Depending on whom you believe, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s arrest was caused because he was either a black man standing up for himself, or, because he was disorderly to officers who responded to a call because a neighbor mistakenly believed that someone was trying to break into Gates' home (actually, Gates was trying to break into his own home).
Obviously, I wasn't there and won't comment on what may have actually happened. But President Obama weighed in on this matter (also acknowledging he wasn't there), saying that it was "stupid" for the Cambridge Police to arrest Gates. Undoubtedly, Obama was recalling his own similar experiences of being followed by security guards or stopped by police that he recounted in his book The Audacity of Hope.
Every black person in America needs to hear this: These experiences are not unique to blacks in America. As anyone can see by the photo next to this post, I am as white as they come. But, as a younger man, I had been pulled over while driving numerous times, for no apparent reason (I was never ticketed). I chalked it up to the fact that I was young, driving late at night.
Even today, if I enter an elevator alone with a woman, and I'm not either shaved or dressed as well as I could be, she almost always instinctively clutches at her purse. Again, this is not because I am black (I'm not), but bacause I'm a large man, who might not be dressed in a completely unthreatening manner.
Crime is an unfortunate fact in America. We should not have to apologize for our instinctive responses to protect ourselves and others (regardless of their race or gender).
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