Comments on: Barack Obama I: Style Icon

By: Salman

Salman — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:34:05 +0000

“First, all such tales attempt to stage racism as a crude morality play, with individuals as absolute victims and absolute villains, rather than as a system of oppression that works primarily through institutions. The victim must have no priors and no drugs. And unless the perpetrator is photographed with a billy club in hand and uses racial slurs that are recorded on tape, we are supposed to give him the benefit of the doubt.

For an individual, that is fair. For a system, it is farcical. While it may be intriguing to speculate about what two people may or may not have been thinking, feeling and intending at any given moment, the proof of racism is in the odds. Black people in America fall foul of not just the law of the land but the law of probabilities as well. They are more likely to be stopped, searched, arrested, convicted and executed. A ridiculous black man and a ridiculous white man do not stand the same chances when put before a man with a badge, gun or gavel. The figures bear this out, and at the end of the day, nooses and burning crosses shouldn’t be necessary to demonstrate racism’s reach.

Second, the fact that racism might affect a Harvard professor is amazing only if one buys into the idea that black people who have reached a certain status should be exempt from racism. If you believe that, then the problem with Gates’ arrest is not racism. It’s that he was treated like a regular black person. The issue moves from ‘If it happened to him it really can happen to anybody’ to ‘It shouldn’t have happened to him because he is a somebody.’”

Beer and Sympathy
by Gary Younge
http://www.agenceglobal.com/Article.asp?Id=2085

By: Salman

Salman — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:33:26 +0000

On Gates from a “Think Black” perspective.
http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/3214/

By: Akbar

Akbar — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:50:21 +0000

“I am finally catching up with this awesome series….The wire.

Come on Qalandar, you can do better than that. It is just a blame the victim , sideshow!

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:23:03 +0000

Must say that the dispatch tapes released cast the Cambridge police department in a much poorer light:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32169213/

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:33:48 +0000

Since this is the summer I am finally catching up with this awesome series, can;t resist this:

“What’s the most dangerous thing in the world?
A nigger with a library card.”

– Brother Mouzone (The Wire)

By: Salman

Salman — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:49:30 +0000

At one point a few of my books and folders fell to the floor. When I asked them if I could pick them up they responded with a no. When I asked why, one agent said, “Because you may use these items as a weapon against us.”
http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/3204/

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:57:24 +0000

Aside: the odd thing is that because of the modern media and the threat of sensationalism/bad publicity, sometimes one is better off insulting the very powerful rather than the nobody. I was reminded of Jarnail Singh when I heard about the Gates incident: this journalist threw a shoe at Indian Home Minister Chidambaram at a press conference; Chidambaram immediately told the cops to let him go. Not only did nothing happen to Jarnail, he even got his 15 minutes of fame showing up on every TV channel. I am sure Chidambaram must be having nightmares about this dude: even if he were to get injured in a car accident, who would believe the Home Minister had nothing to do with it?! Now imagine what would have happened had Singh thrown a shoe at a cop, even if the cop had first punched him? One shudders to imagine…

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:51:46 +0000

Fair enough — my point is that (i.e. the cop business; not the passerby reporting the incident) might be a separate question from the race one.

Personally, there is not a single country that I can think of where I would feel comfortable calling a cop a jerk or an asshole (unless I were the offspring of someone really powerful in that country): in that sense we are in a world of police states…

By: Akbar

Akbar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 23:34:46 +0000

“Gates was rude and confrontational, and whether right or wrong, that wouldn’t be wise even for a white male to do vis-a-vis cops. ”

Welcome to the Police state.

“Very little of the mainstream reporting I’ve seen on this event makes the crucial point that it is not illegal to tell a police officer that he is a jerk, or that he has done something wrong, or that you are going to file charges against him. And yet too many commentators, journalists and ordinary people seem to accept that if a citizen “mouths off” to a cop, or criticizes a cop, or threatens legal action against a cop, it’s okay for that cop to cuff the person and charge him with “disorderly conduct.” Worse yet, if a cop makes such a bogus arrest, and the person gets upset, he’s liable to get an added charge of “resisting arrest” or worse.

We have, as a nation, sunk to the level of a police state, when we grant our police the unfettered power to arrest honest, law-abiding citizens for simply stating their minds. And it’s no consolation that someone like Gates can count on having such charges tossed out. It’s the arrest, the cuffing, and the humiliating ride in the back of a cop squad car .”

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07232009.html

By: Qalandar

Qalandar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:51:39 +0000

To be fair to Obama, he also used the occasion (the post-Gates arrest press conference) to make the point that Blacks and Latinos faced racism from the police and were disproportionately likely to be arrested etc.; he also said the police had “acted stupidly.” I don’t think he should have stuck his neck out further, given that — while race might well have played a part in Gates being reported to the police by the passerby who thought he was breaking into his own home –it is not fair to assume that the Cambridge police arrested him on those grounds. I mean, by all accounts, Gates was rude and confrontational, and whether right or wrong, that wouldn’t be wise even for a white male to do vis-a-vis cops. The cop in question has a good record, and even teaches a course on racial profiling (his African-American boss, has come out in support of him):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32092715/ns/us_news-race_and_ethnicity/

By: Akbar

Akbar — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:29:51 +0000

“…… but that doesn’t change the fact that his posiitons are still lame….”

“I don’t know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played,” Obama said at a White House news conference.

http://www.cnn.com/

By: ASUBoy75

ASUBoy75 — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 19:34:11 +0000

Ah Obama: The newest anti-christ!

By: lapata

lapata — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:49:24 +0000

Does that mean I don’t get a beer?

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 03:35:37 +0000

yeah, THAT was the line. But you will need to buy lapata a beer, not me, for that.

You WILL buy me a beer, soon.

By: tsk

tsk — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 02:41:54 +0000

“It‚Äôs not Project Runway style, it‚Äôs Chicago Manual of style.”

made me actually laugh out loud. i’ll buy you a beer for that one while i’m in town. brilliant turn of phrase.

By: aa

aa — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 20:51:49 +0000

great, so obama’s positions are supposedly arrived at through “conviction.” supposedly. but that doesn’t change the fact that his posiitons are still lame. of course, nobody wants to discuss positions when there’s fashion to discuss. yay.

By: Land of Lime » Obama

Land of Lime » Obama — Sun, 17 Dec 2006 00:42:15 +0000

[...] Lapata has a fabulous post at Chapatimystery on the man of the hour, Barack Obama. Enjoy. [...]