Was Gates Incident A More A Class Issue Than Race ?
I’ve been thinking about this whole thing and wondering, is it really a race issue or is it a class issue ?
I don’t know the background of the officer involved, but if he’s a Boston area police officer the odds are he grew up in a middle or working class home, probably a blue collar neighborhood. He probably did not grow up in an upper class family. This is not to look down on him in any way, simply it’s a likely background for most police officers in the Boston area.
Now he’s working in Cambridge, dealing with what might generically be called ‘the Harvard class’. The upper crust students who, in many cases, grew up in wealthy homes are all around. The professors are also largely elitist in their attitude. Again this is not to denigrate them, it’s just how most of them grew up or have evolved.
So every day this hard working cop has to deal with spoiled rich kids and elitist faculty types. Then he has someone say ‘do you know who I am’, implying he has special rights based on his status.
I could easily see this as a class issue, and if Gates had been an albino the same thing would have happened.
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15 Responses to “Was Gates Incident A More A Class Issue Than Race ?”
So funny, I was just reading an awesome article by Pam Spaulding on exactly this topic. The main idea of the article was that part of the problem in the Gates situation stemmed from Gates having been in the Ivy League world for so long that he forgot that that to anyone outside academia, he's just any old black man. Very interesting.
Interesting….you start your comments already assuming the police officer was wrong.
“you start your comments already assuming the police officer was wrong”
That's prejudice for you, once more. (In addition to PC being at “work”)
I don't think it's a “class” issue, any more here (in Cambridge, “Berkeley East”) than in Beverly Hills or Bel Air.
Shannonlee, where exactly was this “assuming” you speak of???
J..did you not read the article?
The article asks the question, “why did the cop act that way, race or economic class?”
Maybe the cop acted correctly…according to his training….maybe that is why he acted the way he did? Why is that answer completely out of the question?
And I want to add while I have the chance and way OT….
Big thumbs up to Obamas new school funding plan. Love the idea! Don't know all of the details, but so far it sounds great.
Assuming you are referencing my post I did not mean to suggest the officer was wrong, if anything i would suggest that Mr. Gates was wrong for behaving the way he did, as were/are those who act like they are better than someone else based on their class/background/etc.
At least half the uniform-wearing police are below average in intelligence (merely a statistical fact.)
A reasonable police officer would simply have said, “sorry, wrong call, have a good day!” and leave after examining the ID.
A stupid officer on the other hand may feel he has to show his authority over a person who is too obviously his intellectual superior. In this case he probably has never watched PBS or he would have recognised the name (that even a non-American like me in Europe has heard of!)
Such stupid officers also lie when they have made some silly error like going to the wrong address and arrested an innocent person. Their standy excuse – the suspect made verbal threats! In most cases the magistrate will accept the policeman's word.
And it does not matter about race – it is a class issue. Happens in UK too! (But not as often!)
Gates thinks it is a race issue.
Obama thinks it is a race issue.
EDABURN thinks it is a class issue.
And Crowley just wants to do his job.
Crowley is too pig-headed to apologise!
He is too used to getting the backing of his fellow officers no matter what stupid stunt he pulls!
Crowley was correct in doing what he did. He was not exerting his authority over his intellectual superior, he was doing his job the right way. Gates was wrong to go haring off after Crowley, screaming and shouting after him. He thereby broke the law.
sal said At least half the uniform-wearing police are below average in intelligence (merely a statistical fact.)
Merely a load of made up BS. In the US police are above average intelligence, about the sane as office workers and clerks, so statistically less than 1/2 would be below the national average. But nice try with word games.
Both guys acted like asses.
But only one had the power of the state behind him. And he abused that power.
Media and commentators harp on the race issue, not class. Why can't Americans talk about the great divide in class attitudes?