Gates to Black People: 'Don't Step Onto That Porch!'

Harvard prof kidded Cambridge cop at White House

(AP) - A black Harvard scholar said today he has been able to joke about his arrest by a white police officer that led to a national debate on race, despite receiving death threats and bomb threats. In his first public appearance since meeting with Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley at the White House, Henry Louis Gates said he and the officer found some humor in the incident and have since discussed going out to eat or taking in a Boston Red Sox or Celtics game. More»

Don't confuse it with poor blacks' struggle against racism, classism

(NEWSER) - Racial profiling may have played a role in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., but fellow black scholar Boyce Watkins says there's no reason to feel sorry for Gates. At heart, the scene was likely “a battle of two egos,” Watkins writes in the Grio. “What is abundantly clear is that this is NOT the case of a poor black male being exploited by the racist, classist power structure.” More»

Police: 'a just resolution to unfortunate circumstances'

(NEWSER) - Charges against Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr have been dropped after he was arrested at his home for “loud and tumultuous behavior,” NBC News reports. The city of Cambridge, Mass., and its police said they had “recommended to the Middlesex County District Attorney that the criminal charge against Professor Gates not proceed,” adding “all parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.” More»

(NEWSER) - Another black member of Harvard's faculty has accused the Cambridge Police Department of racism, the Boston Globe reports. S. Allen Counter, a Harvard Medical School professor, was arrested outside his home in 2006 on assault and battery charges. “I was polite, and yet police lied and said I was loud, just as they did with Professor Gates,” said Counter, who was acquitted. More»

(NEWSER) - Henry Louis Gates and Barack Obama have been “very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior,” but African-Americans “need to roar out their anger at such treatment,” Bob Herbert writes in the New York Times. Gates, not the officer who arrested him, is in the right, and we need to “focus a spotlight on such outrages and the urgent need to stop them.” More»