So Much For Affirmative Action

Back on May 2, 2009 my wife and I attended Houston Community College’s annual graduation ceremony at the invitation of a friend who was one of the graduates. I found the keynote address to be rather peculiar insofar as it was not within the general theme of what I expected for a graduation ceremony. At these kinds of events, I have come to expect the keynote speaker to encourage and exhort the graduates as they are entering the next phase of their lives. The commencement speakers I have seen usually gave the graduates their counsel, wisdom and insight on how to navigate through the obstacles and challenges that lies ahead them. However, this was not the case with this keynote speaker. Although he may have had some words of encouragement, the vast majority of speech, was nothing but a bunch of bloviating about the so-called virtues of Affirmative Action. So, who was the keynote speaker at this event? It was none other than the distinguished Harvard professor, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

After hearing about his July 16th arrest for disorderly conduct after being verbally abusive to a white police officer, I can’t say that I was all that surprised based on what I heard from his boring speech back on May 2nd. The thing that really strikes me odd about this whole thing is that this racially charged incident did not take place in the South. The officer was not a racist redneck who was having a slow shift and was looking to roust a brother. Sgt. Crowley did not hit him in the head with a billy club and called him a “boy.” Nor did he call Dr. Gates the dreaded “N” word. This incident took place in the North, in the Common Wealth of Massachusetts, which happens to be one of the most (if not the most) liberal states in the Union. Dr. Gates lives in a very Pro-Affirmative Action state and he is the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

In spite of living in the most pro-affirmative action state in the country and having his own department at Harvard, Dr. Gates still wants to belly-ache and play the race card after a police officer responds to a 911 call from someone who thought that a burglar was breaking into HIS HOUSE. I thought Affirmative Action was intended to right the wrongs of the past and bring healing and harmony between the races. Gee, a lot of good all of this Affirmative Action stuff has done. It sounds to me that Affirmative Action is neither, affirmative, or action.

MEMO TO DR. HENRY LOUIS GATES

The few times that I have seen your name published, I saw additional words such as, “Scholar,” “Professor,” “Author,” and “Lecturer,” accompany your name. When I associate those words with an individual, I usually think of a person who is smart. However, the hearing the news of your behavior that led to your arrest, it sounds to me that what you did was… well, shall I say… not smart. In fact, I would say that you behaved, “stupidly.”

Since you pride yourself in being an expert in black culture, I think it would be safe to say that you know who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is. This is one guy who has probably been arrested more times than you have and has probably suffered from more police abuse than you have. Never at anytime was Dr. King ever rude or impolite when encountering law enforcement officials. He made it a point to keep his conduct and behavior above reproach. I can never imagine Dr. King saying, “yo mama” to a police officer as you did.

You might want to think about using a similar approach as Dr. King did when dealing with the police by being polite. After the encounter is over, and both of you have gone your separate ways, if you think that the officer has acted unprofessionally and that his/her actions were racially motivated, then you deal with it at that time. This is why most police departments have internal affairs divisions and this is why we have civil courts.

Your actions on July 16th will have more of a teaching impact on your students than what you will be telling them in the classroom. You are doing the black community a great disservice by teaching them to have a chip on their shoulder and play the race card every time a mishap, a misunderstanding or a miscommunication occurs between a white and black person. Playing the race card and alleging racism where it does not exist only makes it that much harder for those who are the real victims of racism.