If you didn’t hear about the “beer summit” and the events that led to it, then clearly you were not paying attention to the mainstream media during the latter part of the month of July. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a very famous and well known professor to any regular viewer of PBS television, was arrested on his front porch by a police officer near (or actually on) the Harvard campus. CLICK FOR: summary of events.
We’re not particularly interested in debating who was “right” and “wrong” in this mess, nor whether the arrest was fueled by racial profiling or racism. What is interesting is the follow-up and it’s impact on race relations. So is this it? We give two aggrieved parties a beer and, as Laurie Mulvey says in the video, they agree to disagree and we call it “dialogue”?
Tell us what you think about what she’s saying. Is the event (and the spillover) indicative of our need for racial dialogue and racial healing…or is it merely another case of a small incident getting blown out of proportion by mass media outlets in search of sales?
"The Great Beer Summit" was okay for Barack Obama to put together; however, I do not feel like it gave the public much satisfaction. No one knows exactly all of the words that were exchanged during this "Great Beer Summit", and I feel that for that specific reason, many feel as though it did not help the situation very much, especially with the title it was given. Although this summit did not do the public a significant amount of justice, did it do anything for Gates or Crowley? I highly doubt that as well.
Obama is known for his words and overall great speaking skills. With that being said, I am sure he said some meaningful things to the two gentlemen and helped them to see things from the other person’s point of view. Now, forgive me for sounding pessimistic, but according to Crowley and Gates' reports, each of them has two fairly different sides of the story. Therefore, one of them is always going to consider the other to be a liar– and I am sure much more than that!
Overall, do I believe this beer summit helped to solve the issue? No. But I do feel that Obama had to do something in order to give the public some sort of satisfaction, even if it was not much. He had to find a way to make up for him making an “unintelligent” comment in response to the situation, and additionally, find a way to have some sort of closure or conclusion to the situation. I do not know all of the specifics regarding the case, but I strongly feel that agreeing to disagree is simply not enough. But then again, I guess I cannot say what I feel would justifiably be enough.
It would have been interesting to see them publicly discuss the issue, and pretty much see who was right or wrong, and I am sure that a lot more people would have liked to see that as well, but as previously mentioned, would that give Gates or Crowley justice? Probably not. I suppose that in life, you do not always need someone to be the person who was right and for someone to be the person that was wrong. Maybe putting things in the past is all that one can do, being that if you do not leave it in the past, what else are you going to do? Fight it out until someone is labeled as right and wrong? Or forever hold a grudge against someone? In this case, I feel that the common expression, “forgive, but do not forget” is valuable. Once again, as previously mentioned, both Gates and Crowley have already formed an opinion of one another, and it is unfortunately very hard, in most cases, for someone to change their opinion of someone, especially in a case like this. Sure Obama may have had the most amazing conversation with the two of them, but that does not change what occurred Thursday, July 16, 2009.
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“The Great Beer Summit” is a perfect example of how partially insignificant issues are blown up by the media and exacerbated by propaganda. I am absolutely not stating that this case of racial profiling was insignificant, merely that these types of incidents occur multiple times a day throughout the entire country. And that it is appalling how this issue was singled out by the media, and spoken of across numerous news channels. I admit I am sad to say that these issues to even occur. I wish I had more faith in our population to say that this was a unique incident but in fact it was not, and it was interesting to see how it was portrayed that way. Portrayed in a way to say that this is incredible and unbelievable when in fact it happens all the time.
However, President Barak Obama did the “right” thing according to society, playing the “good guy” attempting to reconcile both parties when neither party probably wished to even make attempts at reconciliation. I completely agree with Optimus Prime on this issue. The media just loves to blow these things out of proportion. Was a “Beer Summit” even necessary? Shouldn’t our president be paying attention to more demanding problems out there, like for example the new Health Insurance Policy? It very well could have even been purposely publicized, who knows?
Honestly, if we’re just going to be reconciling over beers in this country for cases of racial profiling why doesn’t President Obama just stock up on a couple hundred thirty packs, because that’s how many times racial profiling occurs daily. It’s so unbelievable that this was made into an issue. It demonstrates the fact that our country still has a long way to go before we are equitably treating people.
I know for a fact that the Summit was merely a Crisis Management event put together by White House Public Relations in order to eradicate the words President Obama said at his Press Conference for Health Policy. Simply a ploy to cancel out the mistakes he made, I believe no one wanted a reconciliation and even if one was needed, at the White House? Seriously?
I absolutely sympathize with Nate and do admit he has a point in saying that it was big of Obama to even address the issue, but would he have addressed the issue if he weren’t pressed to during that last question? Would he have addressed the issue if those not-thought-out words had left his mouth and he was forced to correct his mistake? I think not. Instead our society should just accept those of other “races” and leave discrimination out of the picture. It’s getting ridiculous, the end of the Civil Rights movement ended long ago and these types of incidents should not even be occurring. I just find it interesting that this particular issue in general was picked out by the media and spun into an out-of-control racial profiling tragedy.
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So this “beer summit” was a complete waste of time and an utter failure at progress. Barack Obama first of all should not have gotten involved. Is it because he’s partially “black” that he feels he must strike down the heart of racism? He has much more pressing issues to worry about these days, such as healthcare, the Economy, and the war on Iraq. Yes, the Harvard professor may have been his friend, but this issue was an all-in pot. He either had to address this issue headstrong or have left it to a simple statement concerning the misunderstanding turned media hyped debacle. Instead he holds a conversation with the two over a beer and discussed the small situation and apparently to no avail. Why hold this meeting if you’re not going to tackle the issue as a whole. Sharing a beer with the two to discuss the issue was a poor attempt if at all at race relations. Race relations are a much broader and intricate issue that cannot be mended with the president stepping in on one occasion. Similar situations happen every day and go unnoticed, whether it is from racial profiling or following protocols doing your job. For hundreds of years now racial dilemmas have plagued our country and our world. It is a problem, but not one that the president can solve himself, and unfortunately one that will never be completely eradicated. Over the years relations have gotten better, but differences still exist. This particular case seems like a misunderstanding that could have been easily discussed and put to rest amongst them. Media outlets are known to blow stories out of proportion for the sake of public interest. Not only did this story get national coverage, but the President stepping in put it over the edge. To top things off, the beer of choice seemed to be a topic of much discussion, more so then the actual goal of this so called summit. It’s sad that we fight over who was right or who was wrong, when no one has all the facts. It could have been a reasonable mistake on both accounts. Could the officer just been doing his job and the professor was just having a hard day and took it out on him? Possibly, it’s too hard to tell from recalled memories. Alas we are left with what we got and it is unfortunate, but things happen we move on. We the people, as a country and as individual must work together on this matter. This is a team oriented endeavor, and if we are ever to relieve this world of racism, we must learn to forgive and accept that we are all humans, we are all monkeys living on this wonderful place called Earth.
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I think this entire incident was ridiculous from the start. The officer was simply responding to a report of a break-in, its not as if he just pulled over because he saw a black man entering his home. From my understanding Mr. Gates has a history of stirring racial controversy, which makes one question even further how the officer could be percieved as wrong. I think if anybody actually expected anything to be resolved from a two or however many hours it was visit to the White House they are simply delusional. Race issues have always been an extremely sensitive subject in America and will remain so, mostly because white people are afraid to talk about it because often time they become percieved as racist. It would take days, maybe even months or years, to make any serious inroads in a race discussion.
All that being said I think the media is seriously to blame for many of the race issues we see in the world today. It is hard to blame them, as it is a topic that many people have an opionion on even if they do not express it out loud. By taking a controversy such as this and giving it the absurd and undue amount of coverage it received helped fuel even more anger and tension. This cycle will continue, despite the amount of progress we have made and there will always be illogically racist people. I think this is truly a “culturalist” fear, essentially not trusting or being afraid of a culture you do not understand. For example, a midwestern white person may have had minimal contact with any black people in their lives, so their only impression would be the hip hop culture on tv or the image of a “scary black man.” These get blown out of proportion by word of mouth, as a story of a small incident somewhere can gain gruesome details along the way as people like to exaggerate to make their story more interesting. The only way to be able to solve something like this would be to have the person spend time around black people and to gain a better understanding of the culture to help alleviate their fears. This will continue for eternity as its simply impossible to expose every person in the world to every other type of person. This is true when you talk about current western attitudes towards muslims. September 11th certainly stepped up the animosity and anger, but going back to the middle ages when the christians waged war on the ottomans we can see where these feelings of hatred started to develop, simply for fear that a takeover would force them to change their lives.
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I agree with everyone else when they say the media blew this event out of proportion; even the title of the headline “The Great Beer Summit” shows how the media was propelling this story. I was in a restaurant when I saw this on the news, and my immediate thought was “Oh great, another thing President Obama does that gets blown out of proportion.” As the president of the United States, President Obama should be careful as to what he decides to associate himself with because just like wildfire, it will spread. We don’t know exactly what they talked about while they were in the White House, so we can’t say if President Obama did his “job” or not as far as addressing the race card that was pulled out in the event. Speaking of the race, the gentleman that pulled the race blew the arrest out of proportion. Speaking as an African-American, I’ve seen plenty of instances where people that were of a different ethnicity than the African-American hurt the person in some way, and out of anger the person would always say, “It’s because I’m black isn’t it?” or “You wouldn’t do this if I was white.” There will always be people that will pull the race card, and that will pre-judge people, so I think an attempt to solve this problem (although a good effort) will not result in any changes.
For example, let’s say you like hamburgers, but 3 other people you know do not. However, you try to force your opinion of hamburgers on them, and they are not receptive at all because they are strong in their opinion about the hamburgers. Now, I know this has event has nothing to do with hamburgers, but the underlying concept still applies: we cannot try to change people into our way of thinking.
What’s wrong with the president inviting people over for beer? Is he not supposed to have a life? Maybe he wanted to give the two parties a comfortable, casual, informal, environment to talk about whatever it was they talked about. Sometimes it’s good to be neutral in an argument, especially one like this, and especially if you’re in a position such as that of President Obama. We can’t solve every problem there is in America; sometimes it’s good to just agree to disagree and move on. We can’t try to force our opinions and our way of doing things on other people. If we as a people are noticing that there is still a racial problem out there, why are WE doing anything about it? Why should we just let President Obama do everything? Yes, he’s our leader, but we have ears, eyes, and a mouth as well and are perfectly capable of talking to people in power about this issue.
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Racial profiling happens every day in our world today. It is impossible to avoid and it is nearly impossible to prevent, as well. The situation between the Gates and Crowley is no different than any other racial profiling instance. If President Obama wants to have a meeting about this particular instance, then he mine as well have a meeting with every target of racial profiling. In my opinion, this was a situation in which the President had no need to get involved. Simply making a statement about the instance would have been enough on his part. It is not his job to play the mediator role between two people and I believe this “Beer Summit” did not make much of a difference. The two men are adults and could have figured the situation out without the help of the President.
Not only did Obama get involved in an issue where he was not needed, but he also went about the meeting in the worst way possible and obviously wasted his time. The men did not even seem to talk about the topic at hand, which was racial profiling. If Obama was going to waste everyone’s time with this meeting, he should have made it worthwhile and discuss the issue of racial profiling and not just graze over the subject.
In Obama’s defense, it is not his fault that this situation was blown out of proportion. There was no need for this situation to become a national debate because once again, racial profiling happens every day. People are arrested every day and are targeted because of the color of their skin. People should be worried about racial profiling on a regular basis, not just when once incident occurs. This situation makes it look like racial profiling only happens once in a blue moon. It surprises me that this was made into the deal that it was and makes me wonder how ignorant some people are. Do people believe that this happens only when it is reported or on the news? I am not saying that this problem should not be addressed, but it is going to be addressed all of the other instances should be, as well.
It almost worries me that Obama put so much effort into this particular situation. In my opinion, there are more important things that he should be investing his time in. I do not necessarily think he shouldn’t be worried about racial profiling, but in no way do I think this meeting was necessary. I especially think this because nothing of importance seemed to have been discussed at the meeting and it does not seem as if they touched on racial profiling as much as they should have. This whole debacle was unnecessary and in my opinion, a waste of everyone’s time.
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I gave this Beer Summit a lot of thought. I thought about race, about police officers, about misinterpretations, and about anger. My final conclusion was that anger is a wasted emotion, which I’ll expand on later.
At first glance, I was certain I sided with Gates. Why, because he is a respected citizen wrongly accused of breaking and entering into his own home. After studying the situation more thoroughly, I was inclined to support the officer. Why, because he was keeping his promise to society. Gates appeared to be the one to bring race into the issue. Gates lashed out at the thought of being considered an intruder, which he related back to being a black man. It seems some stereotypes are carried through the very race being categorized. It was the black man that brought race into the equation.
Aside from the fact that I do believe the conflict was blown out of proportion due to media influence, the Beer Summit gave me a different perspective of thinking about race. I have been telling myself there are no racial issues in the United States, or at least in my community. The actual reality is that I have been lying to myself. Of course there are racial issues and there have been in the U.S. for the majority of our existence. I believe my opinions on race have shifted from believing we can’t mention race because that would be offensive to realizing that not discussing it is just as close-minded. The Beer Summit has not reversed my thinking but progressed it. I believe now that race distinctions are a part of human beings. As “intelligent” beings, we question differences. The amazing part about it is our ability to change and evolve, which I believe is what is happening concerning race. I think people’s acceptance levels have changed positions over the last half-century dramatically. And when I say “acceptance levels,” I really mean that people’s understanding of different races, cultures, and lifestyles has changed.
Getting back to anger being a wasted emotion, I believe that people are still upset about the United State’s unfortunate history of slavery. When looking at any race, everyone one has a clouded history. Until people realize that holding pent up hatred delays progression, no one, especially the media, should be promoting resistance. President Obama’s decision to “talk” about race issues over beer was laced with good intentions but as the old saying says, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” I’m not saying Obama is on the road to hell, but I believe his decision was rash and disappointed a lot of people. If he wants conflicts like this to be resolved, then he should lead by example. From one angle, he has the right idea. Something like this could easily be solved over a beer and listening to others. When people say they are upset with Obama for not doing more, they should be pointing the finger at themselves. No one can do anything alone. We’re all here together.
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President Obama inviting the Harvard professor and Sgt. Crowley to the “Beer Summit” has laid the foundation to possibly a less racially divided America. Racial problems have been deeply rooted in America for decades, and it cannot be resolved in one simple conference. However, by casually inviting the professor and the sergeant for a drink, President Obama has demonstrated to the rest of the country that the incident is behind us now and that we should not focus on matters of the past. The original incident was not a big deal. Due to the lack of trust between black and white societies, the situation was escalated by the two men. Fueled by mass media, the controversy has become the headline news story of the month. In an attempt to calm the nation and avoid racial outcries, president Obama hosted the Beer Summit. While critics of president may think that Obama should’ve tackled the issue of racial discrimination more seriously, I believe that president Obama did the right thing to calm the matter. Had the professor been a white man, the officer may or may not have approached the matter differently. Professor’s hostility toward the officer may also have influenced the officer’s view on the situation. As both sides failed to make the right decision, a simple misunderstood incident was turned into a national headline. Laurie Mulvey’s description of the Beer Summit is far more realistic and accurate than the media depiction. The news world wanted a big story out of this and president Obama used the Beer Summit to push the issue aside and set the tone for a more racial friendly environment. His decision in telling both men to forget the past and look forward the future not only avoided possible protests among different racial groups, it also demonstrated that Caucasians and African Americans can live together in harmony. In my honest opinion I believe that this was a small thing blown out of proportion. Racial dialog is not needed in today’s world because it will only bring out the ugly history of racial discrimination in United States. Many people may say its Obama’s obligation to fix or solve the race issue. Racial controversy has resided in America for many years and will not go away easily. It is not up to the government to repair inter-racial relationships but it’s up to the people to look into the mirror and realize that racial problems only exist because they are so sensitive to it and take no part in trying to solve it on their own. I hope people can learn from this incident that all the racial problems in today’s societies can be avoided if people take an active role instead of laying back and hoping the congress or president Obama can come to the rescue. What happened in the past is behind us now. A brighter future is still possible if people believe in it and help shape our world.
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The Great Beer Summit was an extremely unnecessary event. Need anything else be said? It was a small incident that was blown way out of proportion. The president had no need to get involved in the first place. The only reason why the Great Beer Summit happened was because President Barack Obama felt bad about his original statement regarding the issue when he didn’t have all the facts. I mean in terms of internal affairs and foreign policy, this situation should be at the bottom of the totem pole to fix. A well known man is arrested for a misunderstanding. I don’t know why this leads to that man and the cop who arrested him getting to drink with the president. And what exactly gets accomplished when you have a beer with the president? I’m going to have to agree with Laurie Mulvey and say that nothing really gets accomplished. You can’t really talk about anything if you don’t talk the situation out. First thing, let me reiterate that the whole situation of having a beer with the president to discuss the arrest is pointless. No other small event like this would be given such a national spotlight if the president had no comment on the situation. Nor would the event be given such recognition unless the person that was arrested was someone such as Henry Louis Gates. Next, if something like this is given such attention, the problem should be worked out. With Barack Obama in charge of the summit, one would think that the whole race issue would be resolved. Both parties involved could have talked it out another and shown the other where each one was coming from. Then the “racial healing” would begin. And I mean seriously, Barack Obama is half black, half white, so he’d be able to see where both parties were coming from. Honestly, I think that this issue should have been worked out if a gathering involving the president was needed because of such mass media. To prove that the whole event was blown out of proportion, once the beer summit was over, most news stations picked up on who drank what type of beer as their main story of the gathering. Okay, so Barack Obama picked Bud Light as his beer of choice during the summit, big deal. That’s not what everyone wanted to know. What went on during the confrontation? I think more people would be interested in knowing the answer to that question than what beer each person drank. And I don’t think we will ever know what was discussed between Obama, Gates, and the cop because that’s not what the media cared to tell us. The media outlets just wanted to make a really interesting story out of nothing.
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If we are to discuss solely the issue of whether or not we have a need for racial dialogue and racial healing I am in some ways torn when I think about this specific instance. Do I believe that there is a large gap of communication between races? Yes. Do I believe that if somehow we were able to comfortably confront one another with out fears of stepping on another’s toes that we could at least begin to heal the racial tension when a matter of race arises? Yes. Do I wish that as Laurie Mulvey said they could have gotten to the real stuff rather than backing away? Yes. However, I feel as if this particular debacle was blown far out of proportion and the fact that neither was willing to open up and be real about why they acted the way they did or listen to the other man’s reasoning might have had nothing to do with race, but is simply refusal to accept any other truth than their own. I think obstinacy is embedded in our human nature. Maybe they were both too stubborn to admit that they them self could have been at fault in either way. Instead both chose the passive aggressive route and agreed to disagree. What if it had been a white woman arresting a white male, and it had been said that she was only targeting him because we think of robbers and thieves to be typically male? Would they have had more of a chance at speaking their true feelings? I doubt any one would have even cared, but if they had I find it hard to believe that they would have taken a different route.
In an ideal world we would all feel liberated enough to say our true feelings and others would listen and try to understand. Sadly, this is not now and will never be an ideal world. There are times that we can never understand another person’s view. I think it was absurd for the world to know about this unfortunate situation. Since that was unavoidable I think Obama had the right idea about bringing them together to talk after the media brought him into the mess. The fact that they did not really dig deep into the situation is not really so terrible though. Is either man really to fault for wanting to just forget the whole thing? In my opinion it is better that they left that day willing to agree on anything at all when they could have left fuming over the incident still. I also don’t believe that Obama had any responsibility towards steering the conversation in a direction that would have led them to dig deeper. It was a mutual decision on both men’s parts to let bygones be bygones which leaves no reason for anyone to try and change that.
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Even though the United States is one of the most liberal and advanced countries, it is disappointing that we have not yet overcome our prejudice and stereotyping when we are surrounded by diversity. I believe that good leaders are those who are not afraid to speak up and can put others as a priority. It is ironic that Obama the first black president is not vulnerable to a problem dealing with racism. I do understand that as human beings it is uncomfortable to face our mistakes and talk about them. Its sad to know that the one responsible for our nation’s most important decisions cannot face reality or at least talk about how the situation got out of control because of a racial stereotype. We as citizens look up to our president, but his actions about the conflict between Sgt. James Crowley and Hanry Louis Gates are not to be proud of. He should of stand up not only for black people, but for all the other color people. I think that coming from him is chaotic, because if Obama can let go an insult to a black Harvard professor then everybody can. I would be extremely offended if I was the professor, because there is a major probability that he was strongly supporting Obama in his election. Having someone from my race ruling my country would make me feel secure because he would understand and fight for my beliefs. In this case it is upsetting that not even because the president is from his own race is courageous enough to stand for his rights as a citizen. Putting race and similarities away, as the president he has a responsibility to at least talk about the abuse of power the police had in this particular case. Regardless of the color, he showed enough evidence to proof that the property was his and they ignored the law putting him in jail anyways. The professor should of not been to friendly after his rights were violated, having a beer would not fixed the fact that there was a discrimination act against the professor and either the citizens will forget how Obama reacted to such a serious problem. I ask myself if Obama really has the passion a leader requires to represent the people, or if he fixed all his personal problems this way. Putting things aside will not eliminate them they will just stand aside creating baggage which is not a smart decision to make. In real life any kind of good relationship requires work and that is part of the work, being able to put your feelings aside and talk about the real issue, how to solve it and how it got to that point to not repeat it anymore.
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I think there are two points here that coincide with one another. Let’s state the facts that make this case bigger than it should have been: black professor, white cop, Harvard University, Barrack Obama, and beer. If this situation had occurred in a no- name town with a no-name professor this case wouldn’t have come close to gaining as much media and press (even if the black-white combination remained the same). The casual aspect of “throwing back a beer” with the President of the United States of America feeds fuel to the media’s fire as well. With that being said, after the Beer Summit took place, it was disconcerting as well as aggravating that nothing seemed to be accomplished. Though I must say, I can understand why Barrack Obama chose not to engage in any dialogue that could have been risky. As a politician, a move like that could be dangerous, but then why even have the Beer Summit?
In order to understand Barrack Obama’s judgment call for hosting “The Great Beer Summit” I had to get into the political mind set. Of course the goal is to settle differences, reconcile, and then hide the issue as though it never happened, but at “The Great Beer Summit” that wasn’t the agenda. Instead of Obama acting like the great political communicator America knows him as; he appeared to be more of a “host” than anything. I wonder when prepping for the Beer Summit if the White House staff questioned who would prefer the dark ale and who would prefer the light ale (no pun intended). Obama’s choice to act as a host may have been the safer bet though. If matters were to get heated this could have caused much more turmoil than expected. For instance, if Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley hadn’t “agreed to disagree” a much larger political controversy could have prevailed. As stated in the video, the idea to “put the past behind” them didn’t achieve much at all. It’s upsetting and disconcerting that this meeting was more or less useless dialogue that achieved little. It’s true that in todays day and age its much easier to skim the surface of issues than actually find some closure and/or resolution. It makes me wonder if there was even a true goal that went along with the Beer Summit. I can understand Obama’s decision to hold some sort of public offering, but again, it upsets me that someone like Obama, one of the greatest communicators, can skim the surface of such a large issue. This situation is a prime example of how people today find it easier to skim the surface or put things behind them, rather than address the realism of the issue.
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Obama's decision to invite both parties involved in the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arresting incident over for a beer is one I have mixed feelings on. Do I think his morals and values were in the right place? Yes, definitely. I feel that he attempted to turn the issue into more of something that could be solved personally rather than politically. Instead of turning the ordeal into a media explosion where he was continuously misquotes and attacked for possibly taking sides, he attempted to take matters into his own hands. My dad is always trying to instill me the extreme importance of communication, and how so many of life's problems and misunderstandings could be solved before they are started if people would take the time to communicate with each other. I agree with this logic and I think Obama's goal was to accomplish this without bringing the media into the matter. I definitely am not in favor of the President of our country trying to settle things over a beer however. I find it unnecessary and unprofessional. It almost makes us look a bit vulnerable if this is how our leader goes about solving problems. He could probably have used better judgement, but I do like the way he chose to try and bring both parties together in a casual setting to work out differences. Should he have instead acted out harshly or doled out punishment? What would that have solved? I admire the approach he took, I just don't think he needed to address it as summoning over for a beer. I agree with 'optimus prime' when they start off by saying that the media blew the Great Beer Summit out of proportion, which is not surprising. Nothing he does will float under the radar and because no other president in the past has ever done something like that, he has been under a lot of scrutiny and the media has been having a field day. This got me thinking about what a negative effect the media can have. It's imperative that the citizens of this country have faith and trust in our leader. When they knock him down and pick him apart like that, aren't we all losing? How do we keep up morale when our president's credibility and ability is constantly in question? Unfortunately, I don't feel that this advanced us in the race relations regard. I am not confident that if the same situation occurred tomorrow, that it would be handled any differently. We are still ignorant, we are still fearful of one another, and therefor issues like this will still continue to arise. I definitely think Obama took a step in the right direction, but I don't think the Great Beer Summit of '09 needs to be repeated anytime soon.
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What’s so god damn wrong with “putting the past behind us”? Why do we always have to nitpick the negative and want so much more on controversial confrontations like this? You want more racial dialogue? This incident and Beer Summit got it’s full of media and national attention. Clearly the officer fucked up, he made a mistake that was feverishly and publically criticized across the nation; he served his just sentence in my book from the embarrassment and shame him and his family felt alone. The fact that the physical victim Henry Louis Gates was able to forgive and basically befriend his arresting officer over a beer is an awesome and humble act that should be take for what its worth: a positive and inspiring direction towards the resolution of racial profiling and racism. What would you rather Gates or Obama have done? Started a law suit and anti-racism demonstrations all over Harvard’s campus. No, the intelligent and merciful Gates was able to forgive and reconcile, to serve as a positive example and to take a step in the forward direction of racial unity and equality rather than a backward one of uprising. Listen, as long as there are different races on this earth there is going to be some sorts of racism throughout each respective race, much if not all of it rotted in the hearts of evil individuals. That evil as all evil in this earth is always going to exist as it has from this earth’s beginning; our mission can only be sway or change this racist evil. Work everyday through positive and inspiring examples of your own life to show others we all are the same and judgment and treatment of others for physical differences is simply stupid and irrational. So why do we always have to surface the bad and the wrong and the mistakes? In the surfacing of racial evil we only show the world what’s wrong and how bad we think it is. We need to praise and surface the good, the improvements, the unity, and the love we all can share with each other. We need to take Gates’ positive example of peace and reconciliation as a step in the right direction, a step closer to the resolution rather than condemning Obama for a step backward, which it was not at all. Yes, The President of the United States should of never even got involved with the incident or made any public comments which he did later regret, however, from the position he got himself in he did the best he could. He invited the two over to converse over a beer, I mean come on you have to think that’s a little cool no matter how you look at it. They were able to reconcile and move forward, Gates was obviously graceful enough to do so from the beer and even further lunch plans with Crowley, so why can’t we move forward? Is moving forward and accepting The Beer Summit in a positive light and even a miniscule step in the right direction that naïve? I don’t think so, in fact, I don’t think so at all; it is only through forgiveness, the learning from mistakes, and the learning and obtaining of respect for each other that will solve our race relations problems. Bitching and criticism only keep us down and prevent the world from improving; it is only through genuine acts and positive examples like that of Gates in his respect and mercy at the Great Beer Summit that will lead to a resolution and end to the evil that possesses so many minds.
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This incident proves that racial tensions still exist and that our society needs to quell these tensions sooner than later. The men who met at the white house agreed to put the past behind them. In other words, they were brought together in the White House and were unable to find the perfect solution. Putting the past behind them is another way of ignoring the tensions that arose and dodging the bigger issues, the overall racial tension prevalent in society. When they met at the White House and discussed the incident over beers they made a feeble attempt to mend things. As Mulvey says in the video, “they agree to disagree and call it dialogue. “ The problem is that they attempted to sit down and talk it out, but accomplished nothing. Crowley, at a press meeting following the Summit, stated that the two men agreed to disagree on the matter. Even though they were mediated by President Obama, and in the presence of the White House, they were unable to change their positions.
Although Obama felt the meeting to be a success, I think that not all the cards were left on the table, so to speak. Especially when dealing with ethnic and racial topics, parties tend to hold back their tongues and enter discussion timidly. I am not suggesting that it is easy to accomplish a successful racial argument, but I am saying that at this particular meeting, people were cautious and didn’t speak their minds. At this meeting Crowley and Gates entered discussion knowing that their views on the matter would not change regardless of Barrack Obama’s intervention. Gates felt he was racially profiled, and Crowley felt he acted accordingly to the situation with race playing no factor at all. Given the history of this nation it is understandable how gates could feel the way he did, and Crowley similarly can understand where Gates is coming from. There remains people, and even police officers who racially profile people. When Obama learned of the incident, and wasn’t provided with all the information, he was furious. He called the incident “stupid.” It wasn’t until he got all the facts that he was prepared to conduct an unbiased meeting.
This article is a representation of how tricky relations can be between individuals of distinct backgrounds. If someone as well educated, urbane, and eloquent as President Obama was unable to make these men feel comfortable during discussion, then it goes to show how long these tensions have been built up. Instead of engaging in discussion with co-orientation (shared goals), Gates and Crowley left the white house with the same stubbornness as they entered it.
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The incident that occurred on July 16, 2009, was obviously a great opportunity for people to talk negatively about the president of the United States. This controversy mainly affected African American people in which the president is included himself. I believe Obama should have not been involved in the controversy between Henry Louis Gates, Jr. His actions were more about appearance then finding a solution to the problem instead of fixing it. President Barack tries to keep a stable relationship with all the people from this country, but in his attempt he is ruining his reputation by not doing anything at all. Also another error Barack Obama made was that the police officer didn’t receive any type of penalty because of what he did to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It was a bad thing because African American people are going to think that Barack Obama is in favor of racism. But the truth about all this chaos is that our president is trying very hard to maintain a good relationship between African Americans and white people. Not only that but he probbably had other intententions relating this issue, in which the general public took it the wrong way. In my opinion I think the president should be focused in helping people from all races and ethnicities. No matter what the outcome is he should try to maintain equality between people. Also the proffessor from Harvard should take this problem to the court or something more proffesional. He has to fight for this case because the police man should’ve been punished for his actions. Because what he did wasn’t fair to Henry, they violated his rights, and President Barack Obama didn’t do anything about it. Instead he should’ve asked the court to punish the police man, or try not to get involved in these types of problems. Another thing that don’t think is right is that the president used beer inorder to solve this issue. The fact that he used alchool and reached the media says a lot about how racist issues are solved. Usually policemen abuse power, and I think these types of things should be stopped. All the time minorities are affected for these kinds of racial acts. Most of the time here in the United States, a lot of these issues or racial acts are committed and the people get away with it. But there are also people who do it and get punished. In conclusion I dissagree with the way they solved this problem.
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On my own prospective, I think Barack Obama did not do any good by inviting the Professor and the police man to the White House. I think Ms. Whalen did a good job on calling the police because she saw this guys getting inside the house and it looked suspicious, but I think nothing would have happened if she had look first, see who he really was and make sure what was going on before calling the police department. I can not believe that they are neighbors and they did not know each other. I knew by the time Mr. Gates was getting inside the house the police was going to go to his house. And as I predicted Mr. Growley the police man got there and arrested Mr. Gates. I really disagree with Obama in this situation. I had never heard on my life the president inviting people to his house for a situation like this and to have a beer. I keep wondering why he invited them to the White House. They did not even talk about the problem. They prefer to just leave it in the past as if nothing have had happened. He probably did it to bring racial relations together or something like that. So, everyone could see that even the president got involved in this type of situations, but it does not work that way. The audience of this video clearly sees the hypocrisy behind because they did not even talk about it, it just made me think that they always try to hide things so they do not get in trouble. And just make it seem that nothing is going on. That everything is good. So people can think is always our fault and think that they always do the right thing. I am sure we are all aware of this situation in which they are always having the right things in the right place. We always think that the president lets us to the real things. That he will fix everything for us, but probably everything is just political. Barack Obama could had done the right thing on doing the great “Beer Summit and expect the racial problems in America to be corrected”. He is also the first African American President of the United States, so he probably just wants to deal with the problems on a different way, ways that he thinks are better for us. I still keep wondering why they did not even mention anything about the issue; it just does not make any sense at all. Why did they get together? It could be because he wanted them to make a different racial relation between them or just to get more publicity. None of us know what Barack Obama really had in mind.
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Journal # 1
Before watching this blog I knew nothing about the beer summit. It was very interesting to find out about this incident and how the issue was resolved. I think that this whole issue was based on a racial situation. The person who lived in the same neighborhood as the professor did not even take the time to find out the truth or what was going on. In a way that tells a whole lot about the person and their actions. By the person calling 911 proves insecurity in the person and in the neighborhood. In this case I believe that the person tried to be practical and be safe, therefore the police was contacted. On the other hand, the person did it intentionally just because he or she saw a black man trying to brake inside a home. Once the police arrived there they should have investigated the situation instead of arresting the black professor. In a way the police officer was not capable of doing such a job or he just based everything on racism. I strongly believe that if the police officer was capable of his job, he would have investigated the situation and set the professor free. Also, once the police came, I am assuming that the black professor tried to explain what was happening and prove that he was the owner of the house. If the police officer was capable of resolving the miss understanding, things would have not escalated to the point where president Obama had to interfere.
In a way I disagree with this situation because I cannot believe that president had to interfere in a situation such as this. I think that a lot of people in the U.S. look or once looked up to president Obama. The way the police officer, Obama, and the black Harvard professor resolved the issue with beer is definitely not the best way to handle issues. In a way the president is showing a week side of him because he solves issues among people with beer. One of things they could have done is sat in a conference room and discus the situation in a more professional manner. Also try to keep it away from the media as much as possible. I also believe that in way this is planned by the people in government because it is a little odd that the U. S. president would be part of a beer summit. In a way I think that because knowing obama and being who he is wouldn’t do something like this, but then again it is possible. On the other hand it was purposely done in order to distract the general public from something else. Besides that the whole idea of thinking that the president is covering a racial incident with a college professor and covering it with a beer summit is astonishing. Over all it is a crazy that things like this do happened and they are tried to be covered up with simple things. As if beer was the solution to everything.
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The actual idea of having this beer summit seems like an interesting idea, meant mostly to provide an example of conflict solving to the whole nation. That being said, I highly doubt this will catch any kind of following as people have always dealt with their own disputes in different ways. Some people would rather take a conflict to a legal court while others may use violence to gain what they want. The idea is decent enough but I just don't see how it could possibly change how Americans deal with conflicts.
Therefore I would say on the whole I see sense in what Obama did even if it was in vain and nothing was really achieved by it. It's better that our President is trying something like this instead of downplaying it or over looking it. It's much better for more personal attention to the citizens that negligence. Whether it succeeded or not is irrelevant, because the main aspect to be taken from this "Summit" was that our President at least has a mind to relate to the American people.
I can see how this can be about racial profiling as well, but that happens all the time in every part of the US. You can never change the personal opinion of someone. If someone holds something to be true most often it is impossible to assuage their ideas.
I never really heard about this Summit until now. I obviously heard about it, but really didn't have the energy or care to really investigate it further. This kind of misunderstandings, crimes, racial profiling, whatever you want to call it, happens every day. There will be no significant change brought about by this one event, but perhaps the ideas of meetings like this will catch on.
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I don’t want to argue about who was “right” and “wrong” in the situation, but would like to talk about the principles behind racial profiling. In my hometown I have many different friends who are of different races and have been pulled over or stopped while driving due to their color. I feel ashamed that our society looks at the color of someone’s skin to assume they are more crime-ridden than another. I feel that not only cops, but also everyone in our world needs to stop the stereotypes that continue to destroy the meaning of equality in America.
Back to the Beer Summit, I feel that it was right for Barack Obama to do what he did to solve the mess that the media made. These days every event dealing with race is automatically blown out of proportion. It’s actually sad how the media continues to do this, which only hold us back from diminishing the “race line” that still lingers in our society. I feel like both the media and the government took it a little too far, and stirred up the whole mess even more. Even though the cop and the professor still may not agree, I feel that it was important for them to sit down and talk without the emotions involved in their first encounter.
I do agree with Laurie when she says,” we see people either locking heads and not getting anywhere or shaking hands and backing away,” because she explains how people act fake and almost scared of talking about race, when it is such an important issue that needs to be discussed and evaluated. I feel like the professor and the cop still don’t see eye to eye and never truly will, which is sad to say. From wars to mass murder, racial problems have been inherent since ancient civilizations. I think that we as people need to try and put race behind us and see people for who they really are and not by the color of the skin.
I do think that a local police officer shouldn’t have gotten carried away to actually arrest a man who was only trying to get into his own house. It could have been dealt with very differently, but instead got blown up to drastic proportions. The man was a Harvard professor, so he was obviously very literate and formal to be breaking into a house, let alone his own. They should have talked to him before creating problems that led to an arrest and huge media frenzy. The cops should not have based their actions on a description of a black male from a neighbor when the man actually lived there. It was ridiculous.
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I strongly agree with Laurie Mulvey on this issue. I believe that people are always walking on egg shells, and brushing their true feelings under the rug. In this particular instance instead of discussing what the issues were that caused it, they chug a beer and pretend nothing ever happened. I hope that is not what this great president of “change” or not was meaning when he wanted to break though racial barriers. It is not only accepting people’s racial differences, it making a conscious effect to learn about other races then accepting them. This does not mean you have to agree or practice their views, it means accepting other human beings right to live. By stepping back and learning what another culture does, it can help any mind process the reasons for one’s actions. We have all been in this situation as one time in our life where we racially discriminated against someone. What were our reasons? Why would we degrade another human life? Are we are not breathing and are our hearts not beating? The reason probably is lack of education or interesting. For those that do not believe that to be true that is the ignorance right there.
The truth of the matter is everyone should take a minute to reflect on a time where they were misunderstood because of race, and remember then taking the time to actually get to know that individual and realized the, “madness behind the mystery.” It was a great shock to discover, “wow, they are just a human.” I am not ashamed to say that I have discriminated, then reevaluated the situation and would attempt to relate to the person. I found when I made that effort to process what is was that I disliked about that person, or what stereotype I connected, or what action had offended me, I was wrong on all accounts. I would begin to like that person and if not at the very least be able to accept them.
In this case I can only hope that what happened at the White House was the realization that the hatred or differences were uncalled for. I can only hope that both people spoke their minds on how they each felt and on what happened that night. I can only hope that they were able to say, “I made a mistake, I prejudged you.” Now, we all know that probably did not happen because if it did we wouldn’t have to pretend anymore that Barack Obama can actually help fight racism.
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At this time United States is famous for been State liberal but sometimes occurs many things that I can’t agree with the Government because when I saw this video I felt very sad because when it occurs something bad the government wants to hide the real problems. When Barak Obama didn’t do anything to make justice, the police are racist to black man or he is accomplice of all these violations. When the police didn’t want to hear reason and act only by impulse or because he didn’t like some people for their color or race the make unfairness whit innocent people. If I was the president of the United States for one day I hope that this person that arrest this boy he goes to jail and I remove his police permission. I didn’t know what the boy thought when he accepted to go to the White House because if I was him I will have never accepted because is an insult for myself because afterward happens all this problems they never invite me to go to the White House to drink a beer with Barak Obama. When I hear about the “beer summit” I think many things but the only thing that I never imagine is that the president didn’t say anything about the problem.
At this time I get very angry because the black men make up with the little things the Government due to repair the error, but they never do something to reward the problem. I think that the Government doesn’t want everybody to see what the real situation is or what happens inside the White House, so they want to keep all people whit uninjured or pretty thought about the president and the Government in the United States. I have many questions or things to say but the most important is why the police didn’t ask any questions to the man??? The only answer that I find is racism but I can imagine what will happen at this time because the black man didn’t say anything about his rights. Another thing that I want to know is what they say when they were in the White House because if they didn’t say anything about what happen with the police and the boy what topic the president choose to talk with the black man. I didn’t agree with the way that government choose to end the problems in the United States. The Government wants to keep the image that they have of all the worlds. The main point of this story for me is that when in your life pass something similar you decide to make a police report. If you want that other people respect yourself you need to start to respect your own self.
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First off, I don’t think there is any question Mr. Gates’ arrest was an example of racial profiling. My one big question in this whole arrest is who made the call for breaking and entering? Was this person white or black? I think this would go a long way to piece this whole thing together. If it were a white man who called, there is even more evidence that this is racial profiling. Had it been a black man who called, this might change my opinion. I also think it is completely outrageous that Mr. Gates was arrested in this situation. When they took down his information did they not notice the address he provided matched the address of the home he was trying to “break in” to? I think officer Crowley completely missed the boat on this one. I think the legal system did its job in eventually dropping the charges, but I still think it is absurd Mr. Gates even had to stand before a court over this. This all should have ended shortly after it all began. Officer Crowley should have realized the situation at hand, apologized for the inconvenience, and allowed Mr. Gates to proceed in entering his home. I don’t necessarily see why this story made national headlines. If you ask me, I would bet this sort of thing happens everyday. Of course I can see why this case made some bigger headlines, being that Mr. Gates is a professor at a top notch institution, but I still don’t think this story should have made it past the local news level. I would expect it to stir up some controversy in and outside Cambridge, but I would never think this would become a national story. The fact that Obama chimed in his two cents is what I believe made this a national story. If you ask me, Obama should have just kept his mouth shut. Being that he is a black man, and the first black president, he should have known it would make big headlines for him to comment on a case such as this, which involves racial profiling. Being that I am young and immature, I think Obama sort of righted his wrong by inviting the two parties to the White House to settle the issue over beers. I don’t think this case needed to drag out any longer than it already did, so the fact that Obama tried to put an end to it and let the two settle it like grown man goes a long way towards making up for his previous comments. At the end of the day, my reactions to this article are this: yes it was racial profiling, but I still would like to know the race of the person who called in the incident. Yes, Obama was wrong for throwing in his two cents originally, but Yes he did do the right thing in inviting the two parties to come together and discuss the issue.
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Diego Bernal Torres
The great beer summit had no purpose. The Harvard professor only got arrested because he was of color no questions asked. The professors neighbor, white of course thought that someone was robbing the house just because it was a person of color. This case only got famous because it was about someone known and famous, if not no one would have known about it. The professor had some guilt because he was breaking into his own house but was not enough to send him to jail. I have forgotten my keys before and I've "broken" into my house too but I've never gotten arrested for it. Fact that police man was white really hurt the professor because racism still exists to some levels. All the charges were dropped because there was no reason for it. The president sat with the policeman and the professor to have a beer apparently to clear up the whole situation and have a beer. The great beer summit as its called was not appropriately carried out. So both of the parties agreed to go and have a beer and talk about the issue that they had. It was going to be an uncomfortable situation and Mr. president was supposed to be mediator and helper of some sort. The main issue that they had to deal with was racial discrimination and how it still affects us today. The president was supposed to be in the Professors side because he was the affected person but he was indifferent and careless. The president did not want to take a side because he is half white and that's why he didn't support the professor. The president was not raised as a children of color, he was raised as a white person that's why he didn't take a favorite. Actually no one took the whole thing seriously, they were just having a good time with president. I think that the incident shows that there are still some racism towards people of color. I think that a lot of things can be done to fix this issue. Police man that do this kind of behavior for no reason should be sanctioned and or fired. The rights of the professor were clearly violated. Someone should take responsibility for what happened. The major points that had to be discussed in the great beer summit were overlooked. They let the "past" behind because they didn't want to talk about in part because the president knew that there was racism. This event shows us that there is racism, even though we have a black president. The president is an exception to the rule because he is not completely black and he does not know what it's like to live in the hood.
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When I first heard of the incident between Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge Police force, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I needed to get all of the facts before I could formulate some kind of conclusion. In the coming weeks, after the dispute, I watched news reports and read articles (in Newsweek, for example) about the situation from different viewpoints. In doing so, I was able to determine that this incident should have been a big indication for Americans that we are all in need of a racial dialogue and racial healing.
Being the child of a police officer, I was able to better understand where Crowley (the arresting officer) was coming from. When the police received the phone call, they had to react to the situation by what they were being told. If the neighbor called and said a man is trying to break into a house, the police needed to be prepared for that and have their guard up. Interestingly enough, in one of the reports I read, the neighbor never specified the race of the perpetrator until pressed for a decision by the officer who took the call. If the police arrived and treated Gates as though he was a criminal, it was because in their minds he was. Understandably, Gates was defensive from the way the police were treating the situation. Until Gates told them it was his house he was trying to break into, they had no idea.
I can understand Gates being defensive, but I can’t understand why he felt it necessary to pull the race card claiming the police were only treating him this way because he was black. How about a thank you officer for doing your job, sorry for the misunderstanding? Instead, the police were forced to arrest him for disorderly conduct when he began his confrontation with officer Crowley. It may seem like it was unnecessary to some, but to me, knowing my father is a police officer, I think the situation was handled appropriately. Although the police are there to protect the public, they need to protect themselves as well.
The first indication of America’s need for racial dialogue was when Gates pulled the race card. The second indication was when President Obama insisted that the police officers acted “stupidly.” No matter if you voted for the man or not, he acted unprofessional. He should be setting an example for Americans to follow; not taking sides and name-calling. How about giving these officers a little credit for putting their lives on the line for us everyday?
I agree with Mulvey and believe the “Beer Summit” was a way for America to sweep this issue under the rug. The past is very much the present, and the only way we will ever be able to make any progress and heal the tension between races is if we open up a dialogue between them. The “Beer Summit” should have started this. America hasn’t gotten as far as we may all believe when it comes to racial equality. I think this incident is indicative of how much work we still have to do in order to achieve that.
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So what was the point of this? A white officer arrested a black member of the society under a racial discriminatory eye and all of a sudden it was huge news. This happens every day. Simply put, racism is everywhere; it will continue to be everywhere because there is no realistic way to curb the problem as a whole in this society. Reading the past comments left by others so many are quick to point out that Obama had only good intentions and that his beer summit was his way of trying to solve the issue on hand. But really, if we think about it, why was this such an issue to start, and what did Obama really think he was going to solve? This has been an ongoing problem for an outrageous amount of years and the only light at the end of this tunnel is a person holding a flashlight. It’s hopeless, racism is part of American society and it is here to stay. Some may accuse me of being racist just for saying that, but I’m not, I’m just being realistic. If everyone would stop being so optimistic and just take a step back to see that many people are racist, whether it be secretly within them, or tattooed on their upper arm.
So enough with that, because that topic could resonate for days, onto Obama’s “great beer summit.” What was he trying to do here? Just get a better rating in the public eye? Mend this single dispute? Or was he just trying to help a brother out? It doesn’t matter what you think about the officer or his actions right now. I’m not saying I don’t think he was wrong, but I’m not looking at that issue right now. My problem in this whole situation is where Obama fits in. There is an isolated incident that all of a sudden gets the attention of the President of the United States of America. What was his though process here? “I’ll bring these two in, sit around a table by the rose garden, pound down a few cold ones, say we fixed some race problems, and look damn good on camera.” Ridiculous. I agree wholeheartedly with the video response made by Dr. Sam Richards, next time have them over for a special packed hookah, the chances you get a hell of a lot more down are sky high. Because the little beer summit that you had with a white officer and a black victim did nothing. Tweaking a line from Shrek, “Racism is like an onion. Layers, racism has layers. Racism has layers. Onions have layers. You get it?” This meeting might have scratched that first layer, but there is not a chance that shit shallow meeting dug deep enough to even being to solve any racism related problems that this society has. So take a seat, fill the hookah, and try again.
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Gates and Crowley both had different perspectives of the situation. Each had a reasonable reaction in their behavior. In Crowley shoes, he was investigating the brake-in progress. Gates along with many other people in his position will be on defense of being accused of a crime they did not do. I feel that the beer summit was an act of resolving racial unrest. It will forever exist in the world due to ignorance and lack of knowledge. I feel that Barak Obama stepped up to the plate by using this situation as a teaching tool for the rest of America.
People in society seem to think they are right. They’re perceptions are skewed and assumptions can get people into trouble acting in the moment. Blacks and along with other races are constantly on defense and feel that they are the targets. Thus, they try to milk the situation dry and take advantage of any “unethical” actions. On the contrary, white people feel that anything they do or say will be accused of racisms or discrimination. All these issues are examples why we need racial dialoged and racial healing to give society awareness.
I do agree that Obama wants them to forget the past and move forward to the future. However forgetting and not resolving tensions is letting a math problem unsolved. There has to be a formula or a way to get to the right solution, it is a matter of both parties willing to work in sync. What makes this so hard for many people is that everyone has grown up with different backgrounds, been taught all sorts of channels of knowledge. There are repressed feelings towards certain groups of people. In any disagreement, both parties feel that they are right and the other is at fault. In order to fix it is to communicate with each other and for both parties to understand each side of the story.
I agree on what Laurie said that the beer summit only skim the surface and to put things behind. There is way too much history and knowledge behind an individual eye that triggers them to act or look at a situation a certain way. But in our society we are taught as little children to forgive and forget. Others are taught to be the bigger person and let it go. However, what does being a bigger person even mean? It could mean suppressing negative feelings towards the situation, and later be resurfaced if its not resolved the right way. Obama can help but we as a whole can start uproar of change. We need to be educated and open. We need to be willing to talk about race and not get offended. Therefore, everyone can learn from each other inside out.
The media tends to over emphasize and exaggerate the incident. Any story with racial profiling, or that may look like it is, the news camera are on it with in minutes. I feel that this is one if the underlying reasons why people still feel hostile about their race. We would like to think that it’s behind us, but once the news finds another story, society will be reminded in the wrong way. The Beer summit positively show that two parties can set aside their differences and set a example for the rest of America
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The Great Beer Summit was Barack Obama’s plan to throw back a few rounds of cold brews with Gates and Crowley, in hopes that it would promote racial comity and relieve some racial tension. The fact that the arrest of Gates by Crowley was so controversial was just absurd. Honestly it wasn’t any different then your day-to-day arrests by white officers of black people and vice versa. The mass media took yet another situation and blew it completely out of proportion. The media took advantage of the fact that racial tension spurred back to hundreds even thousands of years ago, and played with that to make it seem like a huge racial issue.
The arrest generated a national debate on racial profiling which led to a variety of numerous opinions on the situation. There wasn’t any racial profiling involved it was simply an arrest due to a report of a robbery. When Barack Obama heard word of this he made statements, that he later recanted because he had to keep society happy or on board with him. Personally I don’t believe he should have even been involved with the controversy in the first place because it only put him at risk of being called out in the issue. He didn’t want to distinguish one side or the other because then it would completely shatter his political standards. Society would have completely destroyed him if he actually went public to confront the controversy. So he called The Great Beer Summit in a way to escape actually touching on the mass issue at hand. He took the coward approach by bringing them together at the White House to talk over beers rather then publicly dealing with it. It was pointless and useless to have The Great Beer Summit because nothing was solved it was just pushed aside.
Since Obama lacked to address the issue publicly, we as a society weren’t able to touch on the subject together. This of course leads to yet another lack of dialogue within our nation/society. The lack of actual dialogue and cooperation leads to the misinterpretations of certain circumstances. If racial issues were approached more often and debated upon there wouldn’t be as much tension. For example situations like these wouldn’t spark connotations of hatred or disgust. The president needs to be more thorough with issues such as these instead of pretending to be oblivious to the matters of society and misusing his authority to just brush things off as if they don’t truly matter.
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Mass media is powerful; more powerful than most people believe. Numerous media outlets essentially control what we hear, see and feel. It’s up to us, media viewers, to act as media filters and figure out what information from the media outlets is true and what information is unreliable. Certain media sources have one focus in mind and that is to gain power and profits. It is natural for them to blow a story out of proportion so that it attracts more publicity. Stories may be covered falsely and with more hype than it actually deserves.
What took place on Professor Gate’s porch that particular day may have been a simple misunderstanding or an honest act of racial discrimination. International news media quickly jumped on the story and put it in the spotlight. They easily made it into another story, throwing around accusations, involving social issues. The coverage on the incident left it standing as a major issue attracted by a lot of media viewers. As soon as a story sells, the “spillover” continues and sells too.
If the professor had been white, would the news coverage on it have been worthwhile for media to capture? Would Obama have invited two white gentlemen to the White House to talk over beers? If the two men agreed to put it behind them and forget about it, is it a type of racial healing or is it racial ignorance?
I believe that there will always be a racial divide. However, I believe that in today’s world it is more unintentional than it used to be. White people are more apt to accidentally do or say something racist and then deny it. Typically, after denying it, both parties move on and it is quickly forgotten about.
In the case of Gates and the arresting officer, some unwanted attention was definitely involved. It could have easily been settled behind closed doors and labeled as a mistake. Once the media got a hold of the happening, race relations is taken into account. This quickly blows the problem out of proportion and then certain precautions are taken to settle it.
There are problems with ignoring that the incident ever happened and using the phrase, “putting the past behind us.” It ignores uncomfortable confrontation and it doesn’t help with social problems that affect us daily. If Obama would have done more concerning the racial aspect of the problem than it could have served as a model for how people could/should reconcile between one another.
I feel strongly that a lack of media coverage could have lessened the blow and things could have been settled easier than they were. However, media will always be looking for the best story, whether the publicity is official or not will be the question.
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Barack Obama tried dealing with this touchy subject by creating a comfortable informal environment to ease the tension of both parties. This was a good idea but maybe not the best way to handle it. This matter should be dealt with in a more formal manner because it is not just a small issue that can be dealt with in a small meeting over a beer. This situation could have been used as a precedent and used as a starting point for a whole new outlook on racism and there is and should be no tolerance for it. But this does not give the right for people to cry hate crimes every time something happens between a white person and a person of a different race.
The news and other media is a whole other topic amongst itself. The media played a huge role and made this out to be much worse than things actually were. Every time there are issues that deal with race the media jumps all over it and makes it last for weeks when it should only last for maybe a day or two. But honestly if a white male professor was prosecuted for the same charges that were pressed by the authorities it never even would have made the local news. It is funny how when there is a feud with someone from another race it is automatically a hate crime or at least the subject of hate is brought up or in questioning. Then when President Obama welcomed both parties to the White House for a beer to talk about what happened the media went crazy. The story then went from being a local story to a national headline. Amazing! All this beer summit did was give the media a few extra days to collect some more money off the headline.
Another situation that bothers me when I think about it is when people accuse someone of being racist just to try and get out of charges, trouble, or even work that they do not want to do. This is common between white and black people a lot. Slavery between white people and black people happened many years ago and I just think that yes it did happen and slavery is not right and never should exist but in a sense we have to get past that and start looking forward. Stop accusing people and claiming racism when it is not a factor.
This was an interesting attempt on trying to solve this matter but did it really solve anything? It pushed it under the rug in a sense because the matter was dealt with but racism is still everywhere today. No matter how many years pass, how advanced our society becomes racism will always exist in the world.
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Obama’s Idea was to get Harvard professor Gates and arresting officer James Crowley together for a beer, at the great “beer summit.” The objective of the “THE GREAT BEER SUMMIT” was to prove to everyone that Obama was not the racist figure in this affair. Obama our countries leader failed to do his job in this issue. Obama called an officer of the law and “idiot” for making an arrest on someone who looked suspicious. Obama proved in his statement that he is an unprofessional leader. Since Henry Gates was a friend of Obama we got to hear about this story more and more. After Obama realized what he had stated on national television about the officer he figured he need to make things right, but did he?
Touching on the issue about that the great beer summit, which did not, need to make headline news seem to grab our presidents attention more than his healthcare plan. The most important issue about the arrest is that the officer was going his job. Just think about it, “if” the arresting officer would have not made an arrest on Henry Gates and he was not who he said he was what would have happened? For example, 1, officer sees man trying to get in to house; officer does his job and attains man, 2. Stops a possible break in 3, Next time an officer see a potential break-in he may let it slide so that he doesn’t have to put up with the bullshit and void being called an idiot by our president. If the officer does avoid making the arrest or questioning the suspicious suspect it could end in a deadly conclusion because he let the suspect go. So, if the officer does let the suspicious person go without being question and he does commit a crime the officer will then be looked upon as an idiot. The question that needs to be answered is, would they have had a beer on Capitol Hill if the officer was a hero and saved a family from a potential criminal or would we have heard about this if a white officer arrested white suspect or if a black officer arrest white man falsely. Maybe color did have play in issue is the ordeal but the black guy won.
Through my eyes and many others this issue went too far, the officer “did not” make the arrest based upon the suspicious man’s color, the officer was doing his job and looking out for the community. If former president Bush spoke about an African American police officer as being an idiot we would still be hearing about the issue and would have been thought as being racists. So if bush would have been considered to be racist so then we should consider Obama to be as well. The officer was doing his job and he did!
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I had not heard of the “Beer Summit” until I first read about it for this class online, and the more I learned about the situation, the more disgusted I became with the actions and reactions of both parties, the President, and the media. The questions that first came to my mind were how did such a simple situation become so blown out of proportion and create such controversy. But since both parties’ recollections of the occurrence contradict each other, and the result of the “Beer Summit” was nothing more than Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley agreeing to ignore the controversy completely, the truth will not be brought to light on who was right and who was wrong. Now not as if this was not problem enough, our President only made the situation weirder and brought about even more questions by simply “putting the past behind them” and never actually pressing the issue and getting to the bottom of it. I'm disappointed in the fact that Barack Obama was not able to resolve the issue completely and lead us, or show us how to fix or talk out the problem. Instead they made an agreement to leave it alone completely? I strongly disagree with their decision and would rather they talk out their differences and come to an acceptable conclusion. Although it was a smart move on the President’s part politically not to get in too deep and be forced to choose sides for fear of losing support, I feel as though some type of conversation should have been held on the occurrence to at least give us an example of how a situation like this should be handled. Without closure to this controversy, room is only left for more question and tension to occur.
I think this was another lost opportunity for people of different races to come together, talk out their problems or dislikes with or about one another, and eliminate the need for prejudice or racial profiling, which probably occurred on behalf of both the Professor and the Sergeant. Now what really annoyed me was the fact that in the post interview with the Sergeant, he said that no apology was made and then kept right on moving with the interview. I feel as though without an apology from either party leaves the situation completely unresolved and that neither party is regretful for their actions. I guess neither of them are ready to set an example for the rest of the United States to see or learn from. Now we will just have to wait for some other event to occur that the media will feel the need to pick apart and blow out of proportion on the basis that it contains some level of racism or prejudice.
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I’m not sure why Laurie is so disappointed. I remember in July news people wondered aloud what the president would say about this situation, and seemed disappointed when there was nothing more to report. Why did anyone think President Obama was going to lead us through a model for how to have a conversation about race? He might be a community organizer, but he’s not a professional mediator. While I agree with the idea of any kind of summit, (beer, hookah, or otherwise, especially with a feast!) I never got the impression the result of their meeting was going to be ground-breaking. While the mainstream media made a big deal about it, there were many headlines without much substance. So, I checked what Henry Louis Gates himself had to say. After the meeting with Officer Crowley, President Obama, and VP Biden, Gates posted at Theroot.com that he was grateful for the opportunity to, “foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.” He mentions an important point. There are two (or more) sides to this (and every) story and we sometimes forget that, focusing on ourselves. And micro or macro, it’s a complicated story. Historically, police and African-Americans do not have a good reputation for getting along. Then take this specific incident where the police officer was trying to keep the neighborhood safe and the “suspect” proved he lived there by showing ID (where the incident should have ended) and it STILL got a little out of hand. These men are not thugs, rather, educated men in the arena of diversity and it still spiraled beyond what I presume they would’ve ever wanted or intended.
Similarly, years ago I worked as student security at a University of Minnesota library where I patrolled hourly and locked up the place at night. One night I noticed a group of women who had a ton of food sitting out despite the ridiculous amount of signs posted everywhere that read, “All Food And Beverages Will Be Confiscated.” (If the rule seems strict, it was the medical library where the books were especially expensive and there were plenty of food-friendly places nearby.) I did not like enforcing this rule, but did so anyway because the job was cake. When I started to give them my schpiel about the rules and started removing the candy and beverages lying about, they immediately jumped up, came within inches of me, and threatened my “skinny, white ass.” I radioed to dispatch for help because I really thought they might follow through. They stormed out loudly with me standing in disbelief. What had just happened? The police were called but I was not present since it was outside the library. A couple weeks later, we had a mediation group where these students continued to insist I was racist. They did not listen when I said I treat everyone the same. A mediator later cried at the end.
Sometimes I feel like crying too. There seems to be a lot of hurt, still, after so many years. Slavery ended so long ago, generations ago, but we are still shackled to this racial divide.
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I think that the great “beer summit” was a result of an intense overplay of media attention. This immense amount of of media attention almost forced our President to pay attention to this “racial event” and to make a comment on it. In my opinion, there must not have been too much going on in the world that day for our President to pay attention, let alone invite these two parties to have a discussion about the event. I mean really, of all of the other issues that need tending to you would think that this one would not even be on the list, let alone cause a national event.
I do not really agree with or even understand Obama’s comment about this occurrence being a “teachable moment.” If this event had been between two people of the same race there would not have even been an issue to talk about. The only thing that happened was an unfortunate misunderstanding which resulted in this ridiculous media event. It should never have been made into a race relations problem. Obviously there are still things that need to be ironed out between races in this country, but a police officer just doing his job is not one of those things. The only way that I could see this even being a teachable moment is if we, as a nation, not make such a big deal out of the little things and focus more on the bigger problems such as child abuse, unemployment, or anything else that matters. Also, Al Sharpton commenting on the incident is not shocking at all. That man considers everything that happens an injustice to his race. I was born in Washington D.C., one of the most diverse areas in the world and maybe I just do not have the mentality that Reverend Sharpton does, but not every interaction between black people and white people needs to be censored. That would completely defeat the purpose of creating a stronger bond between people.
This arrest, in my opinion, does not reflect on racial tensions in our country, but it does reflect on our nation’s ability to overreact. In reality there are always going to be differences between our races simply because we are all individuals who have different opinions about the world we live in. There was no need to have a racial dialogue over this event because in the grand scheme of things it does not really matter, sometimes bad things happen in life and not everything needs to be made into such a big deal. Obviously the people who did make this situation into a big deal have way too much time on their hands and need to focus on more important matters.
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I am glad that the Henry Louis Gates, Jr. incident was one of the options to write a journal about. I have had several heated arguments about this subject over the summer, so I felt a natural inclination to read the blog. I would have to agree with the latter of Sam Richard’s theories, meaning that the situation was blown way out of proportion by the media. In fact, I think the main perpetrator was President Obama. when he came out and said that the police officer was wrong. While Mr. Obama admittedly did not know the full details of the situation, he sparked a great deal of unnecessary controversy.
I think that the Henry Louis Gates skirmish highlights a major problem in the portrayal of racial tensions in today’s society. If both parties involved were the same race, whether it be black, white, asian, etc., I don’t think anyone would have made a big deal of the whole arrangement. Also, I think the situation was further escalated by the fact that the black man involved is a Harvard professor. I think that it is very unfortunate that they were held to a different standard due to their respective social statuses. If I were trying to break into my house because I was locked out, and my white neighbor called the cops on me, most likely no one would have cared; it definitely wouldn’t have garnered national attention. Even if I called the cops on my black neighbor trying to break into his own house, it undoubtedly wouldn’t have circulated further than a local publication.
I think Henry Louis Gates falls highlights a broader problem that I observe frequently: black people receiving special treatment due to their past. I want to clarify that by no means am I racist, and I would like to consider myself a very accepting person. That being said, I think that people play the “black card” entirely too often. Henry Louis gates was not being discriminated against by his neighbor. The woman who called the cops was simply a concerned lady who saw a man breaking into her neighbor’s house. I think most logical, unselfish people would call the police under those circumstances. However, just because Henry Louis Gates is black people start freaking out. He would have received the same treatment no matter what race he is, and it bothers me when people say otherwise. Thus, I feel that the Henry Louis Gates overdramatic spectacle was nothing more than a misunderstanding.
The one good thing that came out of said altercation was Mr. Obama’s reaction. I was proud of the way he handled everything. I was originally against Obama, but I am starting to come around to him. Even though the beer summit resolved very little, it gave Obama a great public image, and provided closure to the situation. I hope he continues to impress me.
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After watching the “How the great beer summit failed” video and reading the article I had mixed feelings about the situation. I agreed with both opinions that were suggested; the opinion that the event was blown out of proportion for media attention and also how the event showed the need for racial dialogue and racial healing. I agree with saying there was no right or wrong person in reference to the white officer involved or the black Harvard professor. I honestly think it was more of the outsiders involved who created more of the complications and controversy, such as the neighbors who made the call to the police. I feel as though if it was a common arrest for any other type of crime it wouldn’t have got as much media attention as it did or the arrest wouldn’t have been viewed as negatively as it was. Since the arrest was for burglary, or should I say what appeared to be burglary I think people made their own assumptions. It seems as if people had the idea it was a racial conflict only because the officer was white and the person being arrested was black and what the arrest was for, but didn’t think about the world today and how many blacks or any other race are arrested daily by white police officers.
Now going back to saying the neighbors caused the fuss and racial conflicts is what I truly and strongly believe. I think if Mr. Gates was a white man not a soul in that neighborhood would have believed he was trying to break into a house, but would have believed he was just as financially stable as them and could afford to live in the community he does. People didn’t see him as the positive, intelligent black man that he was or may have been but rather his skin complexion and his surroundings and their personal racist opinions about blacks or some other minority race. No matter where you go, black people have certain reputations and stereotypes placed on them, whether they live up to them or not. I personally think the stereotype Mr. Gates had to suffer from was that blacks belong to the lower class in society and can’t afford what white people may have, as well as black people are angry and hostile people who commit crimes more than other races. Unfortunately people don’t erase these stereotypes from their minds but rather show their ignorance towards another race and let these racist opinions reflect in their personality or choices they make, which is what the neighbors did. I overall feel that before and after the call was made to the police, people didn’t put themselves in Mr.Gates’s place and think about how they’d feel if they were arrested based on assumption and stereotypes.
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In the case of the “Beer Summit” I do believe that the media blew this event up as it does with many small things, but could we blame them? It was one of the first race issues to occur with our first black president. However, although this is an annoying thing that commonly occurs, it is also a beneficial thing that it was so well known. This is because it leads society to focus on a common issue that we choose to ignore a lot when dealing with race. It just goes to show how whenever an uncomfortable situation comes up, instead of taking the matter and tackling it head on, we back off and just brush it off of our shoulder. Clearly, we do not realize that instead of sitting down and having a beer and laughing about what happened, we could sit down, still have a beer, and lay out everything that happened on the table. This way, we could focus on the issue, get the problem straightened out, and laugh about it after with no hard feelings (most of the time). People just do not like the awkward feeling that they would have to face right then and there, which is understandable, however, they do not realize that by sweeping it under the rug it only leaves for more awkward feelings in the future. Clearly these two parties and Obama chose the easy way out. Honestly, I know what would be the smarter thing to do, however, I can’t criticize them for how they handled this because I cant say that I would actually try to tackle the issue head on either.
I feel like this “Beer Summit” received a lot of criticism for a few reasons. First, as I touched on before, this is one of the first problems to come about outside of the debates dealing with race that Obama had to face. I feel like this is a main reason why this became such a big deal in the media. Everyone wanted to see how he would react and deal with such a contovercial thing. Because of the high anticipation of what might come out of this, many people do not agree on how this was dealt with. As I said before, I cannot honestly say that I would have straight out stated the problem and suggested that it be resolved right then and there, however, this event was highly publicized. Because of this fact, I do think he should have handled it a bit differently. The men should have discussed what had happened and why it had happened. Although this possibly could have created more problems between them and what the public would have said, it would have been one less possible case of racial discrimination that was swept under the rug.
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After watching the video on the blog and reading the summary about the beer summit, it appears to me that this is simply another exponential overreaction that somehow finds its way to our consciousness. It begins with a misunderstanding and snowballs into this monstrosity that ends up being the focal point of most evening news talk shows for a week. I think it’s easy to say that the catalyst in the situation comes about due to race and the history it has in this country. I say that Henry Louis Gates definitely has a right to be upset but from the looks of it, he took it to an inappropriate level. It also seems that Crowley, as he was about to leave in his car, abused his power by detaining Gates, even though he had warned him. That is something that we definitely see a lot of all over the world, not just here in America; police officers exercising power to uphold their image when it really appears that it’s unnecessary in many cases. I think that that action is what catapults this issue into the spotlight. Crowley, in all fairness, should have seen this coming. You can’t detain a black professor for yelling while he’s in his own home and not expect this kind of thing to stay quiet.
I find the whole following event to be quite funny. Obama hears about this (obviously) so he decides that this is a great opportunity to give it the attention that only he can give. Who’s not going to listen to the first black American President have a dialogue about race with these two? And its over beers!? Don’t say anymore! So Obama knows that people will watch and this is going to be a great first in his term as president. But the problem with this is that everybody in America has such high hopes for this because there has never been such a precedent as a black President speaking on his perspective of race. Ultimately it looks like this is a failure. But here is where I disagree. This is a much bigger deal now that Obama is President. Before if say George Bush were to do this there would be much fewer people tuning in to listen. Few people, especially those who are in a minority, would expect great strides to be made by Bush. In Obama’s case though, there is hope, and so more people tune in. People rally around Obama unlike recent Presidents. So what if you couldn’t appreciate what’s happening because strides weren’t made. You only seriously expected them to be made because it was Obama speaking in the first place. There is hope for this long and hotly-contested issue of race and it lies in Obama. I give him this mulligan because he won’t make that mistake again. He knows why it didn’t work to some people’s liking and he knows where he went wrong. I have faith that we will see great strides from him in this area in the future. We just need to give it some time.
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I do not think that the beer summit was a total waste of time nor do I think that it effectively solved the problem. I agree with an earlier poster who stated that Obama made a smart political move by calling the two men together to peacefully talk about the problem and shake hands over it. We live in such a diverse country that it is impossible to please everybody, and digging to get to those deep issues would probably ensue another event that would have somewhat been similar to the one involving the Jena 6, where both sides are arguing to justify themselves and expect higher up officials to side with them. Through it all, everyone would expect Obama to take a side and then criticize him for something like dancing around the subject if he wouldn’t. The summit seemed to have settled the main obvious situation at hand, which was the faulty arrest of one black man, between the arrestor and the arrested. In my opinion, that’s a good thing; one step forward, no matter how tiny and insignificantly small it may seem, is still a step forward. I don’t know exactly was talked about in the White House or how deep the conversation got, but I’d like to optimistically think that such a conversation between the president of the United States, an esteemed Harvard professor, and a law enforcement officer would have gone a tad bit farther than just scratching the surface area of the issue.
Personally, I like the way that Obama handled the issue. Talking over an issue over beers, in a relaxed non-confrontational setting, was probably the best way to handle the situation. As president, he could have just ignored the issue all together and the let media run all over it as they pleased, but instead he stepped in. I think that this shows that our president really does think of racial profiling as an important national matter and that he does want to do something about it. Who knows? Maybe this beer summit was actually the first, experimental step in an even greater scheme that Obama has to help solve these problems.
In conclusion, the summit did not seem dig much deeper to try and get to the bottom of the main hate-race related problems that plague this country, but that seems like a problem that we as a country need to work on together and not something that should be expected to be solved between a few men and a couple of beers. Perhaps, it might even be a good idea for Obama to cancel all work and school for a day so that the whole country can partake in a National Beer Summit… Nevermind, that sounds like a horrible idea.
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I read most of the comments written about this blog and came across some pretty interesting ones. One that interested me the most was Fed Up’s post about who really cares. This whole incident just seems to be a blown up incident about a man getting “arrested”. It happened at a time when news reporters had nothing to report order than this and the other incident that happened in a suburban Philadelphia swimming pool and therefore had to keep on firing the story until some proper news come along.
The man got detained for four hours, I shall reframe from using the word arrested because it wasn’t like the man was put in jail over night and had a couple of guys giving him the looks all night long. The reason for being detained wasn’t that he was black and trying to “break into” the front door, because he had shown prove of residency so the fact that he is black doesn’t play a role because ITS HIS DOOR!!. If the was made on the bases of skin colour, why wasn’t the driver also “arrested”?, for according to the story, they were two guys trying to ply open the door, and both of them were black, why would one be arrested and not the other. The reason the professor got detained was for his behavior toward the officer. The crime was charged with is disorderly conduct, which has nothing to do with any racial profiling. All the hype the story were just media created and therefore the need for the president to step into it to calm down the situation was unnecessary.
People get arrested all the time. The president has many things to wrestle about than a citizen getting arrested. If Barak Obama is to worry about settling every little racial profiling incident that spurs up with a chat over a beer, then he needs dozens of liver transplant donors lined up already. Pretty much every little confrontation between two individual from two different races, the minority is going to yell out racial profiling used. Having a president settling these petit confrontations is not what a country needs.
Making reference to the beer summit, what is there for the Obama to say? Is he now supposed to educate them about race? Are people so uneducated about racial profiling that the president is the one suppose to take time and educate them? The only thing he can really say to them is take what happened to them was very unfortunate and that they should put the past behind them and reconcile. That exactly what he did, there is nothing more he could have done, because these are well educated guys, in fact the professor is the director of Harvard's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and that wouldn’t the time for a long speech about what’s good and bad.
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First of all, did anyone ever ask themselves, why did President Barrack Obama have to interfere on such a relatively “small” incident? Seriously, how often does that happen? In my opinion, the great beer summit failed for a very simple reason. The great beer summit failed because President Barrack Obama failed to address the real issues about the incident, like why didn’t Cambridge officer James Crowley leave, after Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. told him that this was his residence he was trying to get into? Why did the Harvard Professor get charged with disorderly conduct, for trying to get into his own house, after the fact was already established? Think about it, who would not freak out if they were getting arrested for trying to get into their own house, after coming home from a long trip? How did neighbor Lucia Whalen not recognize Professor Gates? And finally, why are people so eager to say that racism was the cause of the incident, when it could have just as well been a lack of good judgment on both the officer’s, and neighbor’s part? I know the era of segregation and civil rights wasn’t so long ago for the people lived through them, but why do they feel the need to say racism is the cause for every little incident between a colored and a Caucasian person. I personally grew up, outside this country, and for the longest time I never even heard of the term racism. Now that I reflect on it, is mostly because I grew up in a multicultural environment, where there really wasn’t a dominant skin color, and the people were not afraid to share what was on their mind. All the people that I had been around brought problems and conflicts to light, in order to keep them from escalating, and getting out of hand. It seems to me that the only reason Obama intervened on this incident, and called for the “Great Beer Summit”, as it is now being referred to, was to keep this problem from gaining more attention, than it had already acquired. Obama wanted to have the general media just forget about the incident. From my point of view, that was the goal of Obama’s, beer summit. He failed to address the real issue and instead tried to have both parties put the incident behind them as a way to prevent further action from being taken by either party. But how can you solve a problem if you’re not willing to address it? The fact is racism still exists in today’s world, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, but the only way to come up for a solution to it, is by addressing the issue.
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I am not aware of the details regarding the great beer summit or the details of the incident before it where the professor was falsely accused and arrested. Many say that it was racial profiling, if so, I feel that not enough was done to reach a solution to this problem. Yes the “beer summit” was planed with good intentions but it simply was not enough, and to me the issue is still unresolved. I am not sure how I would have went about it, but I feel that instead of reaching a solution, the “beer summit” of reached a compromise.
Now regarding the arrest, I don’t understand why Gates was arrested after showing identification and proof that the address belonged to him. With that being said I feel that the arrest was an act of racial profiling. I feel that Crowley completely disregarded Gates’ identification and proof of residency because, he was only concerned with making an arrest and found a reason.
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For me, the Great Beer Summit was simply a disappointment. I was honestly upset about how the “great beer summit” was carried out. President Obama pretty much just invited these two guys for a couple of beers while the rest of the world watched and waited for a discussion that quite frankly never happened. All the attention was turned to what kind of beer they were drinking instead of what topics these three men were discussing. I wished that there had been a racial dialogue to clear up the confusion that this country went through. The questions of Who was right? or Who was wrong? is not nearly as important as the topic of how the United States handles the issue of race. It is obvious that the United States has many races, and it is because of this that controversial situations happen all the time. We as a nation unfortunately almost never get to hear about most of these situations. But we all heard about this issue and although we will never know exactly what happened, we should have and needed to use this opportunity to take a step in the right direction. It is necessary that we address the issue of race now and today. I completely agree with the opinions of the woman in this video. Why do we have to put the past behind us? Why are we so afraid of race or talking to people about race? We have to address issues now, no matter how uncomfortable they make us. It is so pointless to ignore current events and just put them in the past. Every time that we decide to ignore a situation or push it aside, we are actually creating more damage and a greater gap between race relations. It is essential that we learn from our mistakes now so that we will not repeat them. There is no doubt that racism still exists in this country and it is on us to reverse this and create progress. But how can we create progress if we don’t have racial dialogue? President Obama should have addressed this issue with the nation instead of having some beers. Having a couple of beers is not going to solve this ongoing problem. Getting people together is the first step, and for that we can congratulate him. But then President Obama should have followed through with an in depth discussion. And of course, the media will always blow things out of proportions but at least they raised questions and caused controversy. They started debates between people and caught their attention. They created interest and most important, they created conversation. So if everyone else was talking about it, why didn’t Obama?
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So pretty much both side just swept the issue under the rug? Played it off like it was an awkward misunderstanding between two frat guys settled over a beer? Well good job America, the great “change” that we heard so much about is simply keeping things the same, but have a beer to keep things calm? What a great way to set an example for the rest of the nation. Well shit, next time I have a racial misunderstanding I’m going to ignore the greater point of the problem and get a case of Lager and smooth things out till I can’t walk. I was watching “Spin City” last night and the episode was about Michael J. Fox’s character trying to con one of the other workers in the mayor’s office to make a weight loss campaign for children. The “lucky” canadate was the black character played by Michael Botman. In one scene while Botman’s character was running through Central Park with his hood up waving his arms while singing, a NYPD police car saw this and the two white officers arrested him on seemingly nothing. The mayor’s office suggested that the entire situation was forgotten about, or “swept under the rug”. This seems to be the running norm ( I site the Beer Summit).
I cant claim that I would know what to do to better this situation if I were in the presidents shoes. But I could think of a few more professional ways to take care of this type of situation rather than a beer in the white house. And why did the president have to step in anyway? Wouldn’t this kind of thing be better handled by the parties involved, you know have them resolve their own differences and misunderstandings? Hell ill get in a racial charged- well publicized-over blown incident with someone just to have a beer in the white house with the president. But if I was having a beer with a president wouldn’t I have it with the president that would be more fun to have a beer with (That Bush Guy)? All im saying is that this might be a thing for the ACLU or the NAACP to handle. Throw a few flashy words on it like hate crime, civil injustice, or anything else that comes to mind and they should jump all over it, not Sam Adams, or Keystone LIte, or the ever popular Natural Ice. In short I have beer and civil injustice on the brain now so im going to wander off in to the outside world full of hate and misunderstanding, and I’m going to have a beer, because beer solves all the world’s problems. I needed three words.
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To be quite honest, the issue was not resolved in a manner of my liking. The man that was arrested probably still holds a grudge against the officer that arrested him. Its not possible to solve an issue of this magnitude by gathering the two parties and having them discuss the matter over a beer. It's deeper than that. Living in such a diverse nation such as America gauruntees us that there will be a problem of rascism. It has to be combatted in a different, more effective manner. I understand where President Obama is coming from. He did not want to stir up both sides, so he did what he thought was best and just brough the two men together to talk. However, is this really going to change anything in the future? If another incident like this occurs again, is the President going to get involved and bring the two parties to the White House and have a beer? The only reason this issue was brought to national attention was because the man that was wrongly accused and arrested was a friend of Barack Obama. If it was any other person, the media would not have heard about this matter. It may have been a misunderstanding, but a precedent needs to be set. Cops just can't go around arresting people all willy nilly. There has to be consequences for your actions despite the fact that it's an accident. It should not have happened.
Although I feel as though Barack didn't do enough to solve the problem, I can't really fault him for his actions. I totally agree with "Mr. Usual" when he said that if Barack had chosen a side, then it would have stirred up controversy from the side he did not choose. Being that he is relatively new to the President job, it would not have been smart to choose a side. He already has enemies. He can't afford to have any more.
Barack had to follow his gut and pacify both sides. Although critics may argue with his approach, he did what he felt would cause the least amount of trouble. Everyones not always going to be satisfied. The fact that the two sides talked is extremely positive. I would like to hear from the two parties to see whether or not they agreed with how the matter was handled.
If it were me and I had to solve the problem, I would have gone about it in a different way. I would have had the two sides talked, but the officer would have faced consequences. I believe that punishment is needed in this case to set an example. I would have made an example of this officer which basically would show others that if something like this ever happens agaian, then they will face punishment. He may have been trying to keep the peace, but he still needs to integrate some punishment.
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In my opinion, it is wrong to simply dismiss the “beer summit” and the events leading up to it as a cry for attention from money-hungry, ratings-seeking cable news outlets. I think it is certainly justifiable for a passerby to inform the police of suspicious activity that may look like a break in. I think it is justifiable that the police would respond to the call. However, what is not justifiable was the action of Sergeant Crowley when he arrived on the scene, and this is where the race card comes into play. Mr. Gates was able to produce valid identification proving that the house was, in fact, his. That is when police involvement should have stopped, not escalated. This is a blatant case of racial discrimination. Sergeant Crowley ignored irrefutable evidence, and his own racial biases led him to arrest and innocent man. And Sergeant Crowley is not the only police officer with prejudices against minorities, he is not an anomaly in the system, he is simply the product of a law enforcement system which encourages racial discrimination. It is hard to believe that Sergeant Crowley’s actions would have been the same had Mr. Gates not been black.
I think that President Obama’s response to these events was very well-intentioned, but poorly executed. What better way to resolve things than a casual meeting over beer? In this manner the President gave the issue at hand attention, but didn’t overhype things by turning it into a formal debacle filled with news cameras and reporters. However, I fully agree with Laurie Mulvey in that “the actual issue at hand was only lightly skimmed”. In saying that they were going to “put things in the past”, they are ignoring the larger issue of racial profiling and law enforcement. What should have been a deep, provocative dialogue on race relations turned into a casual, feel-good hangout between buddies. It’s like if the writing of the Declaration of Independence devolved into a bunch of dudes rolling a fatty and watching Lord of the Rings, instead of tackling the larger issues at hand. The messed up part about this was that it was exactly what President Obama probably wanted. Why would he want to ignite a larger controversy that could be very easily avoided by “putting the past behind us”, especially when this country is having enough problems as it is? The President made a compromise for the sake of PR, he gave up what would have been a heated discussion for the betterment of America for the tactic of simply brushing it under the rug.
It is a sad case of politics trumping larger moral issues, but it was a thrifty move by Barack Obama. I would have liked to have seen Sergeant Crowley been reprimanded in some larger way, to serve as an example for other racially biased law enforcement officers.
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I couldn't agree more. I am so tired of people pretending like racism is dead or that it's not relevant anymore and all that nonsense. I really just can't see why it is so hard to sit down and talk to someone else and just be frank with him or her. It really just comes down to a mutual agreement on honesty. Nobody wants to just come and pour out all of their bad thoughts and experiences without the understanding that they won't be the only one confessing. However once that agreement is reached it is amazing how easily the words flow. I think it is funny how it seems most people understand that the key is to have open conversation, but none of them are really willing to engage in that conversation. So instead we all sit back and watch the president's attempt at open conversation. Obama doesn't know any super special secrets to making us all get along. All he did was sit two people down and try to speak with them openly, which in my opinion was an epic failure. You can't take something like this, which should be an honest conversation and broadcast it like some kind of spectacle. Also it came under the wrong circumstances, you can't have an episode like the one that happened between the two, where there were obviously emotional strains and then say a week later "hey let's sit down with the president in the White House and talk about it." Oh please. Come on who didn't see this coming. As soon as I heard I thought okay so how awkward is that going to be? All three men show up with a painted on smile sit there for some time, drink a brewski and then go back home where they settle into the same mindset they had when they woke up that morning.
I really feel it has to be something that comes about voluntarily. It absolutely cannot ever be forced or else the result will be the predictable one. This is why all those “race relations” programs never work in schools or in the workplace, because if you come to it knowing that your not going to open up anything serious then you won’t and neither will anyone else. On the other hand if you have an open invitation to anyone who wants to sit and seriously talk about the way things are then I think you stand a much greater chance of success, the real kind. The only people who will show up will be the ones who really want to actively engage in a discussion. I say all these things because I know it can happen. I took a course last spring called race dialogues in which there was a group of 10-12 students like myself plus two amazing facilitators. I can honestly say that class was the most amazing experience I have ever been apart of. We spoke on such an extremely intimate level that my entire outlook on the way I carry myself was changed. It felt so good to really be able to speak freely. Actually speak freely. To be honest it really wasn’t even that awkward. The first two classes were pretty quiet but once we realized that we were all on the same page and really wanted to be enlightened the dialogue took off. I took this class because I honestly want to get to that place again with another group of people.
…and thats the bottom line cuz STONE COLD said SO!
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“The Great Beer” submit is what we are now calling the meeting between Barack Obama’s attempt to patch things over with American Harvard professor and officer James Crowley over to the white house for a beer. It is another feeble attempt for Barack Obama to not ruffle the feathers of both sides and basically not take a side at all, but we have seen this time after time and are going to see that until he gets to boot from the office (which will be a glorious day). But furthermore, I believe that this whole incident was blown way out of proportion by the media which trickled down to the American people. If it was a white person being arrested and taken into custody this would not even be news worthy. Why is it such a terrible thing that the police were trying to keep the mans house safe when it looked as if someone was trying to break into the house. I am sure it has happened before because I even have a friend who got the cops called on him because he was trying to get into his house because he lost his key. It just one of many incidents of a black person totally freaking out because the police were “racial profiling”. It really was not a big deal, but you better believe when the media got a hold of this they took it and ran with it. It is simply entertainment and will undoubtedly will get higher ratings and will sell newspapers. Anymore any small incident that involves a black person is drawn out now a day.
Don’t get me wrong or get the wrong impression. I am sure that there are cops out there who arrest innocent black men out there just because of their skin color. It is a terrible travesty, but it does happen. To be honest aren’t the police supposed to protect and air on the side of caution when it comes to these things? Imagine what would have happened if someone was trying to break into his house and he didn’t arrest him. The headline would have read “White cop doesn’t arrest intruder because house owner is black”.
But what pisses me off even more is that the United States has to get involved with such a non issue. Why is it our spot at all to invite them to have a beer and patch things but when we had nothing to really do with it. Is it because Obama is “black” or is it just some kind of publicity stunt? Either way, I think we should have sat back and watched this one out, and even though it is dead and done with we will hear about it for months and even years to come.
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President Barack Obama’s decision to organize a “beer summit” to resolve the disputed issue between Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley was merely another ploy a politician makes to lead people to believe what actually is politically correct. I personally don’t think there was any reason for the “beer summit” to occur. Had this situation involved two white people there would have been no “beer summit.” I agree with Mr. Usual’s post in that I don’t think either party involved (Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley), nor the average citizen truly has an understanding of why the “beer summit” happened.
After reading more about the event that led up to the “beer summit”, I learned the facts for myself and had trouble discovering what caused so much controversy. Sergeant Crowley simply responded to a phone call received by the police about a potential burglary in a Massachusetts home, and he followed correct protocol regarding the situation. However, the situation turned out to be a big misunderstanding. The man trying to enter the home was in fact the owner and resident of the property. Once I read about what happened and assessed the situation, I realized that this is a simple mistake that probably happens all the time all over the country. With that in mind, I think the only reason this became national news was because the dispute was between a white man and a black man. In this case, the media definitely blew this out of proportion. The fact that President Obama recognized the situation at all is completely unnecessary. I think he did so to try and create an example to use as a problem-solving technique people can use in instances such as this one. In reality, not everyone is going to get along with each other. It doesn’t matter what race people are. It just isn’t part of human nature for everyone to see eye to eye. In my opinion, President Obama recognizing this case as a means for racial healing just continues to beat the drum we’ve been hearing since we’ve been born. Everyone’s goal in a perfect society is racism to be nonexistent and a thing of the past. However, if we continue to put instances such as what happened between Crowley and Gates in the national spotlight, we will never put racism in the past. This was just a confrontation between people. They both were right in the situation. Sergeant Crowley was correct by simply following the proper code of behavior within his profession, and Professor Gates had the right to be furious at being evicted from his own home. The fact that race was ever brought into the equation is a step in the wrong direction in minimizing racism. Having awareness about racism is one thing but to go out of the way to create it is socially irresponsible.
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The fact that this happened on or near the campus of one of America's best colleges is really shocking. i guess it doesn't matter where you are racial profiling still happens!
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