MEDIA FAILURE: Gates And Crowley Need To Personally Lead

[kpete]

Media Failure: Gates And Crowley Need To Personally Lead
By: bmaz Friday July 24, 2009 6:50 am

..............

The Crowley-Gates incident, however, provides a great teaching moment from both points of view, because each side made their point with classically poor conduct; we can all learn much from both. It is a perfect, and for once not tragic, vignette from which to discuss lingering and important issues of race in America. We owe both sides of the incident, Mr. Gates and Mr. Crowley, as well as the President and ourselves, the duty to take advantage of the moment and raise the discourse.

The media, and the citizens it serves, need to stop debating the legality of the arrest, because there really is no valid legal dispute there. The arrest itself was illegal. The national conversation should accept that, leave it behind, and move to the ground of what happened in the interpersonal dynamics of the two protagonists, what it meant to each other and what it means to our national collective. The dynamic occurring between Crowley and Gates takes place every second of every day between whites and blacks as well as police and citizens of all colors. Let the focus be on defusing the tension in every one of those encounters in the future through the lessons learned here.

It is time for Henry Louis Gates and Sergeant James Crowley, and the media that will cover them and feed their causes, to quit the personal posturing, step into each other's shoes and lead us to a better place. Their respective backgrounds should make them two of the most perfectly suited individuals possible for the task. If Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley are each the men they claim to be, they will start the process together and force the recalcitrant media and public to follow. Are they such men, or just the petty posturers they have each been to date?

more:
http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/07/24/media-failure-gates-and-crowley-need-to-personally-lead/

[Raschel]

1. If the arrest was illegal, why should Gates be expected to "lead us to a better place"?

Should a rape victim who wore suggestive clothing "lead us to a better place"?

Should a robbery victim who wore a shoulder strap purse "lead us to a better place"?

[tj2001]

2. RW Rule: It's the victim who must apologize

If you get shot in the face, you must apologize to the shooter

[Raschel]

6. And teach people how to "diffuse the tension" while being shot...

:puke:

[AuntPatsy]

3. I love this article on the issue at hand...after listening to an older woman

caller yesterday who knows both personally I would relish if this would happen...

According to this woman I heard on the radio yesterday she claims to know both, she lives in this area and states that racial posturing is nothing new, many black people have been taught to know their place and the arresting officer regardless of his attempting to save a black man or his teaching a racial profiling class to other officers is a well known racist in the community and it is well known according to this woman to every single black person who lives there...


She claims he has been heard many times that his only problem is that the black community who live and or work at the college have yet to learn how to behave accordingly....quite a few of his fellow officers feel the same way as do many in the community, now she states very strongly that in a way this episode getting the attention it is will finally open the doors to stop the abuse of power far too many have had to face from the local law enforcement..


You could tell she was elderly, she spoke very eloquently and at no moment did she ever raise her voice or even sound enraged..in fact a few times I heard her sigh as if finally what she believes to have been a huge problem for black people will finally stop...


Interesting how she described both individuals, she states the officer himself definitely has attitude and abuses his power and is very outspoken about his believing blacks should behave a certain way, and the victim in this case whom to me is Gates though can get angry obviously as we all can has never in her memory begun an altercation out of hand, she states he is just not the type, she also states she does not despise the officer with a sigh she almost acted as if she was simply use to such behavior from the local police department and until now never thought to fight it simply because she knew they would never win as she states it happens so often throughout the United states you could see she had just accepted such behavior to continue ...

Pretty sad...

[tj2001]

5. "Uppity high-falluting affirmative-action people"

exact words I heard from a Crowley apologist on talk radio this morning. Evidently this is how the Cambridge police view dark-skinned people at Harvard.

[BlooInBloo]

4. White folks win! We got them on the false eqiuvalence of "they're both wrong"!!!!

woot!!!!

:rofl: