Okay, I have to start off by saying that recently I have had a more than usual crusty attitude about race 
relations. One of the reasons being that we supposedly (I'm counting Canadians in here too) live in a 'post race' era. You see, after Obama won the presidency, everything is supposed to be better. Racism was to have disappeared and more importantly, blacks could no longer pull the race card whenever they felt that things aren't going away.
However, it's not the seemingly more than usual (or at least more reported) acts of overt racism that seem to be occurring, it is the attitude by people and more disturbing, the media, who seems to have taken the Obama presidency too seriously. While many folks knew from the get-go that a brother in the White House wasn't going to mean shit in the long run (a Democrat? Perhaps) these incidents and his lack of a direct response have bothered people. But a black man who has to constantly wrestle between being the dafacto spokesperson for the entire African-American population or not being too scary for white folks means that basically, things haven't changed much.
I don't really blame Obama for doing the 'switcheroo' in regards to the Henry Louis Gates Jr. thing. I was watching his speech on health care (the whole U.S. healthcare system is completely confusing to me) and I was pleased when he first admitted that while he didn't know the details but he said that the Connecticut police acted stupidly. Go Brother! But one of his advisers must have told him that he should have kept his mouth shut:
"I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically,'.... 'I could have calibrated those words differently, and I told this to Sgt. Crowley.'
He reiterated his assertion that he believes police overreacted, but said Gates 'probably overreacted as well.
'"My sense is you have got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved,' he said."
Okay the only thing that bothered me is when Obama later said that this was a 'teachable moment.' Whaat? First, I don't care what color you are, you would be pissed if a cop entered your home and you had to present identification to prove that you lived there. Wouldn't you say a few words to the cops? Apparently, Gates is being maligned because he talked back to a police officer. He apparently hurt the cops feelings, as Officer Crowley then went to the media so people wouldn't think he was a....the terrible R word. Give me a motherfucking break.
It's funny how people hate being called racist but they can still do racist things and never seem to question their own hypocrisy. And no one (in the media, etc) seems to question that. What's also interesting is how a non-black can mysteriously refute being called a racist and then, regardless of the undeniable fact, is automatically no longer a racist. That the same people that presently wax poetic about the Obamas were all but calling them spear-chuckers during the election. Oh, but I guess that's the political system. We, as black people are supposed to accept and then quickly forget racial slights and indignities because there is always this assumption - sometimes internal (we actually believe it) but more external - that we deserve it.
On Friday I went into a bookstore to purchase a book. The store in question was having a discount sale and sales staff were passing out certificates. As I approached one of them, he saw me and turned his back. I was stunned. I then went to the section where I was looking for the book I WAS GOING TO BUY and another sales clerk walked pass me. I made eye contact with her, and she smiled and took a couple of steps away while walking past, holding the certificates in her hand. I then walked out of the store, deciding to spend my money somewhere else.
Now, the first thing I thought of when I left the store was to wonder why I wasn't given a certificate. Was it the way I was dressed? No. I was at work. Was it my demeanor? I don't think so, I was on my lunch break and didn't seemed to be pissed. Should I have asked for a certificate? I suppose, but why should I when the first clerk was handing them out at the entrance?
In hindsight, maybe they thought I couldn't read, and while I shouldn't be playing the 'class card,' I figure I am probably making about 2.5 times more salary a year than them. But they probably thought that I couldn't afford the book. But it doesn't matter, does it?
This is just an example of the 'slights' that I encounter at least twice a week. I'm going to be 40 in November. Do the math and think about all the times you think this shit has happened in my lifetime and while I am at the point of my life where I could seriously put a hurting on the next person who steps to me like that, I haven't punched someone out yet, I fear that the day is coming. Some incidences being even more overt than others. So when I watch the news and I see overweight white men whose faces are beet red from their blustering (or alcoholism), cursing Obama for disrespecting police officers nationwide - hell, even all over the fucking world - I'm a little angry because what they are saying is ' Nigger, know your place.' When Officer Crowley arrested Gates in his own home for 'talking back' he was also saying 'Nigger, know your place.' Don't get it twisted. As Obama even said, there is a long history of this racial profiling / blacks tenuous relationships with cops - bullshit going on and we cannot - or are not able to forget - its insidious nature.
So about this 'teachable moment' thing. What are people supposed to learn from this latest incident?: Here's a few ideas:
1) Black people - don't talk back to white cops. You'll get arrested, even if you are in your own home and have done nothing illegal.
2) It doesn't matter whether you are the President of the United States or a Harvard professor, author, documentation and the recipient of 50 honorary degrees. In some people's eyes (usually the ones that could take your life and / or throw you in prison), you are still a nigger.
3) If you feel you have been discriminated against, do not respond, attempt to defend yourself...nothing. Just let it roll, because ( if you are a woman or a visible minority, or both) you are wrong, you are playing the race / gender card, you and all people that look like you are inherent criminals and if you have kids they are going to be thieving, lying negroes and if you don't have kids, when you do they are going to be thieving, lying negroes and even if you haven't done anything wrong, well the guy down the street who looks like you is a thieving lying negro so you must be one too.
4) People who say they aren't racist and then go on camera to whine like the motherfucking bitches they are about how the 'press won't leave them alone' will always be perceived as more sympathetic than your black ass.
Thanks Barak.
