In Which We All Just Get Along
The beer thing went off well enough, I guess, though it had already jumped the shark before they actually sat down, even before a Boston cop got himself in hot water by firing off a racist email.* My only comment on that thing last night is … which White House protocol genius forgot to tell everyone the appropriate attire for a relaxed, guys-sorting-it-out-over-beers-in-the-backyard event would be polo shirts, khakis and loafers (no shorts, tanktops or sandals, please, the national press will be doing a walkthrough)? Except Biden. The crazy old uncle with the hairplugs was the only one who didn’t look out of place in a suit. Also, this is America. Lose the bistro table and silver service for an actual picnic table. Go buy one for the event, whatever.
One other comment. Last night at work a white guy and a black guy were discussing this business.
(Full disclosure: I was one of them. The white guy. The Boston Herald, a conservative working-class tabloid, has a public reputation for being politically incorrect and some kind of den of Neanderthal throwbacks, but its newsroom is in fact a diverse and often raucous free-speech zone, where people of all political and social stripes have been loudly hashing out issues for years. Sometimes disparaging each other with flamboyant language in the process, but ultimately listening to each other’s views and offering respect to anyone who will defend his own views, no matter how absurd they may be. Unlike some newspapers I could name, where if you deviate from party doctrine out loud, you do so at your own risk).
Both parties in the informal newsroom race-relations summit were expressing disappointment with Obama. The white guy thought Obama missed a chance in all of this to make a learning moment out of it, that racism is a two-way street and that it is wrong to make wild accusations and assumptions based on race, whether you are black or white. The black guy wanted to know why Obama’s first big racial reach-out move involves a Harvard professor who happens to be his pal and a Cambridge cop, and only happened because Obama stepped in it. How about someone from some place that has real, intense, life-and-death issues, including race, the black guy said. Where are the reformed gangbangers, the real people who are trying to turn things around? Yeah, said the white guy, good point. How about a couple of cold ones for people who are pushing social responsibility and self-reliance?
Both the white guy and the black guy agreed that while Obama’s election was historic, regardless of what you think about his politics … the white guy didn’t like them in the first place, and the black guy is finding himself increasingly less enthused … as president he has failed to show any kind of original thought or action to actually advance race relations in this country. Which is disappointing.
See? We can all just get along. I guess that backyard beer summit did spark some kind of national dialogue, an opportunity for people to talk about the state of race relations in this country. Hopefully that happened in more normal places than a tabloid newsroom.
Follow-on thought. I know it’s not PC to defend George Bush, but now that I think of it, he probably showed more original thought and action with his faith-based initiative that gave unprecedented support to some of the most active and vocal supporters of self-reliance and social responsibility in black communities, the churches. That and his historic appointment of accomplished black Americans to key positions of influence and power utterly unrelated to race. But we didn’t get into all of that.
* That bizarre and disturbing incident, bizarre not so much in that a cop might harbor stereotypic gutter racist views in 2009, which is reprehensible enough, but for his utter cluelessness in spouting them, has led to a swift move to fire him. The cop has responded with an odd apology to anyone who might have perceived his views as racist … a very easy and non-controversial conclusion to arrive at … and with the threat of a free-speech lawsuit. This ugly incident is looking like more of a sideshow, a Michael Richards moment that doesn’t offer much in the way of lessons, room for mutual advancement, or reconciliatory backyard beers. My pal Michael Graham calls Boston cop Justin Barrett the racist white cop Henry Louis Gates Jr. was looking for and wants him fired. Ideally, this could be a case where forgiveness and intensive sensitivity training … maybe with eyes propped open Clockwork Orange-style … might be more broadly beneficial to society, if this cop could become someone who shows the way for other racists to reassess their thinking. However, the fact is that this racist electronic outburst has turned this cop into a major liability for the police in a city that has a long history of racial tensions, and it could prove highly problematic for the prosecution of any arrests he has made or would make in future. It also has revealed an utter lack of judgment and restraint that calls into question the suitability of this man to carry a badge and a gun on the public’s behalf.
Topics: America, Bush, Obama, academia, cops, racism
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:42 am on Friday, July 31, 2009
2 Responses to “In Which We All Just Get Along”
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July 31st, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I don’t see how anyone could view calling someone a “banana-eating jungle monkey” as anything but racist. Mr. Barrett must have been drunk or maybe he’s just nuts, but maybe it’s a good thing the department found out now, instead of later when something really bad could have happened.
July 31st, 2009 at 6:37 pm
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