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As
the contretemps surrounding Dr. Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge
Police Dept. recedes into the roiling news flood to become fodder for the
late night comedians, we learn, if anything, that even a president has
limits when it comes to a “teachable moment.”
For,
as any schoolteacher could have taught him, learning is a two-way
street. When the student is closed to the lesson, ain’t nothing getting in. (And America ain’t trying to hear nothing about its racist
present!)
“Skip”
Gates, a man possessed of a healthy sense of humor, has even joked
about the incident publicly, and in my imagination, I can even hear his
distinctive chortle as he answers the questions, “Are you alright?”,
with the quip, “Yeah—I’m ok; the only thing hurting is my dignity.”
Dr.
Gates, a prolific writer, acclaimed academic and PBS broadcaster, was,
precisely because of his known identity and status, spared the
indignity of being beaten, or worse. Most African Americans are not so
privileged, as shown by the beating administered to Nadra
Foster, a KPFA radio producer, who was attacked, kicked in the head,
handcuffed and arrested, after a station staffer called police, and
told them (incorrectly) that Foster was banned from KPFA. According to
witness accounts, Nadra was bum-rushed by at
least eight cops.
This
happened a year ago, Aug. 2008, and no network chatmeister
put Nadra’s story on the tube; nor did the
then Black presidential candidate announce he was a ‘friend’ of this
Black mother, who worked for over a decade at the station as a
volunteer producer, nor that her beating, kicking, handcuffing and
arrest were handled ‘stupidly’ (as, of course, it was!) She still
faces numerous charges including assault and trespass!
That’s
because, in America, it ain’t
nothing new. Just recently, a Philadelphia
grand jury, expertly led by a local DA, refused to indict half a dozen
cops who brutally beat, kicked, bludgeoned and stomped three young
Black men who were allegedly suspects in a local shooting (the 3 were
later acquitted). The grand jury refused to return
indictments despite videotapes from a hovering helicopter showing
the men struck repeatedly by over a dozen cops as they lay face down in
the street.
To
add insult to injury, the grand jury report (scripted by prosecutors)
insisted that the beatings were “helpful” rather than “harmful”. I
don’t think the initial Rodney King grand jury, which cleared members
of the LAPD, went that far!
But
news is “man bites dog.” It is that which is unusual. And Black people,
men, women, and juveniles, being beaten by cops isn’t unusual—even if
on tape.
There’ll
be no beer for the three young men beaten and battered in Philadelphia streets; nor
for a Black Mom beaten at her radio station. Their brutalization, it
seems, isn’t a “teachable moment.”
©MAJ 2009
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