This is a great, thoughtful and, most important, even-handed analysis of GatesGate, the incident where well-known Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates was arrested by a member of the Cambridge Police Department in his own home for disorderly conduct. Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse professor and author, casts plenty of blame to go around. He suspects some sort of lingering unintentional racism from Sergeant James Crowley, but he also points out that Prof. Gates is a Harvard man, and that his statement that if it could happen to him could happen to anyone is inaccurate when it's not just black men going to jail but poor black men.
Dr. Watkins is correct in saying that things shouldn't have gotten out of hand. How much of what really turned out to be nothing more than a pissing match was about a white man versus a black man, how much was about a citizen versus a cop, how much was about a distinguished thinker versus an earnest townie, and how much was about an ego versus an ego?
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