just about everyone has preferences and prejudices. some are based on actual experience, others based on fear, misinformation and disinformation.
but racism is a problem of institutionalization, where one group has the power to take its prejudices and exercise them with impunity under de facto color of law (regardless what the laws on the books actually are).
That is what racism is, and that is what I was taught racism is, years before I was subjected to "diversity training" at the hands of hamhanded naifs and other forward-thinking progressives who want to move this culture in a different direction.
Current Massachusetts law (and obvious common sense to the non-authoritarian mind) says that yelling at a cop is not an arrestable offense or a crime. Two recent cases () have held that it does not rise to the official legal standard of disorderly conduct.
But. among other things, what we have in the Gates event is a white cop upset about being called racist, so he arrests Gates for yelling at a cop. On his own front porch, which most people consider part of their home and not public property.
certainly they both made prejudgments. Crowley initially thought Gates was a suspicious person. He was proven wrong. Gates initially thought Crowley's actions were guided by racism. Until someone shows me a parallel situation happening to a white man by a black cop, I believe Gates has been proven right. Since July 16 people have been searching for a SINGLE example of the situation in reverse. OTOH in the black community there are so many stories like Gates' story that it is practically standard operating procedure. therefore
you cannot equate Crowley's prejudgments with whatever prejudgments ates may have made, in part because Gates's prejudgments did not have equal power to put Crowley in handcuffs.
Crowley will NEVER apologize. It is abundantly clear that in his mind he has done nothing wrong. He does not see the racism in the series of prejudgments he made. He does not recognize that his abuse of power in that particular situation reflects institutionalized racism in one of its commonest (and most widely resented) forms.
And if I can assume that Crowley as a Republican and a cop has an authoritarian mindset, Crowley will never apologize because respect for authority is the highest value he holds: more important than respect for Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties, more important than respect for Massachusetts law, more important than the concept of basic fairness, more important than anything. Crowley will probably defend his actions for the rest of his life, believing Gates deserved arrest because people simply must be taught they cannot disrespect authority whenever they like. Even in their own homes, or on their front porches.
I do have trouble with the assertion that all white people are racist. However, all white people consciously and unconsciously benefit in small and large ways from the racism in the general culture. And one of those benefits is not experiencing the "driving while black", "shopping while black", "walking while black", "angry on your front porch while black" kind of police attention on a regular basis in your life and the lives of our friends and family.
Therefore, according to this institutional power definition, it is not possible in this country for black people to be "racist". Yes we have a black president, and a few second/third generation black leaders in majority black areas, but African Americans and people of color do not have institutionalized power, established over centuries, to impose their prejudices and preferences on the majority culture.
IMO that is the greatest fear of racist whites--that blacks, gaining power, would begin to treat whites the same way whites have treated non-whites ever since they arrived in North America almost 500 years ago. But the passage of a few civil rights laws, the singing of a few affirmative action statutes, the proliferation of mandatory cultural sensitivity seminars in the workplace, and other similar efforts over the last 50-odd years do NOT have equal cultural impact except on FRuitloop victim radio and Fox GOPropaganda Channel. Still they worry when they see Obama in the White House and think about Sotomayor on the Supreme Court and imagine more and more non-whites having their voices heard in the halls of power, they worry that the long-term maintenance of their institutionalized privilege is in danger.
It is my fervent hope that, before the anger and frustration genie stirred up by the Henry Louis Gates situation gets shoved back into the bottle, we will make this a teachable moment and have a national conversation about race and power. That, and maybe some policeman might think a moment before jumping on his usual power trip and wonder--maybe I should back off here before it turns into one of those Gates situations.
In the meantime, I wish that at least here in the capital of Left Blogistan we could stop talking about black people being "racist".
It demeans the larger meaning of that term to equate it with mere prejudice.
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