Subscribe to Breaking NewsWithers: What makes the news gay?
One of the pleasures of writing here is the occasional fit some have over an entry they feel isn’t particularly gay. People will announce they come to 365 to read about gay stuff and anything else ruins the morning coffee. I’ve never understood the whole news segregation thing, but there is much I don’t get or appreciate (still wondering why anyone listens to Madonna or cares about the ramblings of a beauty pageant contestant).
Yesterday there was a lot of chatter about the Henry L. Gates post. A few wondered why it was here. Complaining about a post on a black guy’s troubles with the law is like a black guy moaning gays never had to sit at the back of the bus. Both grievances are based on the assumption that gay equals white. There were many gays during Jim Crow who could not choose their bus seats. They were gay and black. A number of black and brown gays and lesbians might want to know about the Gates saga because they too have had run-ins with the police. Like comedian Paul Mooney quipped: if you are black and live in America you have a police story.
But moving beyond the standard racial calculus, yesterday’s post is important to the “gay community” because the behavior of the police is of immediate concern to all gays and lesbians, no matter our racial backgrounds. The treatment of Chad Gibson should have made that clear. Gibson was beat down by officers of the state because he had the nerve to think drinking water in a gay bar wasn’t a crime. I’m sure those accusing Gates of bringing it all on himself, were filled with outrage over Gibson’s treatment and the initial response of the Fort Worth police chief. Those same outraged folks never called Gibson arrogant, opined the whole affair never would have happened if Gibson just did what the officers asked, or took the police account of Gibson’s attack as the gospel.
No tears for Gates though. He has access to power that Gibson can only dream of (is the Fort Worth case even known outside of the LGBT orbit?); however, it’s naive, and dangerous, to think the kerfuffle in Cambridge is not connected to our gay lives.
Gay writes perspective makes it gay.
I’m reminded of a joke from a local SNL-type show back in the early 90s.
“Police in Bellevue [substitute elite neighborhood of your choice] pulled over a black man today. He hadn’t done anything wrong; they had just never seen a black man in Bellevue before.”
Stories about discrimination of any kind are important. Shame on those whiners who think otherwise.
Here’s the police report:
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/Police%20report%20on%20Gates%20arrest.PDF
I have no problem with the post, or with this site venturing out to topics that are tangentially related to gay issues. My problem is with James Withers (and no, it’s not because he is black or he writes about racial issues). Simply put, he’s an awful writer. Reread the first paragraph of this posting (actually, now that I read it again, the second paragraph is even worse); it sounds like it was written by a high school student.
Maybe so many people wouldn’t take umbrage with his writing if he was able to make a coherent argument. He makes specious arguments comparing being black and being gay, he uses cutesy quotation marks around the term “gay community” (as if he is, in some way, excluded from the community because of his race), and uses the terms “outraged folks” to refer to angry white gays. Hell, why not just call us “uppity”?
I like this post – and I also like the conversation. I think we have to expand the scope of what we consider “gay interest.” For example, why are AIDS statistics among straight black women of interest to our community, while breast cancer statistics are not?
Sarah Palin seems to be of interest whether or not she speaks about gay things; so why not Henry L. Gates?
Of COURSE the Gates story was pertinent to this website. It’s the same story, as you point out, as the Gibson story – and, for dogsake, THE FRANCINE BUSBY story from San Diego??!!!
Nice piece James.
“Oh, who gives a toss about this, it’s only about a black guy!” say the gays. “Oh, who cares about that, it’s only about a gay guy!” say the blacks. Maybe instead of being so damn self absorbed we should actually take interest in things like this, even if it doesn’t specifically have to do with us. I have plenty of black gay friends and a lot of times they’re forced to choose between being primarily black or being primarily gay with who they associate with. Is that fair? I think not. I might be so white that I practically glow in the dark but even I can see why the story mentioned here is important to us. If we’re to just believe that the guy was being a belligerent ass as stated in the police report, what about the report about the two guys who were detained on the mormon property? They said they were being belligerent and rude as well, but did we simply take that at face value? No! Since when are the gays on the side of the police anyway? They’ve never been our friend, and we should be supporting all people against any kind of discrimination whatsoever, regardless of if its correlation with gender expression or sexual orientation. If you don’t agree with this, then yes, that makes you a racist asshole and no better than any of the idiots who are trying to oppress us. How DARE we suggest that the blacks should know what we’re going through and support us unconditionally as a fellow minority group when we don’t extend the same courtesy?
“White guy” here: JW, Until I read the previous responses, I thought that you did a great job of educating the LGBT community. Now that I have read the responses….Why did you waste your energy? I am sorry.
IMO, I think that the biggest lessons about this incident have to do with 1) Lazy, biased media reporting, and 2) How slanted a story comes across when the story teller has a strong agenda.
As most of us in the Boston area were scrambling to understand this bizarre event (several bloggers have described it as a game of Roshomon), obviously a half dozen or so journalists were penning their op ed pieces about the need to continue to fight racial profiling by the police. In other words, before all the facts were in, and before we could sort out why the police report and Gates’ comments were in conflict, it was predetermined to have been racial bias by the police. Another troubling aspect to the reports and op ed pieces in today’s paper is that many of the pieces of writing told selective details; several of the reporters appeared not to have read the police report.
Here’s some background information: there had been a number of break ins in that neighborhood in the past few weeks by people breaking in the front door in the exact way that Gates and his driver were forcing his front door to get it open. Gates had slept overnight in Newark before driving home to Cambridge, MA (so, he didn’t “just get off the plane from China…he was jet lagged, but not JET LAGGED). According to both accounts, the police officer never said anything racist or implied that Gates was a burglar.
Here’s what the police report said (go read it yourself…it’s online in a lot of places): Gates initially refused to show ID when asked, Gates immediately began asking the officer whether he was asking for ID because of racist assumptions, Gates asked why the cop didn’t recognize him and said “You don’t know who you’re messing with!”, before showing ID Gates got onto the phone and tried calling the police station, Gates then showed ID, Gates asked for the cop’s name and badge number (the cop said he gave it to him, Gates disagrees), the cop attempts to leave the scene 3 times despite being confronted loudly by Gates with accusations of racism, and the third time Gates obstructed the cop, the cop arrested him.
Until we can tell if the police report is full of lies, we need to somehow grapple with its content. IMO, if it’s 85% accurate, then Gates misbehaved badly and should have been arrested. If Gates had portrayed it as being jet lagged, irritable, making a mistake, and having a bad day, then he would be getting a lot more sympathy locally right now. But the more he portrays it as being equivalent to an African American teen being questioned by police because he has baggy pants, the more he hurts his credibility and the credibility of all of us who are out here working for social justice. It is quite possible that he’s crying wolf. Stay tuned…!
Is the guy GAY James??????
NO -
End of story.
You covered it because it was an opportunity to paint white people as racists.
JAMES – YOU HATE WHITE PEOPLE – ADMIT IT TO YOURSELF AND GET HELP
Well written, but, I don’t see any correlation, he was a pompous, over the top guy who did not obey the police orders, sorry, that has nothing to do with him being black and certainly nothing to do with being gay this was a stretch to tie the two together.
I question a few of the premises implicating this situation as racially involved. First, the assumption has been laid out that non-minority citizens would have been spared the arrest. Where is the evidence that white people are not subject to the tyranny of police officers? To suggest such without evidence is also racism.
Professor Gates has been derided for becoming beligerant with the police officer. We have one man’s input regarding that beligerance – that of the police officer! Mr. Gates has an extensive history of debating topics that have been infused with significant tension, especially those racial and class focus. I find it hard to believe, based on that past history, that he would not be able to interact reasonably with a police officer when discussing the alleged break-in of his home.
I recognize that our police work within a world of risk and danger in terms of interactions with our unstable populace. Additionally, I recognize that the facts show that there is a greater percentage of black/minority persons in our prisons and that this fact can promote stereotypes that are unfounded based on actual interactions. However, in this case, as mentioned before, there is significant minority representation in the higher-up offices in the police force in question.
The real question that should be raised here is this: Is it more likely that the police officer reacted inappropriately harshly to a perceived dangerous situation regarding a potential domestic break-in, as happens everyday across America, or that the police officer, seeing Professor Gates as only a black man despite his obviously skilled ability to discourse, responded violently in a racially motivated manner.
If the more likely situation is the former, that we ALL, as citizens first and as minority members of society with lesser rights than the heterosexual majority second, should be concerned that this inappropriate use of police control can be used against us.
I agree with you, Mr. Withers. This story is of urgent concern to us in the GBLT community.
I think that we all do ourselves a disservice when we assume that minority groups have lower percentages of homosexuality. This sterotype exists in part because of the minority groups aversion to homosexuality. I’m fairly certain that if studied we’d find a similar percentage across racial groups. The problem is Down Low men don’t consider themselves gay, even though they are in practice. Anytime the state discriminates based on a concrete factor (age, race, sexuality, etc) it does have an impact on our community because that is what our community is fighting to change. If we all got on the same page and stood up against ALL discrimination more progress will be made. It is the people who see it only as a “gay” or “black” issue who are really standing in the way.
Interesting comparison of Henry L. Gates to Chad Gibson. There are a lot of similarities. I believe that perhaps I am reluctant to compare the two because with Chad Gibson there was immediate evidence that the event didn’t occur as the police report stated, however since apparently Gates was alone in his home at the time he doesn’t have the luxury of multiple witnesses to back him up. He does however state that he asked if he was being harassed because he’s black which is as close as one can get to calling someone a racist without technically doing so. No matter what happened, I hope there is an ivestigation into his arrest and the truth comes out.
Unfortunately situations like these still need to be scrutinized because if any racial profiling or misconduct is present it should be punished, and without the outrage of the public I don’t feel that an impartial investigation would take place.
I am still think you are stretching a bit to say it applies to the LGBT community, because while gay does not necessarily = white. Minority doesn’t = gay more often than not.
Great article Withers, you made me rethink my position.