If the Henry Louis Gates imbroglio makes anything clear it is that, in 2009, the mere implication of racial profiling in the arrest of a black professor on the nothing charge of disorderly conduct is sufficient to trigger a national (if not international) furor involving even the president of the United States. This incident shows us an America so chastened by its racist past—and so determined to overcome that past—that, at least for a moment, the national politics (health care, Iran, recession) stopped as the country combed over a six-minute encounter between a black academic and a white policeman.
I remember when another racial incident riveted the nation. It was the mid-1950s. I was just old enough to be sent to the barbershop on my own, and there one afternoon I noticed the men passing around a magazine. There were hushed whispers. “Don’t let him see it.” And then a booming voice, “Go ahead. He needs to see it!” continue ...
I remember when another racial incident riveted the nation. It was the mid-1950s. I was just old enough to be sent to the barbershop on my own, and there one afternoon I noticed the men passing around a magazine. There were hushed whispers. “Don’t let him see it.” And then a booming voice, “Go ahead. He needs to see it!” continue ...
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