Thursday’s beer bash on the White House lawn resulted in racial peace in out time sheepishness on the part of reporters and commentators, who had inflated a symbolic photo opportunity into a “Racial Summit Meeting.” President Obama, Vice President Biden, Harvard Professor Henry Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley merely chatted over a beer in DC’s summer heat, as planned.
(Washington, DC) Thursday evening at 6:00 PM, three gents will share a beer down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The host invited two New England residents for a brewski and a “teachable moment.” Let’s hope they have the right lesson plan.
“Cambridge is the spirited, slightly mischievous side of Boston, located just across the bridge,” says the New England town’s tourism office, but don’t commit any “tumultuous behavior” there. Even in your own house.
Just ask Henry Louis Gates, Jr., PhD, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Returning from Logan Airport to his Cambridge home after a week in China filming a PBS documentary, Dr. Gates found his front door damaged. He entered by the rear door, turned off his alarm, and opened the damaged front door with help from the car service driver, who then carried in the luggage (Dr. Gates walks with a cane).
Professor Gates called the Harvard Real Estate Office to report the damage and request repairs when a uniformed Cambridge Police officer appeared. Professor Gates produced his University identification and driver’s license, both with his home address, and asked for the officer’s name and badge number. The officer did not respond, whereupon Dr. Gates asked other officers on his porch for that information. He was handcuffed and brought to the police station, where he was detained for four hours.
According to public documents, Dr. Gates “was arrested for Disorderly conduct after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior.”
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