Beginning To Unpack Race, Class, and Privilege in the Case of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

I’ve been mulling over the incident regarding Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. over the last few days and I fell like there is a lot to unpack regarding the intersections of race, class, and privilege here. If you aren’t familiar with the incident, Dr. Gates was arrested last week after someone called and reported an attempted robbery into his home. It turned out that Dr. Gate’s himself was trying to get his own door open, but after an altercation with the cops, Gates found himself arrested. There are, as usually is the case with incidents where the police are accused of wrongdoing, two quite different versions of events.

Now, I’m pondering questions of Class and Privilege in this incident at the risk of seeming to minimizing the very real disproportionate abuse and harassment of people of color in the hands of police officers. I want to make it clear that under no circumstances can I condone Professor Gate’s arrest. That said, I found myself alarmed at what I perceived (rightly or wrongly?) as the notion that what outrages is not so much that a black man was arrested for trying to get into his own home, but that a prestigious Harvard Professor, who also happens to be black was arrested for trying to get into his own home. There are more than enough examples of police abusing people of color just over the past six months. Why did this incident gain so much currency amongst the blogs, the media, the Twitterers? Why is President Obama being asked to weigh in on this incident and not, say, the Oscar Grant murder?

I suspect that it all boils down to class and status privilege with who is often deemed worthy of our outrage.

The police report alleges that Professor Gates said something along the lines of “you don’t know who you’re messing with.” The claim is questionable only because it’s a “he said/he said” situation, and it wouldn’t be the first time a cop has lied on a police report to cover ass. Is it really that unthinkable that Gates would say this, though? I have a hard time believing that Gates was not fully aware that he was going to come out of all this relatively unscathed. Professor Gates surely knows who that cop “was messing with.” He had to know that he could count on the best legal representation you can get; he had to know that he would have an outpouring of support based on his reputation as a distinguished scholar. In other words, he had to know that he wasn’t going to find himself face down on the ground with a cop’s knee in his back; he had to know that he wasn’t going to be tasered for tumultuous behavior; or worse, find himself dead. The point being: while I feel that Gates was done wrong, I have a hard time seeing him as the poster child for police abuse of black people. There most certainly were racial overtones to his treatment, but ultimately the affront upon Professor Gates was one of class and status. He’s not one of those working-class or poor people that probably “brought it upon themselves.” He’s distinguished, damnit! And so we must be outraged!

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, I also need to say a few things to ward off the inevitable:

Do not take this post as some sort of affirmation of a post-racial United States. This is where class and race intersect, and it is much more complicated than that half-assed, simple-minded notion. Don’t go there.

I still feel that Professor Gates was done wrong. This isn’t an “hate on Gates” post. This is me trying to scratch the surface of what is going on. I write this because I don’t want to see anyone, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation have to put up with stuff like this. I write this because a lot of us would never get off as easily as Professor Gates did.

This is one of those posts that I’m putting out there for serious discussion. I’m not saying that I have it all figured out. Let’s talk. I won’t, however, put up with the usual drive-by comments from people that want to display their bigotry under the guise of free speech. This post, and all others following will be heavily moderated. Don’t come with the bullshit and I won’t delete you.

For Those Lucky Enough To Be in NYC

There’s a party goin’ on!

It Is Better To SPEAK! Listening Party

Live readings by contributors Mamita Mala and Black Amazon

Saturday, May 16, 2009 – 7:00pm – 9:00pm

This party will take place in Brooklyn. For the address, please RSVP to katie@alliedmediaconference.org

All are welcome. Bring a friend and spread the word!

Who is Speak!?

Speak! is a women of color-led media collective. In the summer months of 2008, they created a CD compilation of spoken word, poetry, and song. After months of hard work, they are excited to finally share their first self-named album with the world! With artists and poets from all over the country, the Speak! CD is a testament of struggle, hope, and love. Many of the contributors are in the Radical Women of Color blogosphere and will be familiar names to you. Instead of just reading their work, you’ll be able to hear their voices.

Proceeds of this album will go toward funding financially restricted SPEAK! member activists wanting to attend the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI this July. This is our own grassroots organizing at its finest with financial assistance from the AMC. Here it is, ready for your purchasing!

You can buy the CD here.

It’s gonna be good. I promise.

PETA Continues Their Sharp Decline

That is, if they haven’t already hit rock bottom.

Now don’t get me wrong. I love sex and I love being a vegetarian. I wouldn’t give up either for the world; but this whole using sex women’s bodies to get people men to be vegetarians thing is annoying and stupid and insulting and degrading–to all parties involved. And yes, I really do believe that these ads are all about the menz. Witness the Super Bowl ad that was recently rejected by NBC:

‘Veggie Love’: PETA’s Banned Super Bowl Ad

Not that this point hasn’t been made, oh, about a zillion times.

But I wonder if the folks at PETA understand that they are playing into stupid and stereotypical gender stereotypes by focusing so much of their ad campaigns on men getting laid?

Too Hot for TV: PETA’s Banned Ads

I can’t think of how many times I’ve had conversations similar to this:

Meat Eater: “You’re a vegetarian? So what, did your girlfriend make you?”
Me: “No. Actually my girlfriend eats meat. I was a vegetarian before we even met.”
Meat Eater: “Wait! You’re the vegetarian, and your girlfriend eats meat?!”
Me: “Um, yeah…”
Meat Eater: “That’s fuckin’ weird!”
Me: “Why?”
Meat Eater: “Well, ’cause…y’know…”
Me: *Sigh*

The underlying assumptions behind these ads don’t challenge the status quo. They merely reinforce the tired stereotypes that men, being all “Me horny and me want meat!” won’t become vegetarians unless they’re going to get something out of it–mainly sex–and that only scantily-clad women–unicorn and dolphin loving people that they are (WTF?)–can get men to become vegetarians by either offering sex (but make sure it’s during half-time!) or belittling their “manhood.” Heaven forbid someone becomes a vegetarian because they’ve come to simply believe that eating meat is wrong (or for that matter, for health reasons or they just don’t like meat).

I’ll leave the heteronormativity of all this for another post.

The Exact Same Logic As The People Who Started The Slave Trade

I caught this one via Villager and via Tariq Nelson. It’s a documentary on the contrasting styles of manhood displayed by Barack Obama and 50 Cent. I’m uncomfortable with the notion of a “real man” that seems to permeates the discussion, but I find the documentary to have a lot of compelling points.

“The black, gangster, masculine figure employs the exact same logic as the people who started the slave trade.”

Watch. What do you think?

Dear DL Hughley

Shut up! STFU! You are not funny. You are not politically insightful. And don’t think I forgot that “b…b…but…they ARE ugly, nappy headed hoes” shtick you pulled on Jay Leno’s show. So, I will say that you ARE a sexist asshole.

P.S. to CNN: What the hell where you thinking?

With warmest regards,

Kevin

Uncle Barack, President?

You’ve got to be kidding me? I did not just read this? Did I?

Y’know there’s a reason I so frequently take time off from the internets. Shit like this is gonna cause me to have a heart attack.

Ahh…there we go again with that intent. Doesn’t matter that you acted like a racist asshole because you never intended to act like a racist asshole. Yeah, right. And besides, it’s satire, people. Can’t you take a freakin’ joke? It’s satire just like this. And Aunt Jemima pancakes taste good! Hey, at least Uncle Ben was given a promotion, right? Not that he deserved it or anything. Didn’t Uncle Ben learn how to cook at a Madrasah?

From Slate: Uncle Ben, CEO

This is coming out of the Family Research Council, y’all–not some frat boy at some college. These people have clout! This is Family Values to these people. I refuse to believe that given the well-documented history of racist imagery used in this country to keep people of color down that these folks didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Just as I refuse to believe that anyone can call a black person uppity, or a black man boy, and not know what they are doing. This is not innocent humor. This is becoming a war on people of color for political gain and profit. The subtlety is gone. I dread what the next six months will bring.

Who Is This?

Some people are telling me that it’s Beyonce, but last I checked, this was Beyonce:

Hmmm…something’s not right here. Follow those links above if you can’t figure it out. Actually, follow those links above regardless of if you can figure it out.