Had Henry Gates Jr., the esteemed Harvard professor of African-American history, produced his identification instead of thinking the act was beneath him, perhaps the paper tiger of a situation that was the talk of the nation last week would never have arisen.
In this country, people from all walks of life cross paths. Our different histories, whether we know it or not, form the paths we walk. The meeting of histories between Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley and Gates ignited one more installment in this nation's ongoing debate about race. The certifiable faces are all too well-known: Gates was returning home at night and his front door was jammed. Gates and his cab driver tried to work the door open. That process raised the eyebrows of neighbors who saw figures at their neighbor's door and they called the police. Enter Sgt. Crowley.
When Crowley arrived and demanded identification from Gates, Gates refused. Why? Upon what principle? Show a driver's license and there's no story. Instead, Gates started yelling and berating the officer, according to the police report. And Massachusetts law - which prohibits disorderly conduct, particularly when it's directed at police officers - came down with a heavy hand. Crowley arrested Gates, as the law empowered him to do.
No doubt, Gates has seen his share of racism. And the Boston area is no stranger to overt racism. And it must be said the younger Crowley ought to have used whatever diplomatic prowess and common sense he had in his tool kit to diffuse the situation. Crowley knew, at a certain point, that Gates was no robber.
And yet Gates had thrown down the gauntlet right off the bat when he refused to show his identification. He did show his I.D. at some point early in the confrontation, however, but by then things were heated. For his friend, President Barack Obama, to weigh in was disappointing to say the least. The president, like Gates and Crowley, had fallen into his own trap - making assumptions about the actions of others before more facts were forthcoming.
Had Gates and Crowley employed an inkling of common sense, their names wouldn't be this week's household words. Lower-profile cases like this are played out across the nation everyday. It's embedded in our history.
History is the nightmare from which we cannot awake, said Irish writer James Joyce. It wouldn't hurt, though, when any of us cross a fractious path with people different from ourselves, to step back, take a deep breath and maybe even - a radical notion - reserve judgment until all the facts are known. Otherwise, history, that unrelenting puppet master, will continue to pull our strings.
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