Louis Gates and other Elitist Black Folk

My first reaction when I heard about the incident about Louis Gates was you got to be kidding me. I like many bloggers were not a happy campers. I like many was feeling sorry for Henry Louis Gates. I thought like many black folks that the Cambridge Police had gone over the line. There were a number of bloggers who raised questions early about Louis Gates motives.

Some Black conservatives and conservative bloggers are decoding the Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest and asking...Why did Louis Gates have to yell, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?

For me, I respected Louis Gates until I read my own home town newspaper, The Boston Globe, and read how Louis Gates, 58, the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research attacked black nationalism and is now into the black us (Harvard Educated) vs them (Black Nationalist) politics.

Now his "Harvard University buddy, President Barack Obama is coming out regarding his arrest in Cambridge, Mass. More HERE

I have lost a tad bit of respect for Gates and Obama. They only talk "Black" when the "black Harvard crowd" get what average black folks with no "Haravrd degrees" get everyday. If you have a dregree from a lowly HBCU, State College or heaven forbid no degree, you get no respect in "President Obama's Fantasy Post Racial America."

I wish Barack Obama showed Outrage when black folks got murdered by police, like the 73-year-old black.. and everyone knows race was a factor in the police shooting of unarmed elderly grandfather who what shot in cold blood in that small town in Homer Louisiana. Or the black guy that got shot in the back by the Oakland Transit Authority? Let's not even talk about black man that get shot and killed by police and was shot 12 times from behind. No that crime by police was not the Harvard type of crime, it was not politically sexy, Oh, has President Barack Obama even been down to New Orleans? Don't get me started...

Get this, Gates said that as a man who is “half white,’’ who was married to a white woman for more than two decades, and whose children are part white, “I don’t walk around calling white people racist. . . . Nobody knows me as some lunatic black nationalist who’s walking around beating up on white people. This is just not my profile.’’

AAPP: WTF! "Half White" WTF! Married to a white woman for more than two decades, and whose children are part white! What lunatic black nationalist who’s walking around beating up on white people is this guy talking about? Why is Louis Gates creating (as blogtalkradio host Black Achievement noted, a boogie men for whites? Black nationalist are bad, I'm one of you. Why you treating me like this? I Married a white woman for more than two decades, and my children are part white, why would you do this to me? I'm one of you.

Negro Please!

Why is Gates and and President Barack Obama playing this elitist black thing?

Ask yourself why Barack Obama is sticking up from his Harvard buddy, but cannot say one damn thing about a black man who got shot in the back in Oakland or black folks who get tasered to death while black. I don't get how President Obama, could be weighing in on the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr but cannot even speak about the attack on black America since he has been elected.

Get this Barack Obama said last night that Cambridge police “acted stupidly’’ when they handcuffed Gates even after he showed proof that he lived in the house. Obama scolds Cambridge police.

Police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest, Obama says - sounds like black elitism to me ... Now all of a sudden, Henry Louis Gates Jr is one of the “1 Million Black Men In Jail. Whatever!

Read more at African American Political Pundit.com

There are a lot of thoughts from all corners from the blog theBlack Snob to many others.

What are do you think? What are your thoughts?

Louis Gates and other Elitist Black Folk

My first reaction when I heard about the incident about Louis Gates was you got to be kidding me. I like many bloggers were not a happy campers. I like many was feeling sorry for Henry Louis Gates. I thought like many black folks that the Cambridge Police had gone over the line. There were a number of bloggers who raised questions early about Louis Gates motives.

Some Black conservatives and conservative bloggers are decoding the Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrest and asking...Why did Louis Gates have to yell, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?

For me, I respected Louis Gates until I read my own home town newspaper, The Boston Globe, and read how Louis Gates, 58, the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research attacked black nationalism and is now into the black us (Harvard Educated) vs them (Black Nationalist) politics.

Now his "Harvard University buddy, President Barack Obama is coming out regarding his arrest in Cambridge, Mass. More HERE

I have lost a tad bit of respect for Gates and Obama. They only talk "Black" when the "black Harvard crowd" get what average black folks with no "Haravrd degrees" get everyday. If you have a dregree from a lowly HBCU, State College or heaven forbid no degree, you get no respect in "President Obama's Fantasy Post Racial America."

I wish Barack Obama showed Outrage when black folks got murdered by police, like the 73-year-old black.. and everyone knows race was a factor in the police shooting of unarmed elderly grandfather who what shot in cold blood in that small town in Homer Louisiana. Or the black guy that got shot in the back by the Oakland Transit Authority? Let's not even talk about black man that get shot and killed by police and was shot 12 times from behind. No that crime by police was not the Harvard type of crime, it was not politically sexy, Oh, has President Barack Obama even been down to New Orleans? Don't get me started...

Get this, Gates said that as a man who is “half white,’’ who was married to a white woman for more than two decades, and whose children are part white, “I don’t walk around calling white people racist. . . . Nobody knows me as some lunatic black nationalist who’s walking around beating up on white people. This is just not my profile.’’

AAPP: WTF! "Half White" WTF! Married to a white woman for more than two decades, and whose children are part white! What lunatic black nationalist who’s walking around beating up on white people is this guy talking about? Why is Louis Gates creating (as blogtalkradio host Black Achievement noted, a boogie men for whites? Black nationalist are bad, I'm one of you. Why you treating me like this? I Married a white woman for more than two decades, and my children are part white, why would you do this to me? I'm one of you.

Negro Please!

Why is Gates and and President Barack Obama playing this elitist black thing?

Ask yourself why Barack Obama is sticking up from his Harvard buddy, but cannot say one damn thing about a black man who got shot in the back in Oakland or black folks who get tasered to death while black. I don't get how President Obama, could be weighing in on the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr but cannot even speak about the attack on black America since he has been elected.

Get this Barack Obama said last night that Cambridge police “acted stupidly’’ when they handcuffed Gates even after he showed proof that he lived in the house. Obama scolds Cambridge police.

Police acted 'stupidly' in Gates arrest, Obama says - sounds like black elitism to me ... Now all of a sudden, Henry Louis Gates Jr is one of the “1 Million Black Men In Jail. Whatever!

Read more at African American Political Pundit.com

There are a lot of thoughts from all corners from the blog theBlack Snob to many others.

What are do you think? What are your thoughts?

Gates in Cuffs: Scenes from 'Post-Racial' America

Source: Huffington Post - Rick Horowitz

Two guys I don't recognize trying to force the front door of the neighbor's house? You bet I'd be suspicious.

Would I call the cops? If I were a good neighbor myself, a conscientious neighbor, I probably would. At least I'd like to think I would. After all, somebody's breaking into that house -- I can't just sit there and do nothing, can I?

And I'd like to think I'd make the call no matter how dark or light the intruders' skin tone happens to be. But I don't know that. I can't be sure that's how I'd react.

Especially when I don't happen to know that one of the two dark-skinned guys trying to force the front door of my neighbor's house is: my neighbor!

"Everybody should know his neighbors" -- that's nice, as a theory. As a goal. In the real world, everybody doesn't know his neighbors. I've lived in the same house, on the same block, for nearly two decades; I can recognize exactly three of my neighbors. One of them died last winter. I didn't find out about it until this spring.

So much for knowing.

So the call to the Cambridge cops? No problem.

* * *

Call comes in to the Cambridge cops -- break-in in progress? You bet I'd send out a squad. Maybe two, just to be on the safe side.

You can't have people forcing their way into other people's houses, can you?

And I'd like to think that the dispatcher makes exactly the same decision regardless of what he or she might have been told about the intruders' skin color. Your job is to protect the community; the last thing you're thinking -- at this point, anyway -- is that one of these guys trying to force the front door actually lives in the house.

So the cops going out to investigate? No problem.

* * *

Just back from an out-of-town trip -- an out-of-country trip, in fact -- and I'm tired from all the traveling and happy to be home but my front door doesn't work and I try to force it and it still doesn't work, so I go around to the back door and finally get into the house and now there are cops at the front door and they want to know who I am and what I'm doing there. Am I ticked off? You bet I'm ticked off.

And I'd like to think that in the middle of my being ticked off, I might stop for just a moment and consider the possibility that the Cambridge cops are merely doing their job, and that the sight of two unknown men -- two unknown men of any color -- trying to force a front door might have seemed worth investigating.

Even as I'd like to think that in the middle of doing their jobs, the Cambridge cops might have stopped for just a moment to consider the possibility that this guy is exactly who he says he is, exactly who his I.D. cards say he is, and that he's entitled to be exactly where he is --

-- and what's more, that this might not be the first time in the guy's life that he's had to explain who he is and why he is where he is, simply because of the color of his skin --

-- and that maybe you cut him some slack.

You apologize for the misunderstanding. You give the guy your name and your badge number, even if the guy isn't asking politely anymore. Then you apologize again, and then you leave. End of story.

You don't put him in cuffs and arrest him for disorderly conduct.

Big problem. More HERE

Post Racial Cambridge - Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ARRESTED

The new Post Racial in America?

As reported by the Huffington Post, this booking photo released by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Dept., shows Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was arrested while trying to force open the locked front door of his home near Harvard University Thursday, July 16, 2009. Gates, a pre-eminent African-American scholar, is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance and arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26. (AP Photo/Cambridge Police Dept.)

My home town newspaper the Boston Globe reports, Harvard's Gates arrested at his Cambridge home

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told police he was targeted because "I'm a black man in America" when arrested for "tumultuous behavior" last week. (Boston Globe, 5:55 p.m.) Gallery Who is Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

• PDF Police report of incident and arrest

Bloggers like Oliver Willis is following the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, as are other bloggers like The Daily Voice,The Savvy Sista, The Greenwich Diva, Mo' Kelly Report, and Blog-AroundHarlem.com.

There is more, the Huffington Post reports, police responding to a call about "two black males" breaking into a home near Harvard University ended up arresting the man who lives there – Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar.

Gates had forced his way through the front door because it was jammed, his lawyer said. Colleagues call the arrest last Thursday afternoon a clear case of racial profiling.

Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks on the porch," with one "wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry."

By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.

"Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley. The Cambridge police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.

Gates – the director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research – initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.

"Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him," the officer wrote.

Gates said he turned over his driver's license and Harvard ID – both with his photos – and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com

Check out what grass roots folks have to say on my blogtalkradio program about Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar at: http://tobtr.com/s/590154.

Statement on Behalf of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- by Charles Ogletree

This brief statement is being submitted on behalf of my client, friend, and colleague, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This is a statement concerning the arrest of Professor Gates. On July 16, 2009, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor of Harvard University, was headed from Logan airport to his home [in] Cambridge after spending a week in China, where he was filming his new PBS documentary entitled “Faces of America.” Professor Gates was driven to his home by a driver for a local car company. Professor Gates attempted to enter his front door, but the door was damaged. Professor Gates then entered his rear door with his key, turned off his alarm, and again attempted to open the front door. With the help of his driver they were able to force the front door open, and then the driver carried Professor Gates’ luggage into his home.

Professor Gates immediately called the Harvard Real Estate office to report the damage to his door and requested that it be repaired immediately. As he was talking to the Harvard Real Estate office on his portable phone in his house, he observed a uniformed officer on his front porch. When Professor Gates opened the door, the officer immediately asked him to step outside. Professor Gates remained inside his home and asked the officer why he was there. The officer indicated that he was responding to a 911 call about a breaking and entering in progress at this address. Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University. The officer then asked Professor Gates whether he could prove that he lived there and taught at Harvard. Professor Gates said that he could, and turned to walk into his kitchen, where he had left his wallet. The officer followed him. Professor Gates handed both his Harvard University identification and his valid Massachusetts driver’s license to the officer. Both include Professor Gates’ photograph, and the license includes his address.

Professor Gates then asked the police officer if he would give him his name and his badge number. He made this request several times. The officer did not produce any identification nor did he respond to Professor Gates’ request for this information. After an additional request by Professor Gates for the officer’s name and badge number, the officer then turned and left the kitchen of Professor Gates’ home without ever acknowledging who he was or if there were charges against Professor Gates. As Professor Gates followed the officer to his own front door, he was astonished to see several police officers gathered on his front porch. Professor Gates asked the officer’s colleagues for his name and badge number. As Professor Gates stepped onto his front porch, the officer who had been inside and who had examined his identification, said to him, “Thank you for accommodating my earlier request,” and then placed Professor Gates under arrest. He was handcuffed on his own front porch.

Professor Gates was taken to the Cambridge Police Station where he remained for approximately 4 hours before being released that evening. Professor Gates’ counsel has been cooperating with the Middlesex District Attorneys Office, and the City of Cambridge, and is hopeful that this matter will be resolved promptly. Professor Gates will not be making any other statements concerning this matter at this time.

Read the police report here.

Check out the blog African American Political Pundit for more information.

AAPP: I'm surprised he was not Tasered While Black