Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been in the news a lot recently, thanks to an innocent 911 call from a neighbor as Gates was trying to get into his own house in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A few steps further down the plot line involving cops, a misunderstanding, and a fired up homeowner, and suddenly Gates is being arrested for disorderly conduct in his own home and the suggestion of racial profiling is being thrown around. Even Obama got involved.
There are plenty of news articles about the story itself, so you can form your own opinion on who was right or wrong, but Dinner Topics is here to give you a little background on Gates himself. Some tidbits:
- A professor at Harvard
- About 60 years old (born in 1950)
- Has been called “”the nation’s most famous black scholar” (Michael Kinsley)
- His background is in history and English (basically, the humanities)
- His focus now is on Afro-American Studies, both in language and literature, as well as history.
- He walks with a cane because he broke his leg when he was 14 and one leg healed two inches shorter than the other
- He hosted the 2006 and 2008 PBS television miniseries African American Lives which traced the lineage of notable African Americans
- He was listed in Time among its “25 Most Influential Americans” in 1997
- He is extremely active in scholarly and cultural circles, widely published in both academic and popular media
- Has won too many awards to enumerate here
Read on:
Boston.com – Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home
NECN.com – 911 caller in Henry Gates case says she was vilified
fas.harvard.edu – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Wikipedia.org – Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
(image above taken from http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/10.26/99-gates.html)
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This has nothing to do with racial profiling. Perhaps it had something to with behavior “loud and tumiltuous” and attitude “you have no idea who you’re messing with”.It’s not that you’re black, Mr Gates; it’s that you are disrespectful. I stand with the cops on this one.