From the beginning it appeared as if there were inconsistencies in the stories of both parties regarding Dr. Henry Gates situation. And although Mr. Gates accomplishments are well documented and the enormous respect we have for him is well deserved the question remains, did he wrongly play the race card?
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was born on September 16, 1950, he is an American literary critic, educator, scholar; writer, editor, and public intellectual with many distinctions, but on July 16, 2009 he was arrested by the Cambridge Police Department on what he considered to be an act of Racial Profiling, though as more information came forward it appeared as if the Harvard Scholar may have misplayed the race card.
Police arrived at Gates’s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him after he 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.
Gates told the officer he was being targeted because “I’m a black man in America.” But it appears that Gates is too old to fit the profile of a break-in suspect and more so his national popularity makes it seem unlikely that he would be racially profiled.
The hugely powerful National Football League was founded in 1920 and has since grown into arguably the most profitable sports franchise in the world, but yet in spite of its success it continues to embrace an outdated ideology that unconsciously alienates its contributors.
In a day-and-age when quality leadership transcends ethnicity we are still experiencing double standards in how African-American athletes are treated by a system that has consistently marginalized the contribution of the black athlete, where major sports are heavily played by people of color but overwhelmingly under-represented in the board room the concept of fair and impartial judgment is often missed and the cultural biases that the groups of power have toward other groups make up the decisions for many of these executives. This is an ongoing reality that has cruelly villanized the black athlete.
The double standard can be as simple as mainstream media justifying the cruelty of Deer Hunting and maximizing Dog Fighting where in many instances the dogs used in these fight clubs go on to live full and healthy lives, whereas the deer’s are terminated and much of their flesh goes to waste.
But Michael Vick was used as the scapegoat for a criminal act largely done by southern white men and although he’s repaid his debt yet the NFL has decided to exact their own justice and extend his punishment by conditionally reinstating him, forcing him to miss an additional four games.
This is a mockery of our justice system! As if serving a two year sentence wasn’t enough.
Where do we go from here and how do we defend against such injustices?