Obama, Crowley and Gates Meet at White House—A possible scenario

[Oscar Carter]

President Obama promptly and enthusiastically greeted his close friend Skip Gates and Sgt. Crowley at The White House with a big smile and firm handshake, Thursday evening. He thanked each for coming.

Professor Gates appeared a little uncomfortable. The President and Crowley seemed quite relaxed, their cheeks a little flushed. The President had just finished drinking a couple of beers with one of his aids and Crowley had a couple just before his arrival at the bar in the Willard Hotel down the street. The President had put him up there for the evening. The Professor does not drink. He spoke up first, however, and said he appreciated the President’s invitation and stated that they should in fact find the “teachable moment” in regard to the incident he and Sgt. Crowley had experienced two weeks earlier. The President and Crowley nodded their heads in agreement and each opened a bottle of Budweiser. The Professor poured a glass of ice tea and casually picked up a cookie.

Gates went on to tell the President and Crowley that he felt we have to do something in this country about racial profiling and that this incident was not his first experience. The President agreed and stated that he had also been subject to racial profiling on several occasions. Crowley stated that he knows racial profiling occurs, and in fact, said he had observed White police officers treating Blacks and other minorities in disparaging ways on a couple of occasions and that he was disturbed by the occurrences. Gates immediately asked Crowley if he had reported the instances. In response, Crowley stated he had reported one of them but nothing was done about it. He said it was part of the reason he had decided to study race relations and train police officers about racial sensitivities.

The President explained police officers must have a certain level of unquestioned authority when incidents arise like these and at the same time some latitude must be allowed for people to respond in a defensive, and perhaps belligerent way, when they feel their privacy, civil rights or mere comfort has been violated. “Grant you, there is a fine line here” he said. “And, it seems unlikely to me that anyone will ever be able to definitively describe the specific circumstances and actions that would always define when one or more police officers or private citizen crosses that line in any give situation.” Crowley immediately nodded in agreement. Gates appeared a little less affirming reiterating that racial profiling exist and it must be stopped.

At that point, the President abruptly took command of the conversation and pointedly stated, “Each of us must examine our individual actions relative to the incident and recognize that the problem may not be a matter of right and wrong. Most people agree racial profiling is an egregious as well as illegal act. In most instances, it is the perception people choose to believe as being right or wrong. Oftentimes, neither is the case. I exacerbated the issue when I accused the Cambridge Police Department in acting stupidly in the absence of having received all the facts. Skip, perhaps you failed in recognizing Crowley was just attempting to do his job and in doing so, he may have reasonably acted too aggressively in the confusion of the moment. And Crowley, perhaps you failed in understanding how Skip’s conduct could have been viewed as reasonable given the continuing racial divide and unequal treatment many Blacks and other minorities experience in this country. If we look beyond right and wrong, we can each apologize for the objectionable actions we have been accused by accepting the stories and possible misunderstandings I have just outlined. That is the teachable moment.”

The author of this fictitious piece, a Black American, has experienced similar incidents to the one described on several occasions. In one case, he reacted as Gates did and was given a ticket and in another situation he ignored the incident and walked away, although not feeling good about doing so at the time. In a third instance, having walked into a small bar in Cleveland, Ohio and going in a back room with the owner, the patrons mistakenly took him for a robber. When he opened the outside door to leave the bar, no less than four policemen, he wasn’t counting at the time, had pointed their shotguns directly at him. He could have gotten belligerent and responded in anger and disgust. If he had, I do not think you would be reading this article.

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Oscar Carter

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[Deanna McCabe]

Here's hoping all those concerned read your Blog.