In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

BooMan asks:

The Village's desire, almost a demand really, that President Obama transcend his half-blackness is very offensive to me. Why does his outrage at the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. violate the protocols of Washington? Is it okay to arrest a man in his own house after he provides documentation that he owns the house?

As a mixed-race man myself, my view is that the Village has a real comfort level problem when it comes to people of color talking about race, particularly African-Americans. As long as they know there's a frank and serious discussion about race in America coming, they can ignore it. It gets shunted off to a "special report" (like CNN's recent Black in America series with Soledad O'Brien) or to specific outlets (like the radio shows of Tavis Smiley or Tom Joyner.) They don't have to feel bad about it or face it.

So in a real way, despite my eye-rolling response to Lynn Sweet's question Wednesday night as a distraction from health care, she actually asked a good question and should be given credit for doing so. It was unplanned, she said. Obama's answer was very good, I thought. I would have said much the same thing. Any cursory research into Obama's political background as a community organizer and Illinois state senator would have revealed the President's history as having sponsored legislation combating racial profiling.

A discussion at work between co-workers yesterday had a white friend of mine and a black friend of mine talking about the Gates arrest. While the first argued that it may not have been racial profiling, and that Gates blew his stack, my black friend said "Look, have you ever felt that you have been approached or questioned or pulled over by a cop because of your skin color?" My white friend admitted, "Well, no." My black friend continued "Wouldn't that make you angry if you thought you had been?"

It goes back to the very real differences that people have in point of view in this country about race. It wasn't Sweet's question that knocked the Village for a loop. They expected a politician's answer. What they got was the truth instead. And that truth makes people uncomfortable because unless a racial profiling incident has happened to you, you don't understand the feelings of powerlessness and despair, and you wonder what the hell kind of world you live in when this kind of thing still happens in 2009.

As the President said, he wasn't there. He doesn't have the details. But the fact of the matter is being angry for having a cop approach you in your own home accusing you of breaking into your own home is not a crime. I'd be angry too. If Gates assaulted the police officer, that's one thing. But an old man with a cane with an ID showing he lived in the house? You arrest a guy like that? That's a display of power you have over the other person, plain and simple. Racial profiling is just another example of that, and let's face it, people don't like admitting racial profiling still happens in 2009.

People make assumptions. We all do it. And we'll continue to do it if we don't talk to each other about it. Perhaps the President showing an honest answer will get all of us talking about it too...honestly.