by Heath Cleaveland

Created on: July 23, 2009

In this article, I will use the recent case of Professor Gates of Harvard to shed light on the problem of racial profiling. The primary question I have is this: how much of racial profiling is simply discrimination and how much is cultural conflict?

In affirming the civil rights of all people, we created an environment where blacks have a legal right to participate in American culture and values. The the legal right unfortunately does not go over well with everyone is true, however, the vast majority of white Americans, I can safely tell you, consider racism in their dealings with African-Americans. There is almost a social affirmative action where differences are praised rather than confronted because of fear of racial reprisals. Such was the case in the Sotomayor CT Firefighter decision, where the city wanted to throw out a test for fear the black firefighters who all scored lower would sue. They hadn't sued yet, but the city wanted to throw out the test just in case.

The more recent case of Professor Gates, who is reported by Soledad O'Brien to be one of the premier professors in the nation, is even more telling. We have here the case of one man's word against that of another, of course, but taking both men at their word, Gates is instructively in the wrong. Gates argues the officer (Sgt. Crowley of the Cambridge Police Dept.) would not identify himself and lured him outside his home so he could arrest him even after producing ID which showed he was at his own place of residence. The officer says Gates was loud and hostile, immediately demanding to know if the officer was a racist.

Haven't all the police officers had experiences with blacks assuming racism when none is intended? You can understand why Gates would think of it since he studies race for a living. Much as what we do influences our thought and action, so do we need to be aware that not everyone fits into the cookie cutter molds we make for them. For instance, Sgt. Crowley happens to be an expert on racial profiling and teaches other police how to protect against it, has over a twenty year service record, and was legitimately called to the scene. Also, when the incident was phoned in, it had been reported that two men were attempting to force their way into the home. In fact, the officers were concerned for Prof. Gates' safety when attempting to investigate further and Gates saw the entire scene as if looking through sunglasses, tinted black.

Gates was verbally abusive to the

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