Black, white and grey in Boston

here is a certain preordained futility in writing about race in America. If you hope to persuade, you are usually just wasting computer memory.

That said, the sergeant’s account of the events rings true. He didn’t know if Dr. Gates was the victim of a home invasion or just a homeowner who had lost his keys. Might an intruder be in the house unbeknown to Dr. Gates or perhaps threatening him? The police officer is there to ascertain the facts. I’m sure that this officer has been confronted with race-tinged hostility on other occasions. What happened here? We don’t know.

While I suspect that Professor Gates jumped to the wrong conclusion concerning this event, his response was drawn from a lifetime of experience, not a moment’s. Gate’s journey started in West Virginia in the fifties and encompasses twenty years in Boston. When the definitive history of race relations in America is finally written, Boston will not be one of the happy chapters. It would be naive to think that either man can or should leave their baggage (personal experience) at home.

Dr. Gates isn’t a professional race baiter. His views, while hardly conservative, are characterized by thoughtfulness and he has publicly taken positions that conservatives have wholeheartedly endorsed.

Sergeant Conway defended himself (against all advice I’m sure) and I have to admire that. Back during the Reagan era, Iran-Contra hearings, George Schultz alone testified without counsel at his side, monitoring every word. I was pretty sure that I was detecting honesty then and I think it is probably true here. If the facts support you, no lawyer’s advice should silence you.

Dr. Gates probably misread some of the interaction and then Sgt. Conway personalized it. I find both reactions regrettable and understandable. Sometimes we just get it wrong. There are events that truly have larger implications. This is not one of them.