Colin Powell weighs in on the Professor Gates situation

[ecstatic]

Powell: Harvard scholar might have reacted quickly

WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State Colin Powell was mildly critical Tuesday of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose angry response to a Cambridge, Mass., police officer touched off a national debate involving President Barack Obama.

Powell, interviewed by CNN's Larry King, criticized the way Gates dealt with Sgt. James Crowley, a white officer who responded to reports of a possible break-in by arresting the black professor at his home on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was soon dropped.

Gates "might have waited a while, come outside, talked to the officer, and that might have been the end of it," said Powell, one of the nation's most prominent African Americans.

"I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal," he said.

But, Powell said, Gates was just home from China and New York and "all he wanted to do was get to bed."
...

Powell said he was the target of racial profiling many times and he sometimes got mad.

On one such occasion, he said, he tried to meet someone at Reagan National Airport "and nobody thought I could be the national security adviser to the president. I was just a black guy."

Asked how he dealt with the situation, Powell said "You just suck it up. What are you going to do?"

Breathless update brought to you by the AP. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090729/ap_on_re_us/us_powell_harvard_scholar

[Stephanie]

1. "Sucking it up" is what he's famous for.

Who cares what he thinks.

[scarletwoman]

2. +1 Exactly! (nt)

[lexanman]

3. Colin Powell belongs in a jail cell

along with his Fascist buddies.