Prof. Gates accepts Obama invite to White House

From the Boston Globe:

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said this evening that he would accept President Obama’s invitation to meet with him and Cambridge Police Sergeant James M. Crowley at the White House.

Gates said in an email to the Globe that he was pleased to talk to the president today and to be asked to meet with Crowley, adding, “I said I would.”

“My entire academic career had been based on improving race relations, not exacerbating them. I am hopeful that my experience will lead to greater sensitivity to issues of racial profiling in the criminal justice system. If so, then this will be a blessing for our society. It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience,” he said.

Obama extended the invitation today in phone calls to the two men as he sought to calm a national debate over racial profiling that reached a fever pitch after news broke of the white officer’s arrest of the black scholar at his home last week.

Hopefully this will be the start of a national conversation about racism. We can hope it will be anyway. The skeptic in me says it won’t do squat..but the forever hopeful side wants this to be a good thing for Amerika.

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A Conversation About Race…

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is starting up a new blog on race.

Blink.

This bitch is beyond curious to see how A Conversation About Race goes…particularly since The Post’s website, Stltoday.com, has had some….ummm, well ig’nant as hell racist bullshit pop up in comments to articles in the past. As a matter of fact, some of the comments to the stltoday.com article announcing their new blog are evidence that St. Louis needs to have some conversations about race…stat.

Lawd, give me strength.

Suffice it to say this bitch will be watching and reading closely as The Post attempts to move beyond the School of Tolerance into the real.

Buckle up, because this is sure to be a bump-based ride…

Crossposted from the Angry Black Bitch.

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Less a prank and more a symptom…

A bitch just read this article about the surge in racist acts post-election. The article is brief and describes the acts as mostly pranks that “haven’t posed any real danger to society or the president-elect”.

Although this bitch agrees that there is a difference between a physical attack and someone spray painting racist graffiti on a wall, I have to disagree with whether that shit is a real danger.

Racism and bigotry eat away at society. Symbols of racism and bigotry that are not taken seriously create the feeling of freakish agreement…that other people feel the same way and that the expressions of hate is okay.

But the real power of these so-called pranks is how they jump up in a person’s head.

A cross-burned under the cloak of darkness in front of a person’s house makes the victim question every stranger…her or his neighbors…and wonder who hates them that much. The victim wonders why their house was spared and what act will be next.

So, a bitch has little tolerance for those who casually dismiss acts of hate…who try to explain them away as unfortunate jokes of youthful misbehavior.

These acts have power and that is why they are being investigated and monitored.

But ig’nant acts of hate also identify a disease in need of treatment.

They can inspire the silent to publicly voice their support and those who are skeptical that racism still exists to question that opinion.

And they can empower communities to get about the business of doing the inner work required to advance beyond hate…beyond tolerance…toward respect.

All that is possible only if folks incidents or hate for what they are…less a prank and more a symptom of something real that has been festering below the surface.

And we have miles upon miles yet to walk…

Crossposted from Angry Black Bitch.

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did you ever?

Did you ever think this day would come? The end of this interminable campaign, of course, but even more astounding, did you ever think the day would come when this nation would allow a black man to get to this point?

I didn’t. I can still hear the pundits and the talking heads pontificating about whether or not America “is ready.” I remember feeling despair at the beginning, knowing how desperately we need a change of government, feeling frustrated and hopeless that the Democratic candidates were unelectable. Female, black, Mexican-American, new agey woo-woo kooky. It’s a measure of the toll the Bush administration has taken on my psyche that I would look at what was a very fine ~ exceptional ~ slate of candidates and find them lacking because they didn’t fit the mold.

On the other hand, I’d look at, and listen to, the candidates on the other side and my heart would sink even further. The sameness, the tired arguments, the overemphasis on national security, the very white, very middle aged, very pompous sameness.

As a social democrat, none of these people came close to my vision of effective government. Such is life in America. We take what we can get, and my support went first to John Edwards, then to Hillary Clinton, and finally, after the Rev. Wright thing and after his glorious speech on race, to Barack Obama. I am happy with my candidate. I am inspired by him and he makes me feel hopeful, comforted. I haven’t had any Kool-aid in years. I am simply capable of hearing what he is saying.

And what he has said to me is that he also has hope and that he believes in this country and the people in it. I believe we can make things better here, I do. Barack Obama is brilliant and an effective motivator, a consensus-building candidate who inspires and brings people together. It’s not “just words” when those words change hearts and minds and attitudes.

But more than anything, I remember how things were when I was little. I remember “colored” and white waiting rooms at the train station. I remember colored and white water fountains. Schools were separate and terribly unequal. In my little town, all ~ all ~ African Americans lived in Dixie Hill, the lowest lying area of that county, right next to the Arkansas River, which flooded every spring. I remember the absolutely casual and accepted expressions of racism. And I remember too well the hot rage that simmered after the Civil Rights Act and into the ’70s.

It is amazing and affirming and awe inspiring to see this happen. I believe that Barack Obama is a rare candidate, a once-in-a-lifetime combination of intellect, temperament, and ability. But that doesn’t change the fact that this election is historic and glorious. It won’t fix things and it doesn’t make up for our sordid past, but it feels magnificent and it makes me so very, very happy.

When I voted, I thought of my grandchildren and how even at 10 and 8, they have been aware of and involved in this election. They will come to adulthood in a world where a man like them ~ of mixed race ~ can take the highest office in the land with overwhelming support. I can’t think of that without crying. I know it will happen. We will make history. Si, se puede.

Crossposted at Big Ass Belle’s Place.

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