Ruth R. Wisse is the Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature, and Professor of Comparative Literature, at Harvard.

 

An excerpt:

What puzzles me most in the report of your actions—or reactions—on July 16 is why you would have chosen, as I've heard you put it elsewhere, to "talk Black" to Officer Crowley instead of "talking White" as you so eloquently and regularly do? These are distinctions I've heard you expound—how educated African Americans switch their register of speech depending on what part of themselves they want to get across. Many of us do something similar inside and outside our particular communities, but you make it sound like a sport that is also for African Americans a tool of survival. So why didn't you address the policemen as fellow Cantabrigians? What was that "yo' mama" talk instead of saying simply, in the same register your interlocutor was using, "Look, officer, I'm sorry for your trouble. Thanks for checking on my house when you thought I was being burgled, but this is my home, and if you give me a minute, I'll find the piece of mail or license that proves it to you." It seems it wasn't the policeman doing the profiling, it was you. You played him for a racist cop and treated him disrespectfully. Had you truly feared bias, you would surely have behaved in a more controlled, rather than a less controlled, way.

 

Do you really think anyone in this country has reached adulthood without having undergone the humiliation of self-justification to police? As it happens, a few days prior to your arrest, I was pulled over on the highway near Saranac Lake, New York. My husband and I had driven into town for dinner and were on our way back to our camp in the Adirondacks. When I saw that I was being stopped, I said, "I don't get it. I'm going under 55 mph." Nonetheless, when the officer approached the car, I quickly rolled down the window, reached for my driver's license as my husband got the registration out of the glove compartment, and said to the officer as gently as I could, "Excuse me officer, have I done anything wrong?" (I had not noticed that one of our headlights was out: We were told to repair it at the next gas station.) It would not have occurred to this gray-haired Caucasian female to count on a policeman's sympathy; the last time I tried joking with a policeman, some 40 years ago, my quip cost me an extra $15 on my fine.

 

This professor said it better than anyone I've heard yet! Please read in its entirety, it's really quite good.

 

Link

I agree that it's a nice letter, but I'm always suspicious of why someone writes such a letter "to" someone and then publishes it.

Do you really think anyone in this country has reached adulthood without having undergone the humiliation of self-justification to police?

 

Yes.

There is no doubt that Gates acted like an idiot. The excerpt that you posted is completely valid.

 

However, this does NOT mean that a law was broken. I do understand that "disorderly conduct" is unclear, and left up to the officer's discretion. I also understand that arrests for disorderly conduct are extremely rare (if not non-existent) in private settings. I think Gates and Crowley got caught up in the moment.

Do you really think anyone in this country has reached adulthood without having undergone the humiliation of self-justification to police?

 

Yes.

 

She did leave it rather broad, didn't she?

Do you really think anyone in this country has reached adulthood without having undergone the humiliation of self-justification to police?

 

Yes.

 

I thought that maybe I was the only one that hadn't.

I thought that maybe I was the only one that hadn't.

Me too.

You guys must all be living perfect lives or didn't hang out much or at all as a kid. I can remember being questioned plenty of times by the police for just hanging out with friends, just driving without breaking any laws and so on.

Were none of you guys ever questioned by the police while parked with a girl in your car or anything?

You guys must all be living perfect lives or didn't hang out much or at all as a kid. I can remember being questioned plenty of times by the police for just hanging out with friends, just driving without breaking any laws and so on.

Were none of you guys ever questioned by the police while parked with a girl in your car or anything?

 

I grew up in Mayberry, RTS. :lol:

You guys must all be living perfect lives or didn't hang out much or at all as a kid. I can remember being questioned plenty of times by the police for just hanging out with friends, just driving without breaking any laws and so on.

Were none of you guys ever questioned by the police while parked with a girl in your car or anything?

 

 

Nope. And I did way more than my share of partying.

Nope. And I did way more than my share of partying.

Doesn't sound much like it...

I grew up in Mayberry, RTS. :lol:

Oh, you poor child! :lol:

I agree that it's a nice letter, but I'm always suspicious of why someone writes such a letter "to" someone and then publishes it.

 

Anyone else have anything on this?

You guys must all be living perfect lives or didn't hang out much or at all as a kid. I can remember being questioned plenty of times by the police for just hanging out with friends, just driving without breaking any laws and so on.

Were none of you guys ever questioned by the police while parked with a girl in your car or anything?

 

Absolutely. Quite frequently as a matter of fact. I guess I was a victim of white on white profiling.

Absolutely. Quite frequently as a matter of fact. I guess I was a victim of white on white profiling.

 

:lol::lol::lol: