United States President Barack Obama said he regrets the language he used to comment on the issue of Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s arrest, the New York Times reported July 25.
Gates, a professor at Harvard University of African-American descent, was arrested for disorderly conduct July 16 by police at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gates had been trying to force open his own jammed front door when neighbours reported his actions as a burglary.
Obama added fuel to the fire when he stated at a national news conference that the Cambridge policemen at the scene, led by Sergeant James Crowley, had “acted stupidly” in their treatment of the black professor—comments Obama rescinded two days later.
It’s irable the President had the humility to it he could’ve phrased his remarks better. He also had a noble motive in trying to draw attention to the topic of racial profiling, an issue that has global significance and personal relevance to Obama.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the President has emerged as a champion of the black cause; this should be expected based on his own ethnicity.
But Obama fell short when he chose to comment publicly on an issue before knowing all the facts. The President’s friendship with Professor Gates likely fuelled his quickness to comment and clouded his impartiality.
Although it’s commendable the President was looking to create a teachable moment out of the incident, the story would have made headlines and publicized racial profiling regardless of his intervention.
The public and the press are quick to criticize Obama for inappropriate speech. But these derisive attacks—foregrounded against the President’s usual tendency to be a gifted speaker who chooses his words carefully—only illustrate that we hasten to judge when he slips up.
Regrettably the emphasis on racial profiling in Gates’ arrest has quashed any debate about classism. We should also be questioning the skewed belief that it’s unreasonable for a Harvard professor to be subject to the possibility of arrest.
It’s lamentable neither President Obama nor Sergeant Crowley has come forth to apologize formally, although Obama has taken the lead by recanting his earlier comments in the interest of reducing controversy.
It’s clear from this incident that stereotypical connotations of race persist and that tolerance is sometimes only skin deep.
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