Mark Steyn takes on Gatesgate
Mark Steyn has a few choice words about Obama and Gates:
The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Ché¡vez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police Sgt. James Crowley…
Professor Gates seems to go around with his Prejudometer permanently cranked up to 11: When Sgt. Crowley announced through the glass-paneled front door that he was here to investigate a break-in, Gates opened it up and roared back: “Why? Because I’m a black man in America?”
Gates then told him, “I’ll speak with your mama outside.” Outside, Sgt. Crowley’s mama failed to show. But among his colleagues were a black officer and a Hispanic officer. Which is an odd kind of posse for what the Rev. Al Sharpton calls, inevitably, “the highest example of racial profiling I have seen.” But what of our post-racial president? After noting that “‘Skip’ Gates is a friend” of his, President Obama said that “there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.” But, if they’re being “disproportionately” stopped by African American and Latino cops, does that really fall under the category of systemic racism? Short of dispatching one of those Uighur Muslims from China recently liberated from Gitmo by Obama to frolic and gambol on the beaches of Bermuda, the assembled officers were a veritable rainbow coalition. The photograph of the arrest shows a bullet-headed black cop ”“ Sgt. Leon Lashley, I believe ”“ standing in front of the porch while behind him a handcuffed Gates yells accusations of racism. This is the pitiful state the Bull Connors of the 21st century are reduced to, forced to take along a squad recruited from the nearest Benetton ad when they go out to whup some uppity Negro boy.
Read the whole thing.
The only way Sgt Crowley can come out ahead is if he brings his mama with him to the WH.
The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Ché¡vez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police Sgt. James Crowley…
Wow, unfortunately this is very true, and constitutes an even deeper and obvious observation of this than I initially realized. This is core — and part of my usage of words lke ”twilight zone” and ”surreal” in my own description of what this incidence meant to me.
I knew there was a deeper observation I just could put my finger on it — Mark Steyn, you nailed it.
Mind you, the best bit is about Professor Gates not knowing the difference between Shakespeare and Burns. From a professor of English as well as Afro-American Studies at Harvard that is, shall we say, a little inadequate.
Helen, it could remind me of what, in part, ousted Ward Churchill — academic incompetency.
Steyn is great. I loved his portrayal of BO’s willingness to stand up to bulllies.
Did you see this from RCP?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/26/obama-race-patricia-williams-america
A Columbia Law School prof tells the Brits how racist we are. These Ivy League faculty types sure stick together, even when it means lying about the facts.
The really really really wild thing is … if we are so racist here in the cultural heart of human enlightenment … how bad is the rest of the world?
Reminds me of a chart from Dr. Sanity’s site that said, “Multiculturalism is about honoring and the respecting all cultures (shhhh, except for Western culture which is uniquely evil).
The really really really wild thing is … if we are so racist here in the cultural heart of human enlightenment … how bad is the rest of the world?
Reminds me of a chart from Dr. Sanity’s site that said, “Multiculturalism is about honoring and the respecting all cultures (shhhh, except for Western culture which is uniquely evil).
I’m not a people person, but it looks like Sgt. Lashley looks like he could use a drink in the photos.
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.” –George Orwell
nyomythus:
The really really really wild thing is … if we are so racist here in the cultural heart of human enlightenment … how bad is the rest of the world?
Bad enough. When I was working in Latin America, twice I was invited into homes that featured prominent portraits of Hitler in the living room. These were not German Nazis, but home-grown.
I can go on. Suffice it to say that I do not consider the US the poster child for bigotry and racism. Yes, we have it, but bigotry and racism are found all over. Similarly, tolerance is found all over. By comparison, we do pretty well, IMHO.
Mark Steyn is one funny man. Great insights as well. The man should have a radio show.
But how in the HELL did he end up in New Hampshire?
br549,
Steyn sometimes fills in for Rush Limbaugh.
Speaking from personal experience, verbally abusing a cop is an automatic free guided tour of the vomit-sour back seat of a cruiser and the accompanying ride downtown. It doesn’t matter if you’re black, white, green, purple, or a DQ swirl-cone with cherry dip. And despite what you would think, at the times things like this happen, “right” or “wrong” and nuanced thought on possible public opinion ramifications don’t come into it….
It’s also a Twilight-Zoney coincidence that the cop teaches a class in racial profiling avoidance techniques.
Some predictions? Why not?
Sgt. Crowley will be demonized by many and will be defended by many, and both camps will be doing so for the wrong reasons: they have their political axe to grind or their own racial bias to promote.
He will eventually retire to a small town and star in his own TV show, complete with his very own deputy sidekick and a whole slew of funny-townie characters, all of them white, but none of them racist.
Professor Gates will continue the talk-show rounds, the pictures with Al Sharpton and Spike Lee, and in the process becoming a universally revered Black Culture Icon, kinda the anti-Bill Cosby.
He will write a best-selling book on the Profiling of Black Males in America – no “publish or perish” for this guy. He’ll also be able to afford to buy a bigger summer home on Martha’s Vineyard. This is so he can shout an even louder “Do you know who I am?” to cops who really don’t give a crap.
He will also get a self-explanatory Tommie Smith-John Carlos tattoo on his forehead, so that he doesn’t have to pose like that all the time. Plus, the tat will be the shizzle at his sold-out Harvard lectures.
Our President, the esteemed 0-Man, who surprised many by jumping the traces of his Teleprompter and jamming both feet into his mouth (just like he puts his pants on), will have very little else to say. However his press secretary and other minions will be making multiple rounds of the bloviating talking-head shows, back-tracking, obfuscating, and generally trying to smoke screen the 0-Man’s way out of a predicament he should never have been in; but it makes a helluva distraction from the Health Care debacle.
White women in Cambridge will still call the cops when they see two black guys breaking down the door of a house.
“White women in Cambridge will still call the cops when they see two black guys breaking down the door of a house.”
True – however I suspect a more accurate statement given that race is important in this context is: “Women in Cambridge will still call the cops when they see two people breaking down the door of a house.”
I know if I noted someone doing that and didn’t recognize them as someone who lived there I would call regardless of race. It’s not like I would figure a white person busting down a door is doing so for a good reason but those despicable black people are up to no good. Nor would I do so if I recognized my neighbor even if they were black.
I do not see race as being much of a factor here – I suspect that “forcing entry” by entities the caller didn’t recognize into a house is the main one.
However, since I hold the greater case to be true I expect that what you say is accurate also. Much as if I said: “Black women in Harlem will still call the cops when they see two white guys breaking down the door of an apartment” yet I’m more than sure most would consider that statement to mean something specific to the races I chose.
I relatively figure you didn’t mean it that way – but frankly as long as race matters and is given as something that matters it will, well, matter. Obama’s statement carries with it a large degree of racism inherent in the argument and so does that one.
Hoo, boy.
“A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the “post-racial America” will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like professor Gates unto the end of time.”
AMEN, brother. Preach it!
We need to send that bozo Gates (who confused SHAKESPEARE and BURNS???) a box of “No Whining!” buttons. You know, the ones that say WHINING with a diagonal red slash through it.
If you weren’t racist, the antics of these jackasses would make you reconsider your tolerant views.
Of course, if Gates makes the documentary he threatened to immediately after he whipped up this little contretemps, he’ll do quite well for himself.
Typical.
Of course, if Gates makes the documentary
The documentary would be 10 seconds.
Jim Crow[ley]: Ding Dong (pressing doorbell – standing at alert and ready for action)
Gates: How dare you respond to a call [do your job]. You are a racist !
Case closed. Out of Gates mouth is the truth! He is a personal friend of ∅bama and it’d be oh so delightful if that personal phone call was taped. That would be one phone call with so much racism in it !
I’ve decided that all in all, this contretemps is deeply reassuring. In the ongoing effort to determine whether Obama is knave or numbskull, I think that his mishandling of this incident from start to finish, which completely distracted the nation’s attention from health care at just the moment he wanted unified support and which exposed his poor judgment, inexperience, and total non-post-racialism, to coin a decidedly awkward phrase, adds decisive weight to the numbskull side of the scale. Yes, I know he’s prob ably both, but a knave who’s also a numbskull won’t be able to achieve as much knavery as would the smart guy he pretends to be.
I just had a thought about how Crowley should respond to the WH invitation: I’d be honored to visit the White House and meet the President. Could I possibly suggest another refreshment. How about tartar of wagyu beef, a bit of local chevre on a bed of arugula, and a 1998 Chateau Haute Brande. We have to overcome the stereotypes about the Irish and their plebeian drinking habits.
Unfortunately nyomythus that is not a quote by Orwell. The closest you might come from him is made in an essay that Orwell wrote on Rudyard Kipling, when quoting from one of his poems. Orwell did write, in his essay on Kipling, that the latter’s “grasp of function, of who protects whom, is very sound. He sees clearly that men can only be highly civilized while other men, inevitably less civilized, are there to guard and feed them.” (1942)
Now – let’s face it – only by keeping the idea that endemic racism is still a huge problem can many justify their jobs. As always – follow the money.
Instead of apologizing, Barack Obama doesn’t do humility, especially since he “won”, he wants to have a beer with Gates and Crowley and give them the benefit of his wisdom one on one, while simultaneously proclaiming this a “teachable moment” for the rest of us. Perhaps instead of a beer, he should offer them a Coke. Then, the three of them can hold hands as he leads them in a chorus of “I’d Like To Teach the World to Sing”.
As for that teachable moment. It certainly has been. Racism, it seems, is not a sin committed only by White Americans (or more accurately Republican White Americans, Dems don’t have that problem , do they, Senator Boxer?). If assuming that a white police officer is guilty of biggotry for responding to a call of possible robbery at a home where the occupant is black, is not racism, then nothing is. After all, Gates began making such accusations, not after he was carried away in handcuffs, but when the officer stood inside the jimmied front door and asked him to identify himself. Rather than do what you or I would do, cooperate, present identification, thank the officers for responding so quickly while reassuring them that it was all a misunderstanding, he immediately launched into a tirade that I have since begun to suspect is representative of his permanent demeanor.
For the record, and I hope your listening Reverend Sharpton, race baiting is as racist as racial profiling, and this incident was a clearly a case of the former, not the latter.
Brit Hume on the topic:
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/brit_hume_president_who_keeps_apologizing_for_america_cant_apologize_for_ga/
“…Suffice it to say that I do not consider the US the poster child for bigotry and racism…”
Good. Because we’re not. I’ve lived in a number of places outside the U.S. (still do), and you can take it to the bank (pre- or post-bailout, take your pick) that the U.S. is near the bottom of the scale, meaning on the good side, when it comes to bigotry and racism. Where to start? Germany still discriminates against its “Gastarbeiter”, many of whom now have children who were born in Germany. Oh, and the kids aren’t German citizens, either. Kuwait has a class of inhabitants known as the “bidoons”. This is not a mispelling of the nomadic “bedouin”, but rather means “without”, as in without a state. They’re Arabs who have lived in Kuwait for generations, but are not granted citizenship, for a variety of reasons. Japan almost never lets an immigrant become a citizen, especially if you’re not of Japanese ethnicity. The sumo wrestler Akebono is an exception, the only one I can think of. Thailand charges foreigners about 10 times higher an admission fee to its national parks. So does Indonesia, on a lesser scale. And if you get into a traffic accident in Southeast Asia and you’re white (or black), it’s automatically your fault, because you’re a foreigner. And because you’re assumed to be “rich” and thus able to pay for both cars to be fixed, along with any medical or funeral expenses. It goes on and on. In fact, the only places where I’ve seen a real effort made at equality is in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. While I’ve seen non-white government employees of various types in the UK and the rest of Europe, I seriously doubt we’ll see a black British PM or an ethnic Vietnamese French President any time soon. And in the business world? Fuggeddaboudit.
Thailand charges foreigners about 10 times higher an admission fee to its national parks. So does Indonesia, on a lesser scale.
my wife, an indonesian chinese woman was very upset all the time on our trip… i think it was embarrasing to her that even though we were married, they constantly upcharged me all over the place…
What is Obama doing to Democrats ???
Micheal Barone’s data:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Stumbling-governors-signal-trouble-for-Dems-8016272-51603962.html
I think Bill Krystol summed it up neatly this morning. Gates and Obama use race as a codeword for what is really a class divide. They are members of the statist elite, no matter what color they are, and their loyalty to that economic and cultural class showed up in the guise of anti-racism.
It seems to me that to these members of the anointed, the Cambridge policemen are working class (at best) and so deserve reproach and punishment for not recognizing their betters.
I suppose the cops could go John Galt on calls to Gates’ place.
This is really not going the way the race-baiters expected–and going by experience had every right to expect–and seems to have disoriented them.
Those tempted to beleieve Gates has a bit of chip on his shoulder are proven wrong by this quote from an article that appeared today:
To his eventual embarrassment, he wrote in his Yale application:
“As always, whitey now sits in judgment of me, preparing to cast my fate. It is your decision either to let me blow with the wind as a nonentity or to encourage the development of self. Allow me to prove myself.”
He was substantial enough to get into Yale anyway, politicized enough to protest racism and the Vietnam War, but never so disheartened by his country that he didn’t consider himself a part of it.
It’s not a chip, its an entire city block.
I am not able to think of a country that is less racist than America, though if someone wants to make an argument for Canada I wouldn’t squeal, Native populations and Anglo-French disputes notwithstanding. The Scandinavian countries make an effort, but until recently their populations have all been from one tribe. You don’t get credit for tolerance when there’s nothing to tolerate. Japan, Russia, France…terrible.
Latin America is still largely lighter-skinned ruling darker skinned in all areas; Arabs treat everyone with prejudice, including each other.
The United States, even with its terrible record on ethnic and racial discord, is quite simply attempting tolerance on a scale other nations do not even imagine – and we do pretty well, thanks.
“This is really not going the way the race-baiters expected—and going by experience had every right to expect—and seems to have disoriented them.”
Actually I think it is pretty much going the same way it always has, just in this case people aren’t keeping thier opinions to themselves.
It reminds me of two people at a club I belong too. They always made a big show of doing work when people were around, nothing when people weren’t, and loudly proclaiming they do all the work here and the place would fall down without them. They were beliggerent and both won some of the “hardest worker” awards (usually in an attempt to shut them up). Went on for years, someone finally got mad at one and informed them of what they thought. They turned to the next person and made some pith comment, and then nearly everyone in the room spoke up and said what they had been thinking for years. They left in a rage and haven’t been back.
For one of the first time the race baiters tactic is shouting out and saying everyone who disagrees with them is a racists got a “your the flippin racist” thrown back at them. Now they are turning around to the rest of their “friends” and getting that back too. Sadly I do not think they will simply go away like the two above, yet it must be a true shock after so many years of thinking you were a slick politician who had fooled everyone to find out you only fooled yourself. I just do not underestimate their ability to fool themselves and find a way to figure out we all actually agreed with them (or “forget” the incident occured).
We ALL learn something new….
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/07/27/gates_caller_didnt_cite_race_police_say/
The woman who called the police didn’t cite race !
Sorry off topic:
Almost unprecedented rally against Obama in Jerusalem:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132597
Off topic: Joe Biden is acting stupidly again.
In fact, stupider than Tina Fey
Joe Biden’s comments are worse than the “I can see Russia from my house comments” that people pinned on Sarah.
What did Joe say?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090727/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_us
I agree with strcpy @ 1:41 pm: I think the Gates Assumption is a notable moment. For the first time people are fighting back and making their opinions known about horse manure charges of racism.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today, The Bloggess and her husband, on the way to a Houston Taco Cabana for Monday lunch, get hit by another car. The Bloggess tweets the aftermath:
This seems a small thing, yet: openly mocking a Black American Princess (Gates) represents societal progress against the choking PC culture which we have too long tolerated.
Many Americans voted for Barack b/c they thought it would reduce the accusations that America is harshly and backwardly racist.
However, widespread belief/accusation of racism had not been our recent problem. Our recent problems have been Political Correctness and white guilt. White people have been oversensitive; have cared overmuch (for any healthy and mature adult) about unjustified/irrelevant/petty/irrational accusation. The problem always has been lack of wisdom on the part of white people – be that either lack of wisdom which manifested in actual racist attitude, or lack of wisdom which manifested in foolishly harboring fear of what black people might say/accuse. The problem never has been the perception of critics.
Ironically, Barack’s election is fomenting progress – as shown by the pale-skinned The Bloggess’ fearless and almost unthinking mocking of the Black American Princess Gates. I read The Bloggess a lot. She is a journalist, a liberal (albeit of the Texas variety), and she completely understands PC. Two years ago – pre-Barack election, pre-Gates Assumption – would The Bloggess have gaily mocked a black man in Gates position? I think it unlikely. I think something has changed – even in the last week.
The Bloggess’ gaity could be a harbinger of other changes in society. Affirmative Action has been propped up like a corrupt and unworkable dictatorship: like Mussolini, like Nicolae Ceausescu, like the USSR. When corrupt, unworkable, propped up dictatorships fall: they often fall hard and swift. It could be the same with Affirmative Action – and the Gates Assumption could play a role.
I don’t think the Gates Assumption is a small thing. I think it is a lingering thing which will become more and more infected. It could help kill off Barack’s career; it could contribute to reducing or killing off both Affirmative Action and Political Correctness. I think it is a marker and a notable moment.
We can thank Barack. He truly is bringing hope and change.
Interestingly, this is one topic that I can’t talk to my Obama supporting boyfriend about. The boyfriend has a good heart and is adamant against racism. He’s also had some bad experiences with cops and does not want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know about the incident, but I do think Obama should have kept his mouth shut, if he didn’t have all the facts.
Accusing America of racism is pure agitprop, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to see racism, live in Europe.
America has had its problems, God knows, but Americans have made a wholehearted good faith effort to deal with them. Europeans will deny they even have a problem, much less have started to deal with it. (And as for Japan, Japanese look down on Caucasians – don’t even ask about blacks.) I have been in most First World, and many Second and Third World countries, and if I were black I’d rather be in the US than anywhere else (including RSA). It’s not even a close call.
Teri Pittman: Frankly I suspect that most guys, regardless of color, have had some bad experiences with cops.
I imagine that’s far less true of women, again, of any color.
It’s been interesting to read in the coverage of this incident the experiences writers like Christopher Hitchens and Victor David Hanson in their police encounters.
At Reason, Radly Balko makes the case that “contempt of cop” should not be a crime, and to a point I agree. But that’s a separate issue from race.
“Accusing America of racism is pure agitprop, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to see racism, live in Europe…”
Or Asia. There’s much to like here, but I haven’t found any place that’s considered part of the continent, from Israel to Taiwan and from Korea to Indonesia, that even pretends it’s color-blind. Israel probably comes the closest, but there’s a significant Ashkenazi-Sephardi split even there.
Occam’s Beard: In further regard to the Japanese, there are the “eta” who are the untouchables in Japan to this very day. In fact, eta is a word like the N-word and can cause a decent Japanese to blanch. The polite word is burakumin, but even that word is tarnished. In principle the eta were “freed” in 1871, but in practice the prejudice continues.
Identification as a burakumin is often sufficient to prevent or void participation in a marriage, a contract, or employment in any non-burakumin occupation. No official census exists, but about 6,000 segregated communities of burakumin contain a total population variously estimated at between 1,000,000 and 3,000,000.
— Encycolopedia Britannica
In china last fall before the election, chinese friends asked me “Who will vote for BHO? The only ones would be fellow black jungle spear-chuckers [the best I can do with a Chinese expression that’s truly untranslatable) who’s a Monkey besides?”
And yes, although they were courteous with me, they did pity me since I was not Han. As the man above said, don’t even think about their opinions of blacks.
In fact, we were told that it would be almost impossible to place a black student with a Chinese family so “please explain this to your black students if you have any…”.
As far as the Han are concerned, blacks are a race made to be exploited and screwed over. Aside from that…
Good Ole Charlie: Many years ago when I was a college freshman, a Chinese-American on my dorm floor told me that when the Europeans first showed up in China during the Age of Exploration, the Chinese thought the Europeans were monkeys: hairy and white-skinned.
One semester a visiting professor from China stayed at my apartment. He did not have a positive view of blacks.
He related an incident of “anti-Chinese discrimination” in town which teed him off. Some of the Chinese university students brought their wives along. Their wives couldn’t obtain work visas, but they could get jobs washing dishes at local Chinese-owned restaurants, of which there were quite a few. The restaurants paid the wives lower wages than the Mexican dishwashers. Dollars trumped race: the wives washing dishes in restaurants had no recourse. “Discrimination against yellow,” my Chinese roommate fumed : discrimination by Chinese restaurant owners!
Gringo, your 12:17: Anyone who’s spent a significant amount of time in Southeast Asia hears about the ruthlessness of Chinese businesspeople, as well as their resistance to assimilation. They’re looked at as the exploiters of the “true” local people (known as “bumi putra” in Malaysia or “pribumi” here in Indonesia–same thing, basically meaning “sons of the soil”). You’ll hear figures bandied about, like how during the Suharto years, ethnic Chinese made up about 3% of Indonesian citizens, but controlled about 75% or the wealth. So you think maybe they have a point. Of course, before Artfldgr jumps all over me, let me say that there are two sides to this story. The Chinese counter that the locals are a bunch of good-for-nothing, lazy, shiftless ne’er-do-wells, who would be just as successful as the Chinese if they worked as diligently. So, is there some serious stereotyping going on, in both groups? You bet. Pick any group that has financial success out of proportion to its numbers that maintains its own culture apart from that of the majority–Jews in medieval Europe, Armenians in the Islamic world, Indians in parts of Africa–and the story is similar. It’s so common, I can only figure it must be part of human nature.