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In my prior posts on the arrest of Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates in his own home by Cambridge police officer Sgt. James Crowley I have mentioned that class privilege plays a role in this debacle as much as race does. A lot of the debate about the incident dances around the topic but misses the big picture — race and class are always factors because we are human beings colored by experiences and classification within this country’s historical framework of those two elements.
I’ve seen hundreds of comments around the blogosphere getting bogged down in wish list items — “if Gates had only been more polite” or “if the cop had only walked out once he saw the ID and knew it was Gates’s home.” Yes, either might have defused the situation, then again, maybe not. Yes, the cop was being yelled at by Gates, but it’s less the yelling, than one specific thing that he said that hit the red alert button on class — he tossed down the “don’t you know who I am” card (“you have no idea who you are messing with“). That, friends, comes from privilege of a different kind, one that has nothing to do with race.
On Salon, I was relieved to see this given an apt name for this particular use of the power play, “Ivy League Effect,” by “Phantom Negro.” The reason for the pseudonym was obvious to me. As a fellow Ivy League prof, “Phantom Negro” knows Gates has the power to make live miserable for him/her (“Dr. Henry Louis Gates has reach and influence in the academy“).
The Ivy League is not real life. College in general is not real life, and the Ivy League is a more fantastic version of college. The amenities are better, the rules are flexible, and everyone, student and faculty alike, is well aware that the realities of life as most people know it are merely a peculiar footnote to the day-to-day of campus life. I do not speak out of turn when I say this. I know because I am in and of that world.As a black Ivy Leaguer, something funny happens as you become ensconced in ivy. You’re smart enough to understand that race and racism are a reality you deal with on a daily basis, but you also know that your university ID sets you apart. Does this mean you are kept from hurtful incidents? No, but it is to say that much of the outrage felt at a racial slight is replaced by outrage at a class slight.
It’s a closed, strange universe that I have experience with as well — though I’ve been a lowly peon in that universe. Plus, my brother is a tenured professor who, thankfully, has somehow managed to stay down-to-earth and his feet firmly planted in the ground. I’ve always told him that if he starts exhibiting signs of what I called “acadamic bastard fever”, a sisterly ass-kicking would be in order. But I’ve seen the wrath of the Ivy League/Celebrity Effect before, and it’s a breathtaking level of ego rage, sense of entitlement and coddling that is mind-boggling. Even if you’re in a college town, some of these characters fail to realize that no, not everyone in town “knows who you are” and, well, they don’t really give a damn, either.
Much more below the fold.It looks like the Ive League Effect may have made Skip Gates think you a black pass if you become famous, wealthy or well-respected in your field. It doesn’t always work that way.
The Ivy League Effect, when it’s potent, wouldn’t allow otherwise. It made Gates forget that, no matter what, even when you’re right, you don’t talk shit to the police. And that’s not a matter of manhood or pride; it’s a question of survival. Why? Because you’re black before you’re a Harvard professor. Because, in an extreme case, you can’t tell your side of the story if you get shot reaching for your ID. As a black man and a Harvard professor, Gates’ thought process should have been: “Wow. I am so thoroughly pissed right now. When this current situation is resolved and I am out of harm’s way, I’m going down to the station and I’m going to use my considerable influence to make heads roll. But right now, I need to be the smart one, remember all the details and not give him any reason to escalate this situation.” That’s what many of my colleagues have done, guns drawn on them at night in the middle of campus by the police. They didn’t get loud; they got smart. They defused the situation, then got pissed and did something about it. And, I assure you, they did so with much less juice than Dr. Gates.I remember when I heard about the story, I couldn’t help thinking: Wow, that Ivy League Effect has washed out his healthy fear of the police. Yikes.
Now before you say “Gates was in the right to say anything to anyone in his own home” (particularly when the cop is the one escalating the issue by continuing to stand there in the house after Gates had fulfilled the request to produce ID), let’s deal with the reality of being black in America in 2009, not in fantasy post-racial America that we want to see through rose-colored glasses. He should be able to say or do anything in his own home in relation to that incident. But to say there will never be (inexcuseable) consequences as a result in this country at this time, is serious denial.
I know my Mom always told my brother, when we were living in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn in the height of the crack-addled, crime-ridden 1980s, that you had to be careful dealing with the police because when they were called to a disturbance (if they showed up at all), even an innocent bystander, if he was a young black man, could experience getting a billy club beatdown –no questions asked –for just standing in the vicinity of the disturbance — or worse. A good slice of white folks don’t see the police as a potential threat, and that colors their perspective of interaction with law enforcement; if you grew up in an urban environment as a young black man, you definitely would have reservations about what would happen if the police showed up at your doorstep.
Phantom Negro is saying is that while Prof. Gates anger was justifiably angry because of the officer’s actions, the Ivy League Effect was in full force behind that anger.
Can he be outraged? Absolutely. The circumstance should outrage any person that happened to. But why is he outraged? Because he didn’t think the black tax applied to him anymore. In his mind, he was Skip Gates, well-regarded Harvard professor who was being treated poorly in his home by the police. Believe me, if this took place at North Carolina State his sense of indignation would be far different and his ability to garner attention would be much less. And if he was just a working-class stiff? Forget it.But this didn’t happen anywhere else. It happened in Cambridge on Ivy turf and now his story has taken on Paul Bunyan-esque qualities. If you didn’t know better, you’d think a lynch mob was waiting outside Gates’ door with the rope and the hitching wagon before Ving Rhames came along and saved the day.
Skip Gates thought that he’d worked hard enough, achieved enough, become Harvard enough that this sort of treatment did not apply to him. And now, rather than channel that outrage in a way that is subtle but effective, he’s very publicly suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, having “joined the ranks of the million incarcerated black men in America.” That’s laughable. He does not see those million men as kin and he doesn’t, by and large, give a damn about those guys. He’s merely annoyed that such an irritation as police misconduct found its way into his home. If he read about this story happening to a plumber in Roxbury, he’d shake his head in disappointment and then go on with his life.
I don’t know if I could be that cold in assessing Gates as not capable of empathy (I did meet him, but I obviously don’t know the man on a personal level), but his public reaction has focused solely on race and not how class colors the incident as well. Framing of the story in that light makes for a less sympathetic figure; that does not, mind you, take away anything from the fact he was the one wrongfully abused by someone with a badge. But no one can say that the cascading media circus has no connection to his privileged role as an academic superstar in the Ivy League. He can and has used his station in society to blow this up to a national story. I’m not saying it’s wrong or right, I’m saying it is what it is.
Certainly white academics who have the Ivy Effect don’t have to deal with their class privilege getting trumped by race. The altered state of denial for academics of color is easily shattered when they realize they are just any old common black man in the eyes of the oppressor, in this case law enforcement. Reality check.
It’s painfully apparent to me that many people don’t want to see the intersection of race and class in this story or just don’t want to talk about it. Really, it’s ok for this to be more complicated than, no pun intended, black and white. We already know that there is a serious problem with under-trained, hyper-aggressive members of law enforcement who use their badge and 50K volts to randomly terrorize citizens with little or no cause, and people of color are way disproportionately represented among the victims of brutes with a badge. Visit my Taser files. All I am saying is that a conversation about race alone won’t get to the bottom of the all the dynamics woven into throughout the incident, and that it was good to see this piece in Salon try to tackle the situation through another lens.
***
I am alternately amused and horrified by the “don’t you know who I am” nonsense in these insular pockets of society. I often wonder what that stems from — insecurity, being fawned over daily within their universes? It’s a strange form of narcissism I fail to grasp, and it bothers me because this arrogance usually means someone lower on the food chain than these people (usually assistants or working peons dealing with them) has to take a level of verbal abuse from these “important people” — particularly if they are tenured — that you would never see in “the real world.” It’s one thing for someone to recognize you and offer to buy you dinner or get you a good table at a restaurant, it’s another thing altogether to expect special treatment because of your “celebrity” or importance in your professional universe.
Take my grade Z celebrity status for example; I receive fan mail (and hate mail) regularly, I think one or two people asked for my worthless autograph. I am occasionally recognized in Durham, more so now because I write a column for a local paper, than for blogging. Some people have taken me for lunch or coffee/tea, etc.
However, when I go to blog-related conferences, it’s another matter — it seems so many people come up to say hi or thank me because they “know me” as the blogmistress of PHB, therefore my “celebrity quotient” skyrockets. That’s a closed, artificial microuniverse. I have the sense to know l am still the same person who is going to get back on the plane and go home to do laundry, get up and go to a regular day job where I am no treated no differently than anyone else and have mundane but important responsibilities of any other person in my office. I’m not going to walk into a local restaurant and bark orders at the waitstaff, or toss off the f-bomb at someone who “doesn’t know who I am” — it makes no freaking sense to me; it’s delusional.
It’s as if The Ivy/Celebrity Effect takes away any sense of self-reflection; people infected by this — receiving constant accolades, gifts and being stroked by syncophants — have lost their sense of place in the world at large. Imagine a room full of egos of that magnitude that at a conference or gala. Actually, I’d rather not.
Related:
* Cop in Gates case: I’m not racist – I gave mouth-to-mouth to black NBA player
* Prof. Henry Louis Gates tells CNN about his experience with Cambridge police
* Unjamming your front door while black? Scholar Henry Louis Gates arrested in home
69 Comments
But it’s because of his privileged status…that Gates can make a big deal out of the racial aspect of this story. He is largely insulated from any repercussions, he is not known for superficial media-seeking behavior on the order of an Al Sharpton or even a Cornel West. He has credibility, in large part specifically because he bears all the hallmarks of that Ivy League elitism. Isn’t he exactly the person who should be making a big deal out of this incident? If he were not, would folks not be castigating him for staying silent? (And, in fact, I have seen comments on Bilerico and elsewhere saying just that — that he should be making an even bigger deal out of this, given his position of privilege.)
There is a troubling tendency in the commentary on this incident to conflate the advice a caring mother gives her black son — understandably cautious, conservative, just-get-out-of-there-alive advice — with what a privileged Ivy League grown up black man should do (or should have done). The idea that he should have just gone along with being humiliated by a police officer — that’s pretty darn close to “he should have just known his place.” Good advice to give a boy or young man, but a terribly self-defeating and acquiescent expectation to have for a grown man, and one who is very privileged to boot.
And one final note: the only source we have for the “don’t you know who I am” quote is the police report. It’s certainly plausible that the famous professor said those words, of course, but we don’t know that to be the case for sure.
Thanks PamInteresting read.
I think what bothers me most about this whole situation is (what I see as) feigned outrage from Gates in the aftermath, as well as perceived deceitfulness of his actions (assuming he did agree to the joint statement put out earlier, why in hell is he still yammering on; if he couldn’t “yell” during the situation because of an infection, why does the pic of him really make it look like he’s shouting; he’s not going to sue — oh wait, maybe he is, etc).
I didn’t say he shouldn’t use his privilegeI specifically said it’s not right or wrong, it is there for him to use, as it was for the police officer with a badge to use or abuse. Gates’s use of his particular privilege has not been a part of the discussion, as if it has played no role in any way, for good or ill.
I just wanted to broaden the discussion because making it all about race alone isn’t helpful either. Race is one factor — and we desperately need to have sane conversation about that, as we all know. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean we ignore the use of different privileges of both parties in question and the dynamics that can flow from it.
I had one person on Pandagon say class isn’t relevant at all in this case. That’s incredible blindness to reality, and shows people would rather not raise the issue for whatever reason. It only signals that class is also a third rail issue, particularly when combined with race.
however, it’s not the same for everyoneWhite academics who have the Ivy Effect, don’t have to deal with their class privilege getting trumped by race. The altered state of denial for academics of color is easily shattered when they realize they are just any old common black man in the eyes of the oppressor, in this case law enforcement. Reality check.
While I agree that a class issue exists how much is too muchWho wouldn’t go to class or any other standard when feeling threatened in their own home. I am not justifying the issue because it is easy to see. However, how legitimate is it given the circumstances
“if this took place at North Carolina State his sense of indignation would be far different and his ability to garner attention would be much less. And if he was just a working-class stiff? Forget it.”
Come now, how is that not classism in reverse? “Well he wouldn’t have acted like that if he had ever been in my position?!” The man is in his own house and feeling disrespected.
Before we sweep over the issues about race and move on to something else, which seems to be the popular move these days on just about any racial incident, I believe we should explore one issue at a time. After all in many ways African-Americans have worked just as hard to raise their class profile in a society that has socially hamstrung many of these efforts.
as far as I knowI definitely haven’t seen race swept under at all. It’s been almost the sole focus of the story. It’s not an either/or or one should take precedence over the other, it’s the lack of any discussion about class and privilege.
That takes nothing away from the egregious behavior of Crowley regarding a man in his own home.
The Police Can Do No WrongOnce again, we have a cop, infused with the unfettered power of the badge and his taser and gun, setting up on a person of color trying to enter his own home.
This scenario isn’t new, nor is it unique to Cambridge.
Jim and I have a friend from college, an African American woman who is a Nurse Practitioner at a large, acute bed hopsital. She lives in a tony ‘burb of San Francisco called Foster City. She often works until 11:30PM and doesn’t get home until after midnight. Anyway, she’s been stopped by the cops while entering her own garage, walking out of her own garage and whilst walking toward her front door of the house she owns.
Now, conversely, I have never been stopped by the cops while coming home. Not once. Never. I’ve lived in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Phoenix and now, we live in New York. Yet, I’m invisible to the cops.
Isn’t it strange?
The class issues certainly make this case more complicated…In the situation of, say, a moderately successful middle-class black guy with a moderately nice car who gets pulled over because he “doesn’t look right,” it’s so clear-cut that the issue is race.
But in this case, some of the issue is race, some of it is class, and some of it is cop entitlement that might have been directed at anyone. And it’s tough to tease apart which thing caused how much of the result, and to figure out what the interplay was between them. And all of them are completely inappropriate.
But it makes the discussion tricky because people who don’t want to believe there was a racial element can point to the “Do you know who I am?!” comment, and they’re certainly not wrong that it probably helped set the cop off. But race has to be a big part of why the Harvard bluster resulted in handcuffs.
the neighborCertain reports mention that “a neighbor called the PD to report someone breaking to Gate’s house”.
the neighbor does not know her/his own neighbors? Where was the neighbor when the police show up? hey I watch COPS, and those guys goto the person who called in the incident then go to the scene of the alleged crime, and allegedly sort things out.
I thought there was something ‘more’ to this than the 4th estate was telling us.
thanks Pam
Diana–Maine
yep, we’ve seen over and overall around the country and outside of the U.S. just visit the Blend Taser files. There is a serious problem with under-trained, hyper-aggressive members of law enforcement who use their badge and 50K volts to randomly terrorize citizens with little or no cause, and people of color are way disproportionately represented among the victims of brutes with a badge.
I’m not sure the profiling training is working in some of these places, if at all.
Thanks, Pam!As someone who’s skewered academic pretensions in seven mysteries, I was glad to see you reference the Salon piece about academic privilege in its Xtreme form. As my web site puts it,
http://www.levraphael.com/myst…
I was even more pleased to see you thoughtfully discuss class, which is a dirty secret in America. That comes very much into play with professors from elite schools dealing with peons at other schools or even “townies” close to home. I’ll never forget the trenchant remark of a sophisticated European woman taking a class at Fordham (where I briefly taught) who met a new professor with a Yale Ph.D and said wryly, “Ah, so that’s Yale.” She was not impressed by how impressed he was with himself.
There’s of course another missing piece: Gates’s character, which I can’t assess since I don’t know him. But I suspect how he responded to the cop has roots in who he is (personality, upbringing, relationships, interactions with authority figures) apart from being a superstar professor, and apart from being African-American. How could it not? It had to be multi-determined.
Gates worked with white academicsand those in authority to get where he is today, so he certainly knows how to socialize in white society. Yes, I agree it is much more about class.
Reality? Check.But that’s the point, isn’t it — why is it not possible for people to consider that this situation actually was NOT about race at all, but about class & stature (and arrogance) only?
I’m not convinced that everything bad that happens to me at the hands of others is due to homophobia. Why can’t someone just be a jerk to me? So why can’t an officer mis-react to a situation involving a black man for reasons other than race / racism?
I really don’t think this was about race until Gates made it so. And he made it so not by the fact that he was black, but by the fact that he brought up the races of the parties involved. He did this, I think, as a shield to defend himself against his own arrogant, classist actions (“do you know who I am” etc).
But look on the bright side, Pam — at least he wasn’t tased!
The hand cuffing seemed wrongDr. Gates may have been angry, but that is not a reason to be handcuffed. Anyone can look at Gates face and see he is a gentle person. Wish we had a video of what happened in the house.
IDA few years ago when my (white) exhusband and I moved into a duplex with our children, living separately in both halves of it, he got locked out and had to break in through an open window. Someone called the police. When they arrived they asked him for ID to prove that he lived here. He did not show them his work ID, he showed them his driver’s license, because: A) That’s what they asked to see, and B) It had his address on it. I don’t think that Gates’ Harvard ID has his home address on it, so showing that as a form of ID to a cop is really all about status as opposed to showing that yes, this is my house.
the handcuffing was wrongThat was off the hook. Nothing Gates said or did warranted an arrest. He was in his own home. That was classic abuse of the badge because the cop was pissed off. He could have left after Gates ID’d himself.
The question is how the intersection of race and class were at work here, and there’s nothing wrong in acknowledging or discussing them both, it’s not like there’s a recipe for how much race or class is in the mix, but that those ingredients are both there.
re: the neighborI believe it was actually someone working across the street. Also, some folks on metafilter linked to the google maps view of the house, and there is a lot of foliage between the street and the door. So, I think it was reasonable, that the lady, having witnessed two partially-obscured men trying to force a door open for fifteen minutes, would then call the police.
For me, the problem starts when the police officer determined that Gates was rightfully in the house but then failed to apologize for the confusion, wish him a nice day, and promptly leave.
Blacks don’t own police abuse. Race, class are secondary issues here.
There is too little…if any…attention being paid to what turned racial profiling applied to a possible breaking and entering…that had been determined to the cop’s satisfaction not to have occured…. into an arrest for disorderly conduct ON GATES’ OWN PORCH….abuse of authority when that authority is challenged.
Gates only real “wrong” is making this only about race and “the poor” when
1. there is no reason to believe that this same cop would not have done the same thing in response to a person of any color or financial means who pissed him off. “There was a lot of yelling, there was [sic] references to my mother….”
THAT’s where “class” also came in…not just in the reaction of Gates that someone of his “class” would be suspected of any crime…or disrepected…but of the disrespect the cop felt…who probably is often made to feel that way in this academic fantasyland…and ended up losing HIS temper and pushed the ultimate “class”…POWER.
2. Gates is NOT poor so his using THIS incident to extrapolate to that generalization [however much truth there is in it in application to the actual poor] is intellectually absurd. [Though in admiringly thanking the woman who called the police because he, quote, has a lot of "valuable paintings," etc., in the house that someone could have been stealing he has stupidly made himself a greater target for future robberies.]
YES, race played a role in the cop’s initial suspicions about a diminutive 58-yr. old black man who has a greater resemblance to the proverbial owl than a robber of houses.
But, once that possibility was clearly resolved, it became a pissing contest and the cop was the pisser with a badge.
And, while the cop remains totally wrong in having arrested him on such a nonsensical charge…and for continuing to defend it [sorry about "your mama," Barney], Gates is pissing away the opportunity to turn this into a much larger dialogue about what affects EVERYONE of whatever race or economic means who doesn’t have one.
It’s almost certainly a policyI’m willing to bet a day of Gates’ salary that it’s CPD policy that when you arrest someone, for whatever reason, you must handcuff them. It would also be policy to pat them down, just like it’s policy that anyone riding in a cruiser in the back be patted down first, even if they’re not under arrest.
Re: Gates worked with white academics I think the fact that Gates was frustrated from a long day of travel, followed by dealing with a stuck door really set things up for a toxic encounter with the cop as well. I had an awful travel day once that started with missing keys and a delayed plane, and ended with the airport shuttle getting hit by a drunk driver a quarter mile from my home, and I probably would have screamed at anyone who showed up to throw another wrench in my works once I’d finally managed to get into my house as well!
that’s what it’s about at the elemental levelTwo people engaged in a power play and in that scenario and in that moment, the cop knew he had the trump card — the badge.
However, in the wake of the incident itself, it’s pretty clear that Gates has a trump card that far exceeded the cop’s, thankfully, which is fame and access to people above the officer’s station. There’s going to be an investigation, the POTUS actually weighed in on it in his favor.
Your average minority has no such juice and that argument could easily have escalated into a fatal encounter in the reality-based world. We know what goes on all the time. I’m thankful that Gates has the platform for opening discussion, but the conversation is getting bogged down in a way that is diminishing the day-to-day oppression experienced by poor minorities where showing an ID doesn’t necessarily stop an escalation into violence by law enforcement.
Great post …Intersectionality indeed!
jon
Agree…
And, again, that’s the disservice that Gates is doing. Things change only when the majority makes them change and they typically only do that through self-interest. It’s too easy for whites who aren’t below the poverty line…still the majority of the population…to tell themselves, “This has nothing to do with me. This will never happen to me.”
Which, in turn, means that the only people likely to benefit from THIS incident are blacks in Cambridge, and, even then, in direct proportion to their perceived economic/class status. It’s not addressing police power abuse anywhere else.
I agree with all of this.But doesn’t the badge also end up in poor treatment of poor white people as well? Admittedly, proportionately less often than minorities, but still. To put it another way, there are two overlapping, troubling issues:
1. Police abuse of authority;
2. Proportionally worse treatment of minorities by police.
My questions are:
Is it possible to discuss (1) and (2) separately;
If so, how can one do that; and
Even if it can be done, to what extent should it be done if the goal is to reduce both.
I completely agree…Especially this:
I have believed this from the very beginning. I also believe that Mr. Gates created the entire situation by thinking that the white officer showed up solely because Mr. Gates is black, and not because a possible break-in had been reported.
I’m also curious. Once a white person has been accused of racism, is there anything that they can say or do to prove that they’re not? As far as I can tell, I don’t think it’s possible.
Gates showed both Harvard and Driver’s Licenselet’s get that fact straight. And I think Harvard was even called during the fracas.
The license was to prove home ownership; the work ID to establish that he is no ordinary negro.
Excellent analysis, Pam.I must admit though that I’ve still thinking it all through and haven’t decided how I feel about the class-based “do you know who I am” aspect. When you said “it’s another thing altogether to expect special treatment”, my knee jerked because I don’t know that Gates wanted special treatment, I think he wanted decent treatment. Yes, that statement indicates a sense of entitlement on his part and expressed outrage that he, in his class, should be so ill treated. But he should be outraged, regardless of his class.
I think sometimes there is more to “do you know who I am” than narccisism (sp?) for people who live in the public eye. Being a well-know Black Professor or a politician or entertainer must be, I think, one of those blessing-curse things. You’re blessed to have some power to convey your philosophy and bend some of the rules of society, but you’re also cursed because everything you do is scrutinized by complete strangers who can never have all the facts. I don’t know – maybe what I’m thinking is that sometimes a sense of entitlement is at least understandable. If Gates had used “do you know who I am” like a smarmy politician trying to evade arrest after being caught with his nipples to the wind, that would be another matter. But here Gates was using it to demand fair treatment in the face of false accusations. Yes, he risked his health by arguing with a cop – even we whites know that that is a risky game. But somehow, even if he was using class to his advantage, I just can’t hold it against him. And I’m saying this as a person from the lower middle class. Maybe its my white entitlement that sympathizes. Who knows. Still thinking it through, as I said.
Finally, I’m glad he did this because look at the fantastic conversation to come out of it. Whether he was right or wrong in his reactions and attitudes, the fact is that if he had quietly de-escalated the situation as more prudent people might have done, a valuable opportunity for a needed national conversation would have been missed.
I still think jet lag fatigue had a hand in thisNot to excuse Gates’ over-the-top reaction, but when you’ve been out of town, you just want to go-the-damn-home. Anything will set you off.
Then it became a pissing contest. The Cop, hopefully with training and experience in confrontations, should have handled Gates differently. He didn’t like being berated by a middle-aged upper class black man.
If Gates had been coming home from having breakfast, rested and happy, he would’ve been calmer.
The Cop should’ve been happy that there wasn’t a burglary committed; less paperwork, no forced-overtime. He should have backed off instead of seeking more and more proof that the professor was who he was and lived where he lived.
“A perfect storm.”
More than race and class escalated this.
misread what I said
I wasn’t referring to Gates in this incident, but the petty mewlings of some academics who throw their weight around, usually at the expense of a lower level employee.
The “Do you know who I am” card was used by Gates to telegraph to the officer that, for example, he could have him fired, or disciplined if he didn’t stop harassing him. In that context it was appropriate, since the cop was clearly in the wrong. The cop received that message and decided to play his badge as a trump card — and that was not only wrong, but a stupid tactical mistake.
He had power in that moment, but he was not a match in the aftermath because Gates’s class privilege and celebrity was going to ensure the cop’s ass was going to be out in the wind. Rightfully so mind you, but my point is that I see a whole lot of “Do you know who I am” over petty BS that does telegraph “I want special treatment” because that is what infects academia overall.
Well…I like the idea of helmet cameras that can’t be turned off. A lot of these cases devolve into the word of the police against the word of the citizen. It wouldn’t necessarily solve things like “driving while black” because it (obviously) wouldn’t reveal the officer’s motivation, it would help in cases like this, since we’d be dealing with impartial video of the actual event, instead of the memories of two people who probably both had tons of adrenaline coursing through their systems and warping things.
I read an article a few months ago about a guy who had been hassled repeatedly by the cops, so he installed cameras in his car, and the next time he was hassled, he had video proof that the officer was acting inappropriately. I think it would do a lot to keep the police on their best behavior.
i see what you mean.you’re right, i misunderstood.
as an aside, it’s interesting what you say about academia. in my (seemingly endless) years in grad school, i was of course on the subterranean part of the totem pole that holds the visible part up. but since i wasn’t in a ‘sexy’ field (fisheries and wildlife), i didn’t see a whole lot of the special entitlement crap going on in my department that i know happens in more visible or better funded departments. so i count myself lucky. it was one thing to be at the bottom of the pecking order, it would have been quite another to be there and be treated as an inferior class of animal. my experience was that sex was the major sorting factor, f&w being traditionally a male-only field, with women initially only allowed in to study “human dimensions” (e.g. not hard science). happily, in my years there, i witnessed an amazing turnover of that sad old scheme.
trump cards
The problem is, this turns the whole situation into a power play. The cop was wrong, but… some cops are short-sighted power-hungry bullies. And short-sighted power-hungry bullies don’t back down. Police officers are the only people I address as “sir” because I don’t trust them not to abuse their power given the chance. I read somewhere an opinion that once you are talking to a police officer, you are in a violent confrontation and you are not safe. He or she may not have their gun drawn, but there is always the potential for that to happen, or for them to cuff you, arrest you, tase you, etc. And the cop’s word will always be worth more than yours in court.
So, I don’t think the “do you know who I am?” challenge was appropriate, just because stupid, wrong, disproportionate responses are to be expected from police officers. Gates should have done his best to de-escalate things even if the officer was rude, and then once that initial confrontation was over and Gates was safe, come down on the police department like a ton of bricks, with the full force of Harvard behind him.
This shouldn’t have happened to him, and it shouldn’t happen to anyone.
Just a plea for mercy…What a stimulating discussion, with so many thoughtful and thought-provoking posts! But why is it so acceptable to bash academics and assume they’re all egotistical twits? That was not the intent of Pam’s original post, but some of the subsequent comments have veered away from her nuanced argument. This smacks of the anti-intellectualism that’s woefully rampant in the US, and it implies that what academics do is not important or necessary.
“do you know who I am”I don’t read this as arrogant, just a statement of truth, especially since it comes not from entitlement but from a lifetime of scholarly community service. I doubt the cop expected to be discussed at the next presidential press conference. Certainly most victims of police bullying don’t get the satisfaction of having the president call their attackers “stupid”.
Why shouldn’t it be possible?The cop didn’t even try (arrest after ID was shown, 4 hours at the police station).
I do not believe ONE WORD the cop saidWhat’s being ignored in all of this is the endemic racism of Boston — especially its police force.
In such a world Skip Gates has no class. He’s just another nigger.
Isn’t that screamingly obvious Pam?
It wasn’t “directed at anyone”It was directed at a black man.
How did Gates “Make It so”?I’m really curious about that.
“Do You Know Who I A?” is Acting WhiteAnd as we all know, Pam, NAWS.
What was “Over the TOp” about Gates asking for his badge number?This is a right every citizen is supposed to have.
Of course, Gates being black, makes him not a citizen but a perp.
i do also cringeat the statement that academia ‘isn’t the real world’. that sounds too close to ‘gays aren’t normal’ to me. of course academia is the real world – a small specialized corner of it. of course being gay is normal, if rare. probable more people inhabit academia than, say, work for the national park service, but we never hear anyone saying that the nps life (an odd one, believe me) isn’t the real world. so i agree, anti-intellectualism can be another factor in Gates-gate.
what does ‘naws’ mean?
I don’t buy that mentioning this is anti-intellectualIvy League Effect could easily be renamed “Hollywood Effect” or “Politician Beltway Syndrome”. We’re talking about academia because of this particular milieu, but it’s hardly related to anti-intellectualism as this phenomenon is seen in celebrities and politicians all the time.
Think back to Larry Toe-Tapping Craig-he pulled his Senate business card out to present to the undercover cop he propositioned once he was busted, to indicate “don’t you know who you’re dealing with.” It’s about real and self-perceived power differential privilege granted by whatever universe the person has gained fame, fortune or power.
eh, maybe, but maybe notI’m not from Boston, so I can’t speak the level of institutional racism (Irene did), but I what history I do know about Boston, self-segregated neighborhoods and such, I can assume it’s no worse than NYC in the 80s and it was BAD. Corruption, not enough cops, and most of the ones there hated black and brown people and never walked a beat in our neighborhoods, just drove by as crack deals were done in broad daylight. When they did come in to enforce it didn’t matter whether you were poor, working, middle or upper middle class (in Bed Stuy it was a mix), you had to watch your back for any cop. The assumption was you could get cuffed for looking the wrong way.
i agree that this is classist stuffand that academia is as prone to it as any other realm. so let’s call it what it is regardless of where you find it: classism, narcissim, whatever. i know you don’t mean it to be, but i think that using the term ‘ivy-league effect’ is a siren call to anti-intellectualists, and we know anti-intellectualism is a huge problem in this country (see: preznit dubbya, sarah palin, etc.). too many people conflate intellectualism with classist snobbery and a sense of superiority or the gop favorite slam, “elitism”. sometimes intellectualism and elitism do go together, but certainly not always and not even most of the time (in my experience).
Gates’ going on and on and not continuing to ask for badge # calmly.And mentioning the cop’s momma; the low-road.
All well and good, butif we can’t limit our grand assertions to this particular incident, how about confining it to these particular actors?
With, what, 20 years on the force, the cop should have left a trail of complaints for excessive force or race-related police misconduct in his jacket. He’s a racist, after all, right? He couldn’t have hidden the effect it has on his policing all this time, just waiting for Gates to cross his path. With so many journalists on his case now, when will we see that evidence surface, do you think?
Pam i meant to addthat i don’t want to make a big deal over this – it’s just an observation and maybe an unappreciated thread in this whole knot. a reader emailed to say she thinks age is also a factor (an ‘i’m too old to put up with this crap any longer’ attitude that transcends race and class). could be, but i’d hate for the conversation to get derailed from the obvious overriding factors which i think you’re correctly identified: race and class.
“let’s get that fact straight”He does not own the home. Another case of assuming.
the neighborjust want to say that it’s sad that gates’s neighbor didn’t recognize him and was the one to call the police. was gates or the neighbor new to that neighborhood? this is an angle of the story not covered afaik.
Why do you assume that the person who called the police was his neighbor?and 2.)are you aware of how many people live on that particular block?
i’m not assuming anything.gates himself talks about it being a neighbor that called 911 (he has no hard feelings for her, he said), according to the cnn interview pam had up a few posts ago.
Yes you are/ You are assuming Gates is correct.She was identified in the police report only as a “caller.”
Irene Monroe in her racist diatribe elsewhere on this site claims the woman was not from the neighborhood. Almost everyone responding on this site assumed not only that she was a close neighbor of Gates, but that it was self-evident that people in any city would recognize all their neighbors, even from behind. And bear in mind, we have no indication how long the witness observed either of the two men, or how clearly she could see from where she was standing, before she called 911.
well you are right about one thingi am taking gates at his word and the press at their word that the caller was a neighbor. of course, they all could be wrong. if you find information proving otherwise, i hope you will share it.
I don’t know everyone in my neighborhoodor even on my street (which isn’t that big or densely populated).
One of the things in this case that hasn’t (to my knowledge) been refuted is that there were 2 men trying to get that front door open. Unless the person who called the cops had watched the men open the back door with the key and try to open the front door from inside, it seems perfectly reasonable that the caller didn’t know it was the homeowner and appropriate for her to call the cops.
Just because some people are lazy thinkers doesn’t mean we all have to be.The woman works in a building nearby. Might this change the knee-jerk reactions of the posters here? Probably not.
By the way, she reported one person trying to force the door open with his shoulder. Gates has reported that he went around back and entered through a rear door. Would it change anyone’s knee-jerk opinions if it was the driver she saw forcing open the door?
As long as she is white and the men were black, I guess she’s just SOL. Must be a racist.
By the way, Gates has said from the beginning that he doesn’t know the woman who called 911.Sounds like he was assuming, too, if, as you say, he claimed that she was a neighbor of his.
thank you Pam for writing this!Most people I’ve discussed this “episode” with are not looking at the class angle.
This is not the case to use for illustrating the permanence of racism. I’m upset that Obama chose to jump in the middle of this.
WellThe class privilege angle of this story definitely needs to be discussed, and major kudos to Pam for exposing it here.
But some of the commentators (in the media and on this blog) have chosen phrasing that seems to blame Gates personally for the fact that he, as a well-known Harvard academic, is somewhat class-privileged in a way that may, partially, set off the anti-privilege arising from racism. And I’m not sure if this is really fair – I don’t think Gates means to “use” this privilege, to “do a disservice”, whether that’s against fellow African-Americans or anyone else.
I think it’s a lot more correct to attribute the “don’t you know who I am” comment to the “microuniverse” effect than to any sort of intentional holier-than-thou sneering. (Especially because ANYONE in the midst of being arrested for entering his/her/hir own damn house will naturally have some emotional excursions leading to reactions that are not fully run through any rational thought process!)
Update: 911 Tape Released!Hey, just kidding. But since everyone else is responding to the Gates affair with assumptions based on their own experiences, instead of referencing what actually happened, I’d like to share what I ASSUME the 911 tape of the hapless caller will reveal:
Yep. As the transcrip clearly shows, that is one racist caller.
Next up: Transcript of tape of racist officer who responded to crime in progress call confronting respected scholar in his own home.
thank you, Pam!As one who’s now seriously weighing an academic career, I am doing so with great caution about elitism among academic towards one another and the lesser educated masses. The Gates rang academic-elitist bells for me very similar to, as you later pointed out, the invocation of privilege pretense by elected officials and celebrities.
As you point out, it is nice when someone recognizes me from one flash or another and affords me some advantage because of either my willingness to do scantily clothed modeling at 41 or my long memory of sex with scumbags from when I was younger…imagine if Gates had told Crowley “I can buy and sell your ass a thousand times over!”… My boyfriend finds this form of celebrity worship amusing–”You’re gaymous!”–while I wish it came with some Benjamins.
How far is the building where she works?Facts please.
interesting story today on NPR/WBUR’s “Here and Now”Here’s the text and a link, but I couldn’t get the link to work. I suggest trying again tomorrow — it may take 24 hours or something to get the shows up.
http://www.hereandnow.org/2009…
Recognizing this is from memory (because the listen link doesn’t work for me right now), my takeaway from this interview:
The (black) police officer said Sgt Crowley was justified in his asking for ID, verifying that ID, and verifying that Gates had the right to be in the house. As some, but very few, others have pointed out, once the Gates’ ID was determined, it’s still the cop’s obligation to determine if he was lawfully in the dwelling. Even if his ID matched the address, it’s still possible there was a restraining order out against him or something similar.
So it’s not just a matter of immediately leaving once ID has been ascertained — there’s still more work to be done by the cop. But most people don’t realize this additional step and are quick to rally against the cop.
Do you need to be spoon fed?You should be embarrassed. But you should also be able to do teh Goggle the same as me.
Remember, when Pam first posted this story, all we knew was that she was a “caller” whose suspicions were aroused when she saw one of two men trying to shoulder open the front door, which Gates said later is precisely what happened.
I’m waiting for even one of the posters who implied, or outright claimed, that the woman MUST have had ulterior motives for calling the police to stop back by this discussion and admit that even this most basic of assumptions was wrong.
I’m not holding my breath, because, of course, we have the very same racist conclusion drawn by Irene Monroe who appears to know the caller lived elsewhere: since the caller didn’t live in the neighborhood, she was somehow shocked to see a black man in such an upscale neighborhood and just knew he was a criminal.
Sgt. Crowley doesn’t look old enough to have 20 yearson the force, unless he started when he was 12. MHO
I don’t know about his looks. Crowley is 42 years old.Here’s what I discovered in slightly more than 60 seconds of searching:
He is a veteran with 11 years on the Cambridge police force alone, and years of police service elsewhere, as well.
I disagree with the analysis“even when you’re right, you don’t talk shit to the police. And that’s not a matter of manhood or pride; it’s a question of survival. Why? Because you’re black before you’re a Harvard professor. Because, in an extreme case, you can’t tell your side of the story if you get shot reaching for your ID.”
No, no, no. Gates was absolutely right to take a stand and not grovel before the power-play ego cop. Notice that Gates was not taken down or shot as we are warned. Instead, I guarantee as the 911 tapes come out (if they aren’t carefully edited to protect the cop), Gates will be vindicated.
Now that the cop has done several interviews, he has contradicted what he put in the report. He said he wanted to bring Gates outside because he was afraid the two Black intruders mights still be inside and a danger. BULLSHIT!! Did Crowley have his gun drawn to face the possible armed and dangerous intruders. No we walked outside to cuff and arrest Gates. I don’t think anyone even bothered to go back in the house and search for the two hidden Black menace burglars.
Plus it proves that Crowley had determined who Gates was and that he was the owner while Crowley was still INSIDE the house. Everything you see in news photos with the Black cop outside (supposedly proving no bias) was taken AFTER Gates was cuffed and arrested. All the witnesses that are now coming forward and saying Gates was wild and crazy only saw the event after Gates was outside. The confrontation where the cop spoke to Gates like a “boy” and wanted him to bow down all happened inside the house. It can be pieced together when the 911 tapes show the cop immediately determined Gates was the homeowner while they were still both inside. Watch carefully to see if the cops only release part of the tapes (after Gates was told to stop being uppity and then cuffed). Of course at that point, Gates was rightfully outraged.
Here’s the only other blogpost I’ve encountered that discusses the class issues of this matter:It’s written by a DC labor attorney who grew up in the Boston area and was the son of a state cop.
Here’s a relevant column from yesterday’s Boston Globe, written by one of the paper’s Black American columnists.