Regarding the racial incident involving Henry Louis Gates in the US:
I saw many nasty comments like 'Ohio Granny' on Slate.com saying: "Professor Gates claims ‘they wouldn’t treat me like this if I were white’. See? How does he know that? It is the classic assumption that goes through their (italics mine) heads all the time.”
How does he know? He's a smart man; he can figure it out, but he most likely knows from experience; it's a pretty familiar scenario. My story is a little different. One night, I came home somewhat wasted, after partying to all hours and left my backpack in the cab. My keys were in there and I couldn't get in the house, so I jimmied the lock and then tried to climb through the window. Someone no doubt saw me and called the cops; they arrived pretty quickly. You can't get them to come when someone's lying on the street or getting beaten up, but property is always a serious issue in the US. They snuck up behind me and told me to stop what I was doing. I think they doubted my belligerent, slurred words, but they at least checked out my story with the neighbours; I don't know why they went to that much trouble for me; I was rude and loud and aggressive- could it be that I'm white?
I also love the fact that so many liberals are now saying racism no longer exists in the US because Obama is president. Tune into Fox News (don't you just love Ann Coulter?) some night- where Islam is called a “terrorist cult” and Obama is ‘revealed’ as a non-American and you’ll see racism is alive and well in America, unfortunately.
