As one of the only whites in the Baltimore high school in which I taught, I was called a racist – “You white racist bitch!” or “You skinny white racist bitch!” – on a rather consistent basis, mainly by students I was disciplining. Their first reaction to my discipline policy was to cuss me out and call me a “cracker ass bitch,” or something equally artful – it almost always revolved around the B word though.
The first time I was accused of racism by a student who wasn’t raging at me, I was teaching To Kill a Mockingbird. Most of the books on the curriculum dealt with race in some way, shape or form. Whites were always the bad guys, for sure. It’s hard as a white guy to not get sucked into a category with the ugly racist Robert E. Lee Ewell from that great novel when teaching it to a class of 30 African-American kids. I did my best to convince them I was an Atticus type figure, mainly by showing up each day and expecting greatness from each of them.
But I was shocked and really let down when an older African-American teacher told me that word was going around among the kids that I was a racist. I held my head low for a couple days – what had I done? I literally had no idea what I could have said. Here I was, doing my best as a 23-year-old white guy right out of college, in a notoriously bad and persistently dangerous all-black high school. Excuse me for feeling a bit out of place. A few days went by and the charge dropped without a whisper because there was absolutely no basis for it.
I was profiled constantly: “Hey, is you Peyton Manning’s twin?” I would hear one kid ask. “Nah, he look like Eli,” another would answer. They would laugh, and so would I, as they walked down the hall. “Who that white man is?” a girl would ask a friend as I walked by. “He look like one of those ones from High School Musical!” It was constant and hilarious. It revealed to me that the students hadn’t come across too many white people in their lives, except on television. I apparently look like every white guy from Wayne Gretzky, the hockey star, to Mr. Prezbo, the famous cop turned teacher from “The Wire.”
One thing I actually took away from a diversity training session was when a presenter said that white people don’t think about being white, but that black people think about being black every single day. When I started teaching in the inner city, it really was the first time in my life I’d felt cognizant of my skin color before. My whole life had really been surrounded by white people. It gave me a new respect and perspective, but it also has given me a new look at what racism is and isn’t. Racism is hateful and ignorant. Racism is not racism just because that’s the default position our society takes when someone is made uncomfortable by a person who doesn’t look like them.
So I hope I have some perspective on the feelings of Professor Henry Louis Gates when he was arrested for disorderly conduct. At the same time, I think I have some perspective on false accusations of racism as well.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested, not for being a “black man in America,” but for being a belligerent jackass. It doesn’t matter if you’re an esteemed professor or a college kid hammered off of keg beer – talking back to an officer is stupid and will eventually get you arrested. This is called equal application of the law.
Thankfully, Sgt. Crowley, the accused “racist cop”, is standing up for himself. If we really need a national conversation on race, Crowley is standing up for people who are sick of petty racism charges – people who are sick of holding their tongues because they aren’t quite sure what someone is going to think. What progress can be made if we beat around the bush on racial issues? How else will any progress be made regarding black on black crime or failed schools, largely made up of black students, or disproportionate unemployment in the black community, if everyone has to worry that their career will be ruined if they are perceived to be a racist? As a good buddy of mine, a black male gang outreach counselor in Baltimore told me when he looked around the halls of our terrible school, “It’s not a black white thing anymore, it’s crazy – that’s what it is.”
25 responses so far
1 sinz54 // Jul 24, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Leftists in America don’t believe in civility and respect for authority. “Being a jerk” is considered by them as a political act, a protest against the “Establishment.”
Inner-city blacks have been taught that it is their due to take their revenge against the so-called “white Establishment.” So they constantly walk around with chips on their shoulders, just itching for an excuse to strike verbally or even physically.
I’m sorry that you and Sgt. Crowley are among the targets of this mindset.
2 ottovbvs // Jul 24, 2009 at 8:59 pm
……..He would of course have treated Paul Kennedy like this…..or Larry Summers…….As for explaining this rather petty bit of whining from Gibbon……I think he needs a change of profession
3 zok_t2 // Jul 25, 2009 at 2:59 am
Dear ottovbvs,
“petty bit of whining”…?
I beg your pardon?
I find it VERY hard to believe that you have EVER followed Mr. Gibbon’s blog if you are calling him out for “whining”?! Absurdities.
And you had the gumption to suggest a change of profession?!? Well now it’s just hard to take you seriously.
Have a look back on Mr. Gibbon’s blog history at the school he has taught at for two years. Read the stories. Have an insight on what he has dealt with…then come talk about him being a “whiner”.
Oh wait….you can’t.
Why?
Because Mr. Gibbon has continuously strived to better the school environment he has worked in day in and day out for two years. Think you could deal with being berated day in and day out for being a teacher of a different race?? or rather, a “white cracker ass bitch?”
As far as your comments of whining concern…doubtful.
Kids obviously took to this man, as a leader, a teacher, and a friend. Both in the classroom and out.
I suggest you check your facts before deeming one a “whiner”.
And by all means, continue your own “rather petty bit of whining”. What you suggest is both humorous and entertaining.
4 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 9:23 am
zok_t2 // Jul 25, 2009 at 2:59 am
………….Er…….if he’s not happy get another job…….I once worked for a total jerk who believe me was quite equal to anything this guy faces with these kids ……so after about six months of this I quit and got another job………I did not start sending letters to the local newspaper whining about being victimized……….If Gibbons is on a mission fine, I applaud him for it, but does he to tell us all about his immense suffering….It’s miserable spectacle
5 sinz54 // Jul 25, 2009 at 10:08 am
ottovbvs: What Mr. Gibbon was trying to point out, is the virulent anti-white racism (and while he didn’t mention it, anti-Semitism too) that exists among inner-city blacks. It’s been indoctrinated into those blacks by the Left, that they have the right and even the obligation to refuse to work quietly with white people whenever possible–even white teachers who are trying to teach them.
In the 1960s, this incivility boiled over into riots that swept the nation and led to “white flight”from the cities to the suburbs. And then, as now, social liberals like yourself use every rhetorical trick in the book to try to avoid facing up to that reality: Personal attacks on those who point it out, “tu quoque” arguments about slavery or whatnot, etc.
But those who saw it firsthand weren’t buying. They elected Reagan as President and Giuliani as mayor of New York City.
And if the Left continues to use inner-city blacks as their foot soldiers for overturning society, they will invite yet another reaction from the Right.
6 sinz54 // Jul 25, 2009 at 10:08 am
Oops, I should have written: “But those who saw it firsthand weren’t buying. They elected Nixon as President and Giuliani as mayor of New York City. “
7 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 10:27 am
5 sinz54 // Jul 25, 2009 at 10:08 am
” What Mr. Gibbon was trying to point out, is the virulent anti-white racism (and while he didn’t mention it, anti-Semitism too) that exists among inner-city blacks.’
…………..Er……I am aware of this…….as it happens I lived in Baltimore for several years in the 90’s….his problem is that his entire outlook not to mention his penchant for whining is encapsulated in your all too typical comment:
“And if the Left continues to use inner-city blacks as their foot soldiers for overturning society, they will invite yet another reaction from the Right.”
…………And his dismissal of a fellow teacher of much greater distinction as:
“a belligerent jackass.”
…………For behaving in his own home much as I and I suspect most people might have done……..his drunken student analogy is ludicrous
8 txanne // Jul 25, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Since when did being a belligerent jackass become a crime? Why did the DA drop the charges immediately? There was no crime and the arrest should have never happened. Without assigning any motivation to either side, the whole thing was handled “stupidly.”
http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2009/07/gates-gate-whats-the-law-say.html
9 lucas // Jul 25, 2009 at 4:11 pm
“Falsely Accused of Racism? Me Too”
While not an expert on the issue, my understanding from having done a bit of reading, is that everybody (or nearly everybody) has unconscious racial preferences. So the claim “I am not a racist” is always shallow and a mantra that plays in political fights, but not in factual fights.
“What Mr. Gibbon was trying to point out, is the virulent anti-white racism (and while he didn’t mention it, anti-Semitism too) that exists among inner-city blacks”
Guess what? like it or not, and some level we are all racists. Yours and mine might not rise to ‘virulent’. nonetheless, “let he who is without sin…” why bring up the problem with no insight about the solution? i don’t want to ascribe a negative motivation to you, but it gives the impression of piling on about how bad “they” are (in contrast to how great “we” are). helpful?
Does the New Majority want to be on the accurate side (we are all racists to various degrees but let’s do our best to avoid/fix systemic problems) or the winning side (how dare you call me a racist, i am going to put you in jail for that)? Unfortunately, politics has become more about winning arguments than accurate arguments; which is why we can expect poor results no matter the electoral outcome.
This is getting a bit off topic, but I wish that Mr Frum would focus the site on how we fix our system instead of how we win next time. How do we change the incentives so that Republicans (or Democrats) are effective. Otherwise voting Republican (or Democrat) can’t possibly help.
10 midcon // Jul 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I’m not sure why folks read so much into the DA dropping charges. Without debating whether the charges were legitimate or not, I cannot imagine that anyone who reads or watches tv, indeed who is not comatose, do not know that prosecutors drop charges every day in every city in this nation for many reasons, among them are cost vs benefit, politics, public interest, public outrage, and lack of evidence. Make your case regarding the merits of this situation on other criteria. Dropping the charges means nothing. You must have least learned that from watching Law and Order. Sheesh!
11 txanne // Jul 25, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I think the case has already been made. You say without debating whether the charges were legitimate or not? Isn’t that the whole point here? If the charge is not legitimate there was a wrong committed.
Sure, there are a number of reasons to drop charges; publicity, cost, etc. But there is also a reasonable argument to be made that all of these were taken into consideration along side the fact that the charge was unsustainable.
12 midcon // Jul 25, 2009 at 5:11 pm
My point was that the fact that the DA dropped the charges is evidence of nothing and should not be used as a premise in any exercise of inductive or deductive reasoning. For example, if I were to say
“… the DA drop(ped) the charges immediately” therefore “There was no crime and the arrest should have never happened.” That conclusion cannot be reached just because the DA dropped the charges. That was and remains my only point.
13 sricher // Jul 25, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Hey “Tom”!
Great post. Although I don’t agree with the theme of Ottovbvs’s comments, I do think he is right in suggesting that it’s time for you to move on from that job. Time to go to grad school!
Maybe some day those students will gain some wisdom and realize that their behavior only hurts themselves by driving away capable teachers.
Stephen
P.S. You taught “Mockingbird” in all black class as a white teacher…? Bold… I think I would have gone with The Hobbit.
14 Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:25 pm
sinz54 // Jul 24, 2009 at 7:27 pm wrote: “Leftists in America don’t believe in civility and respect for authority. “Being a jerk” is considered by them as a political act, a protest against the “Establishment.” ”
What does any of Gibbon’s post have to do with “Leftists?” Who are these “Leftists” and how are you able to distinguish them from all the other people in America who don’t “believe in” civility and respect for authority? Please explain how Gibbon’s observations are in any way connected to the political philosophy of any of those he wrote about?
There was a point in time in which your some of your posts seemed to reflect some thought and analysis, but more and more they appear to be nothing more than ideological whining.
15 Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Sinz wrote: “What Mr. Gibbon was trying to point out, is the virulent anti-white racism (and while he didn’t mention it, anti-Semitism too) that exists among inner-city blacks.”
It’s awfully strange that Sinz is quite comfortable generalizing inner-city blacks as possessing a virulent anti-white racism and anti-Semitism, but is very quick to argue that the South is practically free of white racists.
Moreover, you completely misunderstand Gibbon’s point. Nowhere in the post does he write about or allege anti-white racism by any of the kids with whom he interacted. You made this up completely out of thin air. Instead, he’s writing about how so many of the kids he taught believed he was a racist merely because he was white like many of the racists these kids had observed on TV and elsewhere. He’s not arguing that these kids are racists; he’s arguing that (1) a person should not be considered racist merely because that person looks like other people who are racist, and (2) it’s nearly impossible to improve race relations if every time someone speaks openly about race he gets accused of being a racist.
16 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:47 pm
midcon // Jul 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm
“I cannot imagine that anyone who reads or watches tv,”
………You get your legal knowledge from tv……..Law and order?………..They dropped the charges because they were going to look totally ridiculous putting one of Boston’s most distinguished citizens, who also happens to be cripple, on trial for being unhappy about being hassled in his own home after producing evidence he was who he said he was………Since Gates is a member of the grievance industry according to you he must have been disappointed at not having a “show trial” where all this could have been aired……personally I’m sorry they dropped the charges then Gates could have got due process…….there’s nothing like a courtroom for exposing official inanity
17 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:41 pm
………..Surely you’ve figured out Sinz’s mindset by now…….what do you need?…..pictures?
18 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:52 pm
sricher // Jul 25, 2009 at 5:57 pm
“Time to go to grad school!”
……..Law degree at Regent perhaps?
19 Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:59 pm
ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:51 pm “Surely you’ve figured out Sinz’s mindset by now…….what do you need?…..pictures?”
I know, I know . . . I’m just hoping that in the interest of trying to regain some credibility he would come clean.
20 ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:59 pm
” to regain some credibility he would come clean.”
…………He has……he just doesn’t know it
21 Spartacus // Jul 25, 2009 at 7:25 pm
ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 7:04 pm
“…………He has……he just doesn’t know it”
Very funny and, unfortunately, very true.
22 midcon // Jul 26, 2009 at 11:14 pm
ottovbvs // Jul 25, 2009 at 6:47 pm midcon ……You get your legal knowledge from tv……..Law and order? ………..They dropped the charges because they were going to look totally ridiculous
Actually, my channel lineup includes news, documentaries, CSPAN, and others as well as entertainment. So, yes I do use it to acquire information.
And thanks for agreeing that DAs decide not to prosecute for many reasons, one of which is, as you pointed out, they would look totally ridiculous. My point remains that the fact that the DA dropped the charges is evidence of nothing and should not be used as a premise in any reasoning exercise.
23 TonyMas // Jul 27, 2009 at 1:19 am
I respect law enforcement, but if a cop responding to an unsubstantiated, inaccurate, third-party tip-off accosted me in my own home, then call me crazy but my expectation would be that the cop show nothing but deference for me, the private homeowner. In fact, I would expect that the cop be nothing short of obsequious in handling the situation. In turn, I would also do my best to act respectful, but at the end of the day, it is the cop’s mistake, not my own. Gates might have run his mouth, but that doesn’t change the situation: The cops were called to his home in error, and therefore it is their mistake to remedy. The police force in any municipality works for the citizenry, not the other way around.
24 sinz54 // Jul 27, 2009 at 9:42 am
tonymas sez: “call me crazy but my expectation would be that the cop show nothing but deference for me, the private homeowner.”
OK, you’re crazy.
If you sass a cop, you deserve what you’re going to get. That’s been the unwritten rule since police forces were invented back in 17th century Europe.
Professor Gates should be glad he lives in America. If he had acted that way in Singapore, he might have invited a public flogging. And guess what. He would have deserved it.
25 SFTor1 // Jul 27, 2009 at 8:00 pm
sinz, the training of police forces vary from country to country. In England or France a police officer is considered a public servant. In the U.S. and Germany the cop is more of an enforcer.
At any rate, a cop will act differently when inside a person’s home. In this case the police was on the scene specifically to establish whether that home’s security had been violated. Once you have established that everything is OK you get out.
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