CLGS

None of us African-American residents of Cambridge are surprised or shocked by the
humiliation and harassment Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 58, of Harvard University
encountered at the hands of Cambridge police.

My partner, Dr. Thea James, an Emergency Room physician who used to drive from
home to work was stopped all the time for “driving while black.” And when the
Cambridge cops realized she’s a woman, and a lesbian one at that, their unbridled
homophobia surfaces. Thea now takes the bus.

My girlfriend’s kids and their friends hang out at Cambridge’s Galleria Mall like kids do.
The Cambridge police in the mall stop my girlfriend’s kids and their friends; one white
and two Asians are not, because “shopping while black” is always mistaken as
shoplifting.

These constant shakedowns have been deliberately on the down low to the public because
Cambridge, proudly dubbed as "The People's Republic of Cambridge,” is ranked as one
of the most liberal cities in America. And with two of the country's premier institutions of
higher learning -- Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- that
draw students and scholars from around the world, Cambridge's showcase of diversity
and multiculturalism rivals that of the U.N.

Cambridge is also proudly known for a lot of firsts in this country. It was the first city in
Massachusetts to issue a legal application for same-sex marriage. It’s the first major city
in the country to elect an African American openly gay mayor -- Ken Reeves. And
Cambridge elected its first African American openly lesbian mayor in the country this
year with E. Denise Simmons. Deval Patrick is the first African American governor of
Massachusetts.

Cambridge is no doubt a progressive city. However, when you scratch below surface
there is also a liberal racism that is as pernicious, vile, and intolerant as Southern racism.
But unlike Southern racism that sees race and tries to keep blacks in their place, liberal
racism claims it does not. Ironically, Cambridge's liberal ruling class maintains its racial
boundaries not by designated “colored” water fountains, toilets or restaurants, but by its
zip codes, major street intersections known as squares, like the renowned Harvard
Square, and residential border areas that are designated by numbers, like the notorious
Area 4, a predominately black poor and working-class enclave.

It did not matter that the call to police by a white woman, who doesn't live on the block
let alone the area, stating that two African-American men were breaking and entering into
one of the expensive homes on a tree-lined street was not only false but actually Gates'
home. The woman’s call was her civic duty in preserving the neighborhood’s integrity.
After all, this was happening in the zip code area of 02138, which is Harvard Square.

And it did not matter that once Gates validated his residency to the cop with a legitimate
Harvard I.D. that the whole incident should have, at that very moment, ended. But instead
the arresting officer called the Harvard University police to once again verify Gates
occupancy in his own home.

Also, it did not matter that the suspected robber is a Harvard professor, public intellectual
and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius" award. (Some say this incident
serves as a cautionary tale to those who want to now define America as being post-racial
with the election of Obama.)

What was of great concern for both the white woman who called the police and the
arresting officer who eventually had to handcuff Gates was the shock and perhaps
outrage they experienced seeing this unknown black man in this well-known, high
income, and professional area of Cambridge breaking and entering into someone’s home
and not in the city’s known and expected troubled spot -- Area 4.

Segregation in this city is not only along race lines but also class. And poor working-class
whites and white immigrants do not experience the fullness their white skin privilege
would abundantly afford them if they too were part of Cambridge’s professional and/or
moneyed class.

Area 4 has been labeled a troubled area of Cambridge, an area plagued with all the
problems of urban blight and very little resources to ameliorate them. As a densely
populated area, its average household income was $34,306 according to the 2005 city
census. Harvard Square, on the other hand, had an average household income of $79,533.

Area 4 used to house the city’s police station. And white Cambridge police officers
assigned to this area unabashedly target and harassingly patrol neighborhood blocks and
activities of black male residents, young and old. Their reasons for doing so can easily be
attributed to the Cambridge Police Department’s lack of funds in its budget to do cultural
sensitivity trainings. But their reason is just as much about this country’s horrific racial
legacy between the two groups as it is also about Cambridge's liberal ruling elite
exploiting these tension by their claims not to see race--until of course, an unknown black
man appears in their neighborhood.

The tension escalated between Gates and Sgt. James Crowley when Gates flipped the
script on him. As the person-in-question, Gates exercised his legal right to also question:

“Is this happening because you're a white cop and I'm a black man? Is this why this
interaction is still taking place?''

The charges against Gates have been dropped. But many white Cantabrigians chiming in
on this incident felt that Gates was being uppity, feeling entitled, and exploiting the race
card.

And who would know better about this than them?