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It's Racial Profiling--Only In The Prof's and the Prez's Mind
by Dale Brown, 2009

ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT TheBigFiveOh.com Blog @ Yahoo.Com, 07/25/2009

It's getting me steamed that every mention of the Gates incident in Cambridge, Massachusetts eventually comes around to the issue of "racial profiling"--assumptions made by someone based only on race or ethnicity.

There was no racial profiling. A white police officer responds to a call about two black men trying to break into a house. The officer arrives to find the two men already inside, so he asks them to come outside. This is standard procedure: either the men are the bad guys, or the bad guys might still be inside, or it's all just a big mistake--either way, the safest place for the two men, and the officer, would be outside.

Prof. Gates argues, objects, threatens, resists, and produces ID with the address on it, but the officer still asks him to come outside. Same reason: everyone is safer outside until the officer or his backup can check the residence out. It's not because the two men are black.

Gates argues on and on but eventually goes outside, where he is arrested for disorderly conduct (you can be disorderly and yell at cops in your own home, but not on a public sidewalk).

Gates claimed the whole thing was racially motivated...but to make it worse, Pres. Obama agreed, saying the police officer "acted stupidly." Later, in an impromptu visit to the daily press briefing, he parroted Gates again, saying the incident should lead to a renewed discussion about racial profiling (Gates is producing a PBS special about racial profiling--can't wait to see the spin he'll put on this incident). Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (also black) called the incident "every black man's nightmare." Even Gates' daughter suggested the officer "needed to have his sensitivity training extended."

Oh really? What if there HAD BEEN a REAL break-in? What if Gates didn't know about it, but orders the cops away anyway, and they comply, and Gates is later assaulted by the burglars? The cops would be accused of not doing their jobs--maybe even accused of being racist and not caring about what happens in a black man's house?

Racial profiling is not the lesson here. The lesson here is that the cops are here to protect us and we need to learn to cooperate. The cops ordered Gates out of his house not to roust or torment him, but to search his house for any signs of a break-in. All he had to do was step back and let the cops do their job.

And what about Pres. Obama's knee-jerk reaction to the incident, saying the cops "acted stupidly" without knowing all the facts? Who's the racist now? Who's guilty of racial profiling? Black man, white cop--the white cop is obviously "stupid" and in the wrong, according to the President.

We can have a discussion about the facts, advantages, and disadvantages of profiling. Some call it "prejudice," immoral, and illegal; others call it "street smarts," necessary for survival, and most often times effective.

But this is not about race or profiling, except in the mind of an outraged and explosive black man confronted by white authority he thinks is inferior and subordinate to himself. It is about cooperation, patience, and understanding...

...none of which was demonstrated by Prof. Gates or President Obama last week.

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