Adam Serwer, over at The American Prospect, nails what happened today with President Obama and his “acted stupidly” comments on the arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Adam writes:
But now we know what a black man can’t do — not if he’s president and not if he wants to get anything done: He can’t tell white people something about race they aren’t willing to hear, no matter how true it is.
Adam’s right, and it’s painfully clear that Obama realized it as well by coming out during the Friday briefing to talk with the media — and the country — about his words. Saying that both parties over-reacted, Obama went on:
African-Americans are sensitive to these issues, and even when you’ve got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African-American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.
The discussion, though, and Obama’s pull-back today made me think about something else. Obama’s written about, and recently Andrew Sullivan reiterated, the way the President goes abut the world. As Andrew wrote:
As [Obama] had once written when describing his strategy as a black man in a white world: no sudden moves. And we have seen none. Obama likes the system; he just wants to make it work for more people.
Obama’s news conference comment, saying that the Cambridge Police had “acted stupidly,” was one of the first such “sudden moves” that we’ve seen from him. And, as he knows per his strategy and was proven in practice this week, America is not OK with sudden moves from a black man — whether it’s from a college kid or from the President of the United States during a nationally televised news conference. And that’s too bad.
All that said, Obama was awesome today. Having a President who addresses issues, rather than avoiding them, is so refreshing.
His comments from today are below.
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Chris Geidner is the award-winning senior political writer at D.C.'s Metro Weekly and has written for The Atlantic Online, Advocate.com, Salon and other publications, as well as at his blog, Law Dork. In 2011, he received the Excellence in News Writing Award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his coverage of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" repeal. Prior to moving to D.C. in 2009, he served as an attorney on the senior staff at the Ohio Attorney General's Office and had earlier worked for a leading Columbus law firm. An extended biography can be found
From the beginning I saw this as an overreaction by many people. Very few people who bothered to comment on blogs or Twitter or the news, had read the police reports, statement from Gate’s lawyer, or following interviews with Gates and Crowley.
Even Serwer wants to make this about “a black man can’t make sudden moves.”
Bullshit.
That’s not why Obama made the course correction today. Its because from the start Obama takes in information on many sides of issues and takes the time to make his conclusion in order to achieve a goal. He made a quick comment based on not having all the facts and said what he believed….but had any White or Democrat elected official said the cops acted “stupidly” Police union would have had same reaction.I knew he’d stepped into a minefield when he answered that question, but I was proud that instead of “no comment”, he answered it, though I felt the word stupid best described what the cops did, I knew too that he would catch hell for it.
In fact, most elected officials would have issued a straight up apology. Instead Obama deftly, corrected his assessment, while still maintaining that mistakes were made by both Crowley and Gates. But firmly stating that it is still within the right of the President to comment on even local issues and that race relations have a ways to go. Maybe white people don’t want to hear that we have more to do in regards to race, but then many people also seem unwilling to admit that Gates did not help the situation or that perhaps this is not a racist cop.
As usual, Americans of any color want a winner or loser in this situation. But Obama time and again seeks to unite people across certain dividing issues so that our common goals can be reached.
Once more, I continue to be proud that we have such a fine leader and honest and thoughtful President.