Abolishing without privilege......

This is a reprint from blogstream August 15, 2009......

I got an e-mail from someone asking me about the “without privilege” analysis. Initially, I had great ambivalence about it, but then I thought perhaps the President is correct. The President said that the Henry Louis Gates incident presented an opportunity for a national dialogue on race. There was so much outrage about him saying the incident was stupid that it began to cause me to become uncomfortable. You might be asking why uncomfortable, and I have to tell you, it made me uncomfortable because the societal majority took THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to task over his reaction to the incident. His reaction came from that place within him where he had spent his entire life, up until he became THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA, that place of “without privilege”. And there, on National Television, again for the whole world to see, was an embarrassing American faux paux, persons who were not of color feeling perfectly within their rights to chide and scold THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA this person who heretofore was “without privilege” for venting his frustration, out loud, about the treatment – or rather reduction of an illustrative, successful, savvy, articulate, assimilated member of society to being just another person “without privilege”. For weeks now I have been mulling over in my mind, looking through news reports, and scouring the internet looking for some way to make this irrational situation, rational.

I have to analyze it for you so that you can see it from my perspective, or maybe from the perspective of any number of persons of color in this country. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA, a person of color, is friends with the person of color arrested in his home for disorderly conduct. I have already examined how ludicrous the arrest was, but to take it a step further, the officer, who arrested the friend of THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA never acknowledged that perhaps he had gotten a little carried away with his authority or that perhaps he mishandled the situation, entirely or in part. I have to repeat that because it is really really important, the officer, who arrested the friend of THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA never acknowledged that perhaps he had gotten a little carried away with his authority or that perhaps he mishandled the situation, entirely or in part. IN OTHER WORDS, THE OFFICER DID NOTHING WRONG, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. HIS ACTIONS WERE ABOVE REPROACH. IF HE HAD TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN, HE WOULD CONDUCT HIMSELF IN THE EXACT SAME WAY AND THE RESULTS WOULD BE THE SAME. There were no national cries for the officer to apologize to Henry Louis Gates. Are you paying attention? The officer, who created this nationally embarrassing moment, felt no need and there were no calls for him to apologize to Henry Louis Gates who he humiliated, reduced to a common criminal, and publicly demoralized. Yet another series of horrific injuries to the psyche and sensibilities of a man who had every reason to believe that he was no longer, “without privilege”. No national leaders, with voices from the establishment cried out for the atrocity of the situation from the vantage point of Mr. Gates.

Here is the part that tells you where our dialogue on race relations in this country really really needs to start. THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA, vented his frustration, out loud, about the treatment of his fellow man, expressed his own personal perspective that based upon what he was told, the officer acted stupidly. Wait a minute, Sean Hanity, Rush Limbaugh, and numerous voices including elected members of congress jumped up and demanded that THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF A THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA MERICA apologize to the police officer. What is wrong with this picture? The President expressed his opinion. He did not castigate the police officer. He did not reduce him to a common criminal. He did not demoralize the police officer. In fact he couched his remark in the terms of what his believes were about the incident. Yet, there was a national public outcry for THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA, the most powerful person in the world to apologize to the police officer. Never, never in the history of this country has something so banal and ludicrous ever happened. And why did it happen that numerous talking heads and politicians demanded an apology from THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA? Because, notwithstanding that THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA is the commander in chief, the ultimate barometer, he is a person who remains, even in his capacity as the President, a person “without privilege”. That is why there has to be a national honest dialogue on race in this country. Numerous idiotic, not well thought out, false and fallacious phrases have fallen from the lips of presidents gone by, was there ever a national public outcry for an apology from the President, NO!!! And why not, because they were privileged to do and say as they pleased. They were not precluded by being persons of color from challenging the status quo. Being “without privilege” can be something as simple as going into a department store where a sales associate looks over at you, looks you up and down, turns her back and pretends you are not standing there in spite of the fact that you came to spend your hard earned money. Being “without privilege” can be as complicated having all the credit worthiness and financial where with all to purchase a home in an exclusive community, but being denied by the homeowners association for some arbitrary reason. Or it can be as ludicrous and asinine as being expected to apologize to a police officer for an imaginary injury to his sensibilities when you are THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE OF AMERICA. Those unwritten, unspoken, undocumented but clearly understood privileges reserved for other persons in this country.

I agree that we need a national dialogue on race relationships, but I believe that it must come from open and honest discussions beginning with an understanding that certain groups have experienced unwritten, unspoken, undocumented but clearly understood privileges. It also will necessitate an examination of what is the real reason for maintaining the privileges for certain groups of individuals, to the detriment of others, and how that affects the body politics in this country. If you stop and revisit my examination of the fiasco surrounding the aftermath of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, in the privacy of your own home, you may begin to understand the insidious disrespectfulness of reducing THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA to just another man, “without privilege”. I am so glad that we have a President who is at the very least 5 times better, 5 times brighter, and 50 times cooler than the talking heads and politicians who called for him to apologize to the police officer. It is a great man, a giant among men, who can apologize for a transgression whether it was real or imagined and keep it moving forward. It is my hope and dream for us to openly and honestly deal with the issue of race relations and persons of color being without privilege, in my lifetime….