The arrest of Dr. Gates has prompted a lot of conversation of the current standing of race in the United States. Some of the conversations appears to be deliberative and thoughtful, while other conversations are the usual canned responses we see around any controversy. At this point, I hope mine are the former.
Everyone has had a different experiences that shape there world view, and before I begin here are some of mine.
Example OneI was in the Marines after September 11 and spent some time as a security augment under the supervision of the MCAS Mirimar Military Police. On my first night of watch I was posted at the north entrance to the base...and a Marine at the Enlisted Club pulled a gun on another Marine.
Corporal Scarfo, who was basically a doberman in human form, was able resolve the situation with assistance of Tanko, a German Shepard service dog. Three other Marines involved in the incident fled the E-Club in a vehicle and security at the North Gate stopped them before they leave the base.
The MPs stress level were through the roof. They knew a gun had made an appearance and did not know 1)if it had been secured or 2)if the other actors had firearms of their own.
And then two vehicles filled with people park outside of the North Gate and turn off their lights. The stress level ratchets up another level. There was a gang in San Diego that had in the past done drive by shooting at the MPs (it was believed it was done to initiate gang members) and you could see where 7.62 rounds had struck the cement barricades at the East Gate.
The MPs approach the vehicles and find out that the people in the vehicles are members of 3rd LAAD from Camp Pendleton some 50 miles to the north and are in the same platoon as the Marine that had been arrested at the E-Club. They state they want to make a statement.
Lance Corporal Gronehthal gets on the radio and speaks to Gunnery Sergeant Todd, the Shift Commander and was for all intents and purpose, the senior person on duty who made decisions for the security of the installation.
LCpl Gronethal quickly learned that GySgt Todd had told the eight individuals from 3rd LAAD to go back to Camp Pendleton and not to return to MCAS Mirimar. GySgt Todd ordered their arrest for violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1382, unlawful entry
into a military installation
(and probably for disobeying the lawful order of a Staff Non-Commissioned Officer).
The eight individuals were black and made it clear they thought they were being arrested n because they were black... And not because they disobeyed a lawful order by a Staff Non-Commissioned Officer to go back to their own base.
Every time I think of that situation I have no doubt that race played
no role in their arrest.
Example TwoI was having a conversation about racial profiling with a black coworker, D who had mentioned that he had been stopped while driving and harassed by police on account of his race, and the police had held him from 1 am to 5 am before they let him leave.
When I asked for details he revealed that he was stopped because he was driving drunk...
... as a minor...
... the wrong way down a one way bridge...
... and they let him leave without a ticket.
D insisted over and over again that they were messing with him. When I asked him
how he said by keeping them there for four hours.
I got a little heated and told him that they kept him there for four hours so he could sober up, after driving drunk and they let him
drive off without a ticket when by all accounts he should have gone to jail, lost his driving privileges and maybe never joined the Marines Corps because he stupidly put other people lives at risk and he thinks the police were racist?
The conversation kinda devolved after that. He started talking about generalities and I was focused on the example he gave me and we talked past one another for a couple of minutes.
But I don't buy it then and I don't buy it know. Unless he left something out I think he was way off base.
Those are two examples I have where I think the individuals have inappropriately injected race into a situation. Point blank, no other way of saying it, no skirting the issue there.
Having said all that, I have seen some blatantly racist people in my time. Whites that hate everybody, blacks that hate the Chinese and parents that are mortified if their child marries anyone that is not their own ethnic background.
There are a lot of subtle forms of racism (and other Isms) and the the most insidious ones is how people will take sides without knowing any facts of the case except the race of the involved actors.
Using the case of Dr. Gates, its almost like without any other facts, white people go one way, black people go the other way and both begin with their canned arguments.
And the facts are be damned.
One of the best examples of people pulling out the canned arguments was the
Ricci Case. Very few people read the decision or knew the following when talking about the case:
The test was created by an private organization with experience in creating hiring and promotion test. The test was based 40 percent on a written exam, 60 percent oral exam, as that was the terms dictated by the Firefighters Union.
The City of New Haven spent about $100,000 to develop the test, with an emphasis on making it race-blind.
The test was written at the 10th grade level. A candidate with dyslexia scored 6th out of 77 candidates.
The candidates were told what chapters out of what books they had to know.
The test materials cost $500.
All candidates had three months to study for the test.
There were 30 oral examiners. A candidate faced a panel of three oral examiners, two of the three were minorities.
The written was pre-tested on a sample that was skewed towards minorities in an attempt to reduce disparate impacts.
After the test, the private company requested and received feedback on their test. They threw one question out and gave everyone credit for that question.
For some, the fact that the city made such an effort to reduce the impact of race swayed their evaluation of the Supreme Court judgment. Others not. But what concerns me is so many people engaged in so much heated debate without anything more than the vapid talking points that had been thrown around for the months before the case was even heard.
Of course this is because people have a visceral response to racism, both at racism aimed at them as well as claims of racism aimed at them.
One manifestation of people being defensive against racism is the claim that minority groups cannot be racist as they lack a position of social power... they can only be prejudiced. (The argument also goes that women cannot be sexist, so on and so forth).
I don't buy into that at all, and no mater how academic and in depth the argument those people make, I still believe it is an effort to minimize their own actions and beliefs in an effort to resist change and honest self-evaluation.
As the post title indicates, these thoughts are still half-formed. There is no great conclusion, no nail in the coffin or anything like that.
The only think I have is wait until the facts come out before you make a judgment or take a stand. And when the facts do come out, play some thought experiments. In the case of Dr. Gates, play with the race roles in your head. Make both police officers white in your thought experiment, them switch who is black and who is white. Then make one black and the other a different minority.
And if one is
obviously racist while the others are not, take a look at yourself and your assumptions.
