The story:
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling. Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed. He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had “no idea who he was messing with,” the report said.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.
Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.
He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had “no idea who he was messing with,” the report said.
… The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook some members of the black Harvard community. “He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,” said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates about the incident Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.” Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.”
…
The arrest of such a prominent scholar under what some described as dubious circumstances shook some members of the black Harvard community.
“He and I both raised the question of if he had been a white professor, whether this kind of thing would have happened to him, that they arrested him without any corroborating evidence,” said S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor who spoke with Gates about the incident Friday. “I am deeply concerned about the way he was treated, and called him to express my deepest sadness and sympathy.”
Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.”
Link to the original news story.
Link to Gates’ statement.
Link to the police report
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I have to blog about this.
In a certain leftist website, on a certain discussion board, there have been two recent threads on trans issues.
The first, started by a trans ally in the feminist forum, was about the exclusion of trans women from the new Vancouver Women’s Health Clinic.
Link to thread.
The level of discourse on the thread, on which nobody self-identified as trans, went from arguments such as “what’s to stop any man from claiming he’s a woman to access services?” to “women are defined by our woman bits”. Basically, between and amongst the few allies and supporters and anti-oppression people, a bunch of transphobic, trans-ignorant and downright hurtful assholes.
I met Uzma several years ago, at a pan-asian conference in Vancouver. At the time she was the ED of CASSA, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians and I was on the board of CCNC-TO (Chinese Canadian National Council- Toronto Chapter). She was funny, she was smart as hell, and she didn’t put up with any guff.
Uzma recently wrote an article for the Toronto Star entitled “Immigration’s Tough New Face”.
Now, I write a lot of critiques (that’s a nice way to put it) about the corporate media, including the Toronto Star. Here is a rare chance to see me say something nice about the Star. Enjoy this moment. It won’t last long.
I guess it’s time to ‘fess up about a quirk of mine.
We all have those things, those pop culture things, for which we have to turn off our critical brains, switch off our rocking analysis and simply be entertained. Some friends of mine love action movies, some love sci fi/fantasy. As a Trekkie I understand. But one of my escapes has been my shameful secret until now.
I like rom coms.
Worse, I like schlocky Hollywood-style BAD rom coms.
Please don’t judge me.
Amongst my favourite rom com actors is Sandra Bullock, so when I saw my first ad for the movie “The Proposal” (while watching the Oscars earlier this year), I knew I would see it.
It received horrible reviews, so I knew what I was getting into when me and my friend A made our date for dinner and a movie last night.
Oh the lack of humanity.
The “plot” is that they work in publishing, hardworking sincere “everyman” Andrew is bitchy, mean Margaret’s executive assistant. A few early scenes show us what a horrible person she is, and that everyone hates her, including him. When she comes into the office people text things like “It’s here” and “The witch is on her broom”. She’s a Canadian and learns she’s about to be deported. She decides to force Andrew to marry her, and in a moment of faking the legitimacy of their relationship in front of the immigration officer, invites herself to his family’s celebration (in Alaska) of his grandmother’s birthday.
Bla bla they fall in love by the end.
Great. Sounds like a lovely waste of time for me and A. Turn off the brain and away we go.
But. There was racism.
Nalo Hopkinson is a writer who lives in Toronto (most of the time?) who I had the pleasure to meet a few times during my tenure at the Toronto Women’s Bookstore. I also took a writing workshop with her a number of years ago.
This video clip is a short, profound and rich comment on what it means to notice race and other differences.
You Tube clip here.
What I love about this piece is that she names some of the places that she struggles.
Often when doing the work of anti-oppression education, I find that people respond to me as if I’m somehow presenting myself as perfect, that I’m judging them or pointing fingers, saying they’re bad people, etc. When I reveal early on that unpacking oppressive ideas and thoughts and actions is a lifelong commitment, that I struggle with issues and with noticing my privilege, that it’s the commitment that matters, the engagement, the openness to being wrong, to making mistakes, and to learning, then some lights go on.
Nalo also talks about making mistakes. This is such an important point. A strong value in Canadian society is to not make mistakes, ever. If you do you’re stupid, etc. But this work is fraught with mistakes. To engage in this project ethically and deeply will bring about mistakes. It is in fact from our mistakes that the most profound learning and changing can emerge.
Thank you Nalo. Your words are powerful. Thank you for your gift to us.
