The media once again has engaged in irresponsible, mindless, slanted commentary and reporting. This time the commentary and reporting was surrounded around the recent controversy with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates. Professor Gates was wrongly arrested for disorderly conduct by yes, a rogue police officer after the officer responded to a possible break in call. Professor Gates arrest was not valid because he provided his identification that proved his ownership. Also under Massachusetts law, a person cannot be charged for disorderly conduct (no matter how irate they are) while they are residing on their own property. The president for the first time in a long time inspired me with his initial courageous stance when he said the rouge cop acted "stupidly" while stressing the importance of stopping racial profiling against minorities. But then as a result of the corporate white media’s irresponsible commentary, reporting, and blathering, Obama caved and scaled back his comments and is now trying to be buddy buddy with the rogue cop. Big surprise. A white police officer tried to put Gates in his place by unjustly arresting him, and the corporate white media has successfully put Obama back in his place for addressing racism in this country.
"How do we know this is really about race" MSNBC’s Mika asked. Her inane question only led to a pointless discussion amongst talking heads that only muddled a relatively simple point: An African American was unlawfully arrested-again! Lou Dobbs had his "face off "discussion with an overt right wing hack, and a conciliatory unknown black radio talk show host. Both came to the unanimous conclusion that Obama made a poor choice of words by calling the officer’s actions stupid, despite the fact that the officer’s actions were- stupid. And of course on Fox, well you take a guess. The most insulting thing in this whole mess is how Obama is now pandering to this rogue and possibly racist cop by suggesting "getting a beer" together or whatever. How cute and post racial of Obama-I hope when I screw up at my job I get such an invitation.
The most damaging thing in this whole mess is the white media’s spin and Obama’s back peddling will only reinforce police of their abusive power over blacks, and this will contribute to more blacks being exploited by the cops. Also, because so many African Americans have a desperate need to believe in Obama they will give him the benefit of the doubt for dismissing us like this. This scares me. What officer Crowley did was stupid and maybe even racist- he should not be getting coddled by the president. Unless something changes, Black Americans will continue to have to put aside the issues that disproportionately affect us, and possibly subject ourselves to police brutality all so president Obama can appease the white media and white America, while I guess, having a beer. The saga continues.