WAY TO GO PROFESSOR DUMB ASS!!
I'd be a thoroughly rich man if I could collect a penny for every word that has been spoken and written to date about the incident that occurred on July 16th that involved the now infamous Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates (pictured above) and Sergeant James Crowley, he of the Cambridge, Massachusetts Police Department, which resulted in Professor Gates being arrested for disorderly conduct. Unless you has been sequestered in the back room of a Chucky Cheese for the past twelve days since the incident initially occurred, being void of the benefit of access to the outside world, you know the particulars of this "He said, he said" debacle. Therefore, my reiterating the nuances of what transpired that evening at this advanced time would serve no further illuminating purpose. What really royally ticks me off is the persistent mindset of far too many African Americans (let's be politically correct here) who continue to go through life with a racially prejudice chip on their collective shoulders that consumes their day-to-day countenance. For God's sake people...give it a rest!
Yes dear hearts, there still exists in this country individuals, possessing the mental acuity of fermenting yeast, who regard any persons dissimilar to themselves to be despicably inferior and thus worthy only of pointed ridicule and ceaseless persecution. I get that...and I detest this predilection of flawed character in such debased individuals with every fiber of my being. But let's not forget that as a nation with have made tremendous strides in looking beyond the color of an individuals skin tone, as I would hope is evidenced by the election of a man of color to the highest administrative office in the land by a majority of American citizens of every ethnic stripe. Let one not also dismiss as incidental the now decades old institution of affirmative action that has bent over backwards to level the playing field for purposefully depressed minorities. Yet there remains individuals such as the ilk of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Lois Gates who continue to harbor a conspiratorial philosophy that within the heart of every white man lurks the desire to place the black man again at the rear of the bus and under the thumb of white society. I've got an idea...shut the hell up!!
I, admittedly to a small degree, understand racial prejudice, insensitivity and injustice. Have I ever been denied a place at a lunch counter because of my skin color? No. Have I ever been told that I couldn't attend a particular public school, or select a seat of my own choosing on a public conveyance, or be forced to drink from a separate drinking fountain, or told that because I was black that if I wished to watch a movie I would have to do so only from the balcony? Have I ever been roused from peaceful sleep to find a cross burning in my front yard, or witnessed a loved one being beaten within an inch of their life, or had my family ripped apart at an overseer's whim? The answer to all of these questions is unequivocally "No." But I grew in the rural south of the 50s where the school for the negro children in my agrarian community resembled something more akin to a dilapidated tobacco barn than it did to a school building. Where I was almost tossed over the protective railing of a fire escape to a coal bin thirty feet below by a insufferable bully in my sixth grade class who called me a "Nigger Lover" because I dared speak out publicly as a mere child against the inhuman treatment of blacks. So yes, I have some degree of empathy for the struggles that my black brothers and sisters have had to endure in order to be even considered and ultimately treated as equal participants in this country's promise and pledge of equality.
So, Professor Gates, let me state emphatically that you made a complete ass out of yourself, showing your true colors as a person of deeply rooted racial prejudice that is more intent on fanning the flames of racial tension than being the champion of understanding and cooperation between the races that you so erroneously and ingloriously purport yourself to be. You ought to be thoroughly ashamed of yourself, sir.
When you sit down tomorrow to have a beer with Officer Crowely and President Obama, you might wish to use that opportunity as a true "teachable moment" by being painfully mindful that jumping to conclusions not based in fact is a sure way to set back race relations by leaps and bounds. You might also reminisce on the words of the true patriot of racial harmony, Dr. Martin Luther King, who through nonviolence and enduring respect for law and order preached to his dying breath that a man is to be judged not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character. Officer Crowely demonstrated on the evening of July 16th that he understood that principle of human interaction. You and President Obama might now wish to get on board as well. That sir, would be long overdue step in the right direction on your part.
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