When There is a National Conversation on Race, Black People Get it in the Neck

So, right now, the President of the United States, who happens to be half black, and the preeminent African-American scholar, who also happens to be half black, are sitting down for a beer with a police sergeant. The police officer is the person who will decide how the meeting goes, and the tenor of the resulting media coverage, because he is white, and that gives him the privilege of saying whether the black President and professor were sufficiently deferential and respectful of the authority inherent in the color of his skin.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't think this is going to end well.

Comments

[Eric Martin]

...because he is white, and that gives him the privilege of saying whether the black President and professor were sufficiently deferential and respectful of the authority inherent in the color of his skin.

Really.

[Mithras]

Yeah.

The press treated Crowley as the key to this interaction. He was presumed to be the one authority in the situation who was blameless; everything else was "racial tension" or "misunderstanding" - that is, a problem created by black people. He was presumed to be the authority, despite the position and credentials of the men he was meeting. He was presumed to be both correct and truthful in his version of the arrest of Prof. Gates. White America gave Crowley its support and the media followed along.