by Nadra Enzi

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, noted Black scholar and recent arrestee, is usually as menacing as a care bear or other stuffed doll. That’s why news of his arrest by Cambridge, Mass. police was so surprising. Most Black liberal middle class professionals suffer traffic stops but few get the steel bracelets, unlike poorer peers per capita. His allegation that this incident was racially based as touched off yet another tortured debate about race and racism in America.

I’m on record as opposing racial profiling and also as a supporter of enhanced police/community partnerships in the inner city. It’s no secret how bad Black male relations with law enforcement have been. The opportunity rests in writing new history divorced from this dismal past.

When the President said the officer involved acted “stupidly” he handed the GOP and the Police Lobby ample ammo for use in the next Congressional election cycle. My only complaint with dear fellow Republicans is where is your outrage when a Black man has unquestionably been the target of police brutality? It’s not always our fault in these scenarios.

While it’s great to support the police, it’s also great to support citizens who sometimes find the only offense being the darkness of their skin and nothing else. President Obama shocked me by his choice of words for several reasons. While it’s okay for a “Muslim anarchist” like me (as some haters hiss behind my back) to occasionally speak harshly of the police, when our highest elected leader does it, a major ripple is sent through most folks notion of civil order.

The last time a Chief Executive approached this level of frankness was when then-President Bush Senior emotionally explained his anguish at the first Rodney King defendants acquittal to his grandchildren, with particular reference to their “little brown faces” given their Latino heritage. The second element of shock consisted of Mr. Obama’s relative silence regarding discrimination claims made by folks whose backgrounds don’t include Harvard and international acclaim.

One hopes the standard for presidential civil rights activism isn’t limited to the wealthy and well connected. My hope is he doesn’t share the classism rampant about college educated Black professionals who see themselves as an anointed elite over the rest of us. Here is yet another opportunity for a brothers and badges dialog where both sides meet and openly discuss perceptions instead of talking about each other from over the divide.

Public safety is a barometer of where a group stands in society. Many in the Black community immediately state this episode shows how even status and celebrity are no defense from racism. Our brothers and sisters with less melanin often see things differently. As tempers flare the hope for a society divorced from the limiting thinking of yesteryear drifts further away,despite the color of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’s current occupant.

Dr. Gates stature and backers assure him far more remedy for this situation than low income brethren whose relationship to the Ivy League often is when last they washed with a bar of Ivory soap. His recent arresting performance does nothing to improve relations between police and the huge majority of Black men who aren’t friends with the President and whose equal justice concerns never quite make it to prime time. Out job is to change that reality.

NADRA ENZI AKA CAPT BLACK promotes crime prevention and self-development alongside his STREET TEAM OF AMERICA (very) concerned citizens group . His email address is nadracaptblack@ymail.com NADRA ENZI 22 WEST BRYAN STREET #133, SAVANNAH, GA. 31401 AND (912) 272-2898.