and now you gotta deal with a cop asking you questions talking about do you live here? WTF? Of course he was gonna be a little upset. His front door is jacked up and he’s gotta fix that and now he’s got to explain himself to this cop? Hell I’d be a little pissed off to.

Now ya see this whole thing is shocking cause it’s HLG. If this was Cornel West or Michael Eric Dyson; I would be more inclined to see why they got arrested cause those brothas can get a little loud. But this is HLG…I mean this guy is so calm and non-threatening that it’s shocking to me that he would be considered disorderly. If you’ve seen his documentaries or read his books you would have a better understanding of what I’m saying…that being said this arrest could be good for him in terms of book sales.

Now I see both sides to this. The cop was just doing his job. He’s conditioned to think a certain way. Asking a man if anyone else is inside his house when you get a call on a reported break in is a fair question to ask. From his perspective there could have been someone in the house that HLG didn't know about. But I also see HLG side of things. I’m tired just getting home I gotta get my front door fixed and now I got to deal with this cop.

But I digress. And then what added gasoline to the fire was someone asking ole 44 (Obama) what he thought of the arrest. And the president backed his boy up. And white America is shocked by this? If y’all had any doubts about 44 being black. All doubt was removed when he used that moment to remind white folks of black people’s history with the police. See I got NO problem with the president having his boy’s back. He had every right to say what he said. And if people listen to the whole comment there’s nothing out of the ordinary that was said.

The question that burns within each black person when they hear of this kind of crap is: If they can do that to an accomplished scholar like HLG then what the f*ck are my chances? The best case scenario is that charges get dropped and you get held for a few hours. The worst case scenario is ya get shot like Oscar Grant.