Professor Gates drinking a beer at the White House talkin' about racial issues in America with the racist cop who arrested him in his home. What a country."We hit it off right from the beginning. When he’s not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy." Said Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. during the get-together over beer at the White House.It isn't about race. -- It's about authority.
The cop HAD to arrest him, to save face and authority in the community. Right?
NO. This isn't about race. It shouldn't have been anyway. It should have been about the police and the state's right to enter his house legally. They did not. Gates had the right to tell the cop to take a hike - or come back with a warrant. Period.
There is absolutely no legal requirement to be polite in the defense of the right of being the sovereign of his own home and privacy. And such rights cannot be negotiated away over beer.i.e. Professor Gate's mistake was making about race (His epidermis was showing) not about his Constitutional Rights.
Professor Gates should have taken his stand on the Bill of Rights and not on his epidermis or that of the arresting officer, and, if he didn't have the presence of mind to do so, that needn't inhibit the rest of us.
Chris Hitchens
So, it's about race. The race card. Police brutality, authority, the 60's, the post-race president, health care derailed...Too much has been said about the Blue Moon, Red Stripe and Budweiser beer being served tonight at the White House.
Why Budweiser? Not something I think of sipping while talking about racism.
You see, a few years back Rev. Jackson led a boycott against Budweiser, denouncing the company for discrimination. TV crews lit up as he poured Bud onto the street with a sneer, pronouncing, "This Bud is a dud!"
But magically Budweiser was no longer racist once his sons were given the exclusive Budweiser distributorship for the North Side of Chicago. Then, Bud was not a dud. Bud had experienced a teachable moment, and Bud passed the test.
I wonder if the rest of us will.
Welcome to Chicago: USA.
Crowley: All right. Where is the poison? The battle of wits has begun. It ends when you decide and we both drink, and find out who is right... and who is dead.
ReplyDeleteGates: But it's so simple. All I have to do is divine from what I know of you; are you the sort of man who would put the poison into his own mug or his enemy's? Now, a clever man would put the poison into his own mug, because he would know that only a great fool would reach for what he was given. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose the beer in front of you. But you must have known I was not a great fool, you would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose the beer in front of you.
Crowley: You've made your decision then?
Gates: Not remotely! Because iocane comes from Cambridge, as everyone knows, and Cambridge is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as I am not trusted by you, so I can clearly not choose the beer in front of me.
Crowley: Truly, you have a dizzying intellect.
Gates: Wait til I get going! Now, where was I?
Who invited Joe?
ReplyDeleteThis latest debacle proves that Obamer is no Uhmurrikan.
ReplyDeleteA True patriot would drink a beer made for, by, and owned by Uhmurrikans!
A good Yankee beer like Sam Adams.
Mmmm.....Beer.