call me joe

Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley, along with innumerable right-wing bloggers, are wrong when they insinuate that the arrest of anyone, black, white, red, or brown, who are attempting to enter their own home, "is a local issue". For those with shorter memories, institutional racism and Jim Crow laws were often justified based upon the idea that locals had the right to choose to associate with whomever they wished. That they do. They did not have the right to discriminate against or exclude them based on race - which was the common practice, and although less common today, is still a practice.

If Officer Crowley, who may not be a racist, had the sense to admit that he made a mistake (and this seems to be difficult for any police officer to do) then this issue would have gone away quickly. That he has publicly stated that he'll never apologize only ensures that the country again will be forced to continue to face it's racist attitudes. That a good thing.

Anyone who believes that the election of Barack Obama as the President sent us into a postracial period neglects to understand the effects of the continued use of the term "the first black President" on the American psyche. As long we are calling him that, a man who is as easily as white as he is black, then we've still got a way to go with equality in this country. Let's just call him the President of the United States.