I’m Gonna Weigh in on the Henry Louis Gates Controversy

Henry Louis Gates speaks, originally uploaded by The Cleveland Foundation.

So much for a lighthearted Friday… But I’ve been listening to so much talk about this and something struck me right away that nobody has mentioned. As most surely know by now Prof. Gates was arrested when someone called the police as he was pushing in a stuck door on his home. Some are being critical of the Cambridge police and some are being critical of Prof. Gates. For sure, I believe, race to a certain degree was likely an issue with how he got arrested. But I have a problem with the neighborhood. Because I was thinking how this would never have happened where I live. Presumably it was a neighbor who called the police. And as they say it’s good to have folks looking out but on my block everyone knows each other. If I saw my neighbor Joe, black and often casually dressed, pushing in his door. I’d say, hey Joe what’s going on, you ok? It seems insane to me that this neighbor does not know what her neighbor looks like. Perhaps she saw the driver but I’d say this incident says a lot about the neighborhood of Cambridge, MA.