The mask slips

Michael B

Not only not surprising, it ran according to the operative ideological narrative/script. And, it now comes out it essentially was scripted, both the reporter's question and Obama's response. Such is "journalism" in the age of The One. A teachable moment, though not the one intended. Oops.

Brian O'Connor

Mel wrote:

Gates’s arrest was an honest and understandable mistake by the Cambridge police who were investigating what appeared to be a break-in.

I'm not so sure it was a mistake: Gates wasn't arrested for breaking in, but for his publicly-displayed disorderly conduct.

TheSmokingGun posted a copy of the police report, which includes this:

(" . . . was placed under arrest after exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior, in a public place, at a police officer who was present investigating a report of a crime in progress."

Bode Awo

George Bush Snr criticized the LAPD when the Rodney King video was first shown on news networks across America in 1991.
Does that make it off limits for Bush since it was a local issue? Or does it apply to Black Democrats only.

Suki

As ever, Mark Steyn has covered this topic brilliantly and in some depth on National Review.

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OWU3NWRmYzY5MmZjOTZjN2NiYTMwOGI3ZTBiZDA5ZjM=

American Thinker also has some great essays on this for people who are interested.

It's fascinating to watch all those people who glossed over Obama's legion character flaws squirming about now this has happened. Here's one British commentator trying to put a spin on his hero:

"A series of misunderstandings became international news, prompting a new, pointless debate about race. Obama apologised quickly for jumping to conclusions.

"So should the professor and the policeman."

Eh? Why should everybody apologise? What has the incident between the professor and the policeman got to do with Obama other than Obama going out of his way to mention it when he should have better things to do? The policeman was answering a call out. What does he have to apologise to anyone for?

The same writer goes on: "President Obama has his hands full trying to wind down, or contain, wars started by his predecessor, George W. Bush, as well as pushing a mammoth new bill though Congress extending health care to 45 million uninsured Americans."

Well if Obama is so busy with more important things, what was he doing getting involved in this incident that had nothing to do with him? It is only Obama's involvement that made this international news.

Obama wasn't at the scene of the incident so why did he take time away from his busy schedule to butt in?

"What a pity if his popularity is dented for having been seen to play the race card."

What a pity if you've failed to exercise proper journalistic scrutiny and make yourself look like a lightweight.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1202357/PETER-MCKAY-Choppers-wont-save-soldiers-Afghanistan.html

Suki

Bode Awo, you might expect a political leader to pass comment on an incident as serious as the Rodney King video in which there were multiple breaches of police procedure that led to huge riots but what has that got to do with this?

How insulting to Rodney King to suggest that Henry Gates has suffered like him.

Henry Gates wasn't greeted by four white men truncheoning him but by black and white officers asking if everything was OK because there had been an emergency call that a break-in may have been going on.

Henry Gates could have just explained there and then there was no problem and that would have been that but he instead decided to start hurling allegations at the police.

I can see why there was a public outcry over Rodney King and why politcians would want to comment on that but not for a simple 'is-everything-OK-here' knock on the door.

Marie Hamilton

You nail this one. Great writing..

JimmyS

In January 08 while on a visit to my son and his fiancee in Manhattan, my daughter-in-law to be arrived home about 7:30 one evening in a sharp temper after a stressful day at work and a subway journey during which she had been persistently racially abused by a black "homeless" who threatening her with dire consequences for whites when Obama became president. As a Pennsylvania girl, her heart was with Hilary and in no uncertain terms she was not voting for Obama if he got the nomination. Obama should have had this one worked out well ahead of the event. Gates is just another of those blacks striking out under cover of Obamania. Obama has to catch up and drop the race business otherwise he's the next one term president.

Bogdan of Australia

Bode Awo, George Bush Snr new the FACTS. Obama, according to his own admission, didn't. That's the difference...

Dixon

Much as I thought...until it became apparent that the man was arrested AFTER he had proven he was the legitimate householder. Indeed, having gained access to his house to prove this, being lured back outside for the arrest to happen. He was arrested because the officer had been offendeed by his attitude. Itself perhaps a manifestation of the strutting narcissitic "Issit cos I is black" whingeing that Mel referes to, bit not in itself a legitimate reason for arrest so much as a reciprocal tongue whipping for the cocky professor. Had the officer been as articulate as the man he was no doubt succintly contumed by perhaps none of this would have happenned and the absent minded professor would simply have been forced to recognise what a pompous ass he was. Now, however, thanks to his arrest, he probably feels his every righteous anti-white suppositions to be vindicated and becomes a kind of dimmo martyr ( famous on the basis of locking himself out of his own house and ranting on along the theme of "Do you know who I am?").

One little thing struck me as highly amusing. The professors "mug-shot" shows him wearing a sweater to which the collar happens entirely by coincidence to be in U.S. Correctional facility orange drill! :-()

Mike Mckee

You boobed Melanie.

Gates’s arrest was an honest and understandable mistake by the Cambridge police who were investigating what appeared to be a break-in.

The cop did not make a mistake.
he arrested rightly a person abusing him whilst he was honestly doing his job.

Ellis

As always, U.S. readers must depend on journalists in Canada and in the U.K. to write the truth about U.S. politics and culture.

Ms. Phillips' assessment of the latest Obama outrage is spot-on, and I hesitate to quibble. However, one tiny correction must be made, in that Obama's Hawaiian Communist mentor was the pederast drunk Frank Marshall Davis. ("Stanley" was the first given name of Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, whose father had expected male progeny and was not, by G-d, going to forfeit the moniker he had in mind for the infant.)

Carlos Perera

Mr. Awo: Yes, GHW Bush should have kept his opinions to himself until the case had been resolved in the law courts. Snap judgments by the politically prominent, who have usually not studied all of the facts and circumstances of a local case, only serve to prejudice the public from which jury pools are drawn; in many cases--like the Rodney King arrest--they can contribute to inflaming the mob. Prudence, you might remember, is one of the cardinal virtues.

Elaine Derrick

TRUTH SEEKERS MUST READ this article. Freedom is at stake.
....http://www.faithfreedom.org/obama.html

Terry, Eilat - Israel

While your eloquence & impecable logic is much appreciated, as is your honesty & obvious sincerity, those of us with less literary skills can sum up your article in one short declarative sentence, ''Obama is a creep.''

Kojak

Bode,

I can't remember, did Bush Snr criticize the LAPD before or after seeing the video of the 4 police officers beating up Rondney King?

If it was after seeing it he couldn't really say "I don't understand all the facts" because the beating was the issue not the arrest.

Wm. Hazlitt

"America’s neuralgic conscience over its historic racism, the monstrously unjust over-reaction to that racism" - surely this is grotesque as a summary of the history of the US.

Sheila

Hold on a second. Bush Snr had to comment on the King case because it had become a national issue.

This is the reverse. Obama has made this a national issue.

Politicians comment on law and order stories all the time but why did Obama zero in on this case?

What's the priority here? A serial killer on the loose? Riots?

No. The only type of person who would think this event was of any real significance at all would be someone who attended an anti-white church for 20 years.

It has a new significance now, of course, although not in the way the Rev Jeremiah Wright's most famous protege intended.

Yehuda

"...wars started by President Bush", wrote a British commentator.
Well, here I was thinking that it was radical Islamists who attacked the USA on 9/11, when it was actually Bush. Once again "the media" misled me.

Kennybhoy

Suki,

Thank you for providing the Daily Mail/PeterMcKay link. I try to stay abreast of his toxic emissions but I have been travelling and missed this particular piece.

PS To David ”Who Is He?” Blackburn, aka Speccie Techie in the Basement, aka Peter Oborne's Number One Fan! Please don't censor this one....

Mailman

Crickey, its lucky America didnt elect that under educated moose hunter from Alaska.

Imagine the problems she would be cause around the world today, with her lack of understanding of middle east history and kneejerk reactions to university college professors being arrested!

Yes indeed...we dont know how lucky we are!

Sheila

Yehuda, this is what most British 'journalism' is made up of these days. People like Peter McKay and Max Hastings have been besotted with Obama.

Mind you, it's hardly surprising when you read their antagonism toward Israel.

Regular posters here will know what I'm talking about.

Kennybhoy

"Regular posters here will know what I'm talking about"

Indeed we do.

PS To David ”Who Is He?” Blackburn, aka Speccie Techie in the Basement, aka Peter Oborne's Number One Fan! Please don't censor this one....

Sherborn

Obama's actions are no surprise to anyone well informed. The problem is that because of busy lives, most rely on traditional media for headlines and summaries. The media is complicit in pushing a radical liberal agenda and telling the truth about Obama does not fit the agenda. Blogs such as yours help keep traditional media honest, and I am please that traditional media are loosing credibility, clout and profitability for their dishonesty.

EasTexan

Melanie, your concerns expressed about who this man really is rings true. 48 percent of the November's voters knew this instinctively and voted otherwise, but we're all stuck with him now. Yes, elections have consequences.

Michele Monopoli

THANK YOU!!! It is so frustrating that nobody says this. Finally an accurate depiction of the man's raacial posture, I just hope more people see it.

Michele Monopoli

THANK YOU!!! It is so frustrating that nobody says this. Finally an accurate depiction of the man's racial posture, whoch was there for all to see the entire time. I just hope more people see it.

Wm. Hazlitt

"...America’s neuralgic conscience over its historic racism, the monstrously unjust over-reaction to that racism..." It is fair enough to criticize the use and abuse of racial prejudices and sensitivities by left and right in the US. The criticism of the President's comments is also fair enough. It is surely not fair enough to talk airily of a monstrously unjust reaction to historic racism. A simple comparison of the treatment of poor (black) citizens in New Orleans and rich (white) citizens elsewhere when their property is damaged by storm illustrates a more complicated interplay between race, economics and political power that is not wholly in the past. (The law as applied to drug abuse and the size and composition of the prison population provide further illustration.) Is the "reaction to historic racism" "monstrously unjust" because it interferes with liberal principles? Wealth was accumulated in the US as elsewhere by illiberal means. Are liberal principles now to justify the use of that wealth to accumulate yet more without redress for its victims or help for the poor? This is liberalism as advocated by Robert Nozick, not J.S. Mill. It would be of interest to hear more of Ms. Phillips views on this - are there any readily available references?

Miranda Rose Smith

I urge all readers of this website to send emails in support of Sergeant James M. Crowley to the Cambridge Police Department.

Sheila

Don't miss Mel's update above - mainstream media seem to be removing material from their websites that might damage The Holy One.

Gailynn

This is a manufactured scandal. Gates becomes nationally known just in time for his documentary. The rest of us are distracted while politicians hammer out our future socialization and "transform" the country we love.

I know I am impressed by the leadership we've received from our Ivy League masters as they've taken over our institutions. They are all so well-traveled and all. Good Lord.

myna

Gates and Obama are the biggest loser on this debate. They showed themselves as a pompous ass.

Michael B

Gates' own racial profiling and grievance mongering is thrown into additional light when it's realized the town it took place in, Cambridge, has a black mayor, the state, Massachusetts, has a black governor, the country, the US, a black president, whom Gates is close personal friends with. Then there's the irony of the sgt's own non-racialist history.

So, some added perspective to be applied to Obama's "calibrations" and "teachable moments."

Then, for still additional light and perspective, a close review of black-on-black crime and black crime statistics in general can be illuminating as applied to a large swath of alleged racial profiling and the aptly described neuralgic conscience, the attendant grievience mongering, etc.

Bill M

The White House is trying to turn this into a national "teachable moment". Screw them. The fact is, we don't need to be taught. They do.

Here's the teachable moment:

Gates is a racist. Obama is also a, well, let's just say, a little sensitive. Both had knee-jerk racist reactions. Obama says he should have "calibrated" his response better. All this says is that he still believes the Cambridge police acted "stupidly", he just should have worded it differently. He might have said, "acted like the Man". That would have been a bit more honest of him.

Race was never mentioned until the caller was asked by the 911 operator if she could describe their race. 95% of the press here got that part of the story wrong.

Gates' race was never mentioned in ANY of the proceedings inside his home by any of the authorities. Gates was the one loudly yelling racial remarks.

He was arrested not for attempted breaking and entering but for resisting arrest. Why the charges were dropped is beyond me.

Obama and Gates are dear friends with a long history. Same with Ogiltree. Vacations on Martha's Vineyard, etc. No mention in the press.

Obama based his "stupidly" remark on nothing other than a cursory understanding of the story. This explains his choice of Sotomayor. She won't judge on just the law and facts but on the "story" of the case before her, just as Obama did in this situation.

Melanie--This arrest was NOT a MISTAKE. It was the Cambridge police doing their job properly and rightly.

If I were Officer Crowley I would tell Obama, "No, thanks, you and Professor Gates can go suck on your own beers and strategize about how you'll handle this differently the next time you want to turn an honest arrest into a racist incident."

So much for the "Man of Peace". His cover was blown years ago for anyone who cared to look. This is just a reminder that there is no change in President Change. It's just the same old pair of undies.

Brian O'Connor

Dixon wrote (July 28th, 2009 1:41am)

Much as I thought...until it became apparent that the man was arrested AFTER he had proven he was the legitimate householder. Indeed, having gained access to his house to prove this, being lured back outside for the arrest to happen.

Actually, there's a good rationale for the officer to remove Gates from his house, just as he did.

The purpose of isolating and removing a person from his very own home is to insure that he can speak freely about what's actually going on.

There are countless examples of people telling a police officer that things are just fine, only to find out that that person was held hostage by an unseen individual, or that the person s/he was seen to be with (and seemed to be comfortable with) was in fact a threat.

If you're a victim, and can't speak freely to a police officer because of the presence of someone else (hidden or not), your best strategy may well be to badger the officer until he removes you from the threat to a secure place where you can tell your story without fear.

Police know this . . . they've been trained to do just what this officer did for just this reason.

He was arrested because the officer had been offendeed by his attitude.

No. He was arrested for disorderly conduct (please see my post above for a link to the police report).

You might be interested in this video of black officers standing 4-square behind officer Crowley, and pointedly against Gates and Obama.

It gives me hope for America.

Claire

You might be interested in listening to this rather enlightening radio interview between Gayle King, Oprah's friend, and Professor Gates.

http://www.oprah.com/media/20090723-radio-gayle-king-henry-louis-gates

Les Hardie

The truly "stupid" person in this squalid affair was Obama. He displayed a lack of judgment, of maturity, of gravitas so profound as to demolish forever the myth of his superiority, his greatness, his oneness. He gets everything wrong: Israel,Honduras, Russia, Iran, jihadism, Churchill, deficit spending, porkulus, cap'n'spend, health care, cabinet appointments. This latest just puts the fine point on it all---he's a screw-up of epic proportions.

pete

Say I completely buy Mel's take on the story here, that Gates had no reason to feel aggrieved for being treated like a criminal in his own home, that he shamelessly played the victim card and started yelling at the police, and they then arrested him for assault on a charge they subsequently dropped.

That would still make them "stupid", no?

Andras

This is what PC did to the World.

palmsays

So he did, out and out lie, to all America when he said he sat through Rev. Jeremiah Wright's hate filled, anti white skreeds for 20 years, and didn't hear any of it! We all knew it, even those who denied it to them- selves, and now must confront their unwilling attitude, that they were voting for a Messiah! Maybe now we can get back down to earth and begin to deal fairly and reasonably with the isssues in a manner we should have been doing from the start. s

rusino

Bode owa:"George Bush Snr criticized the LAPD when the Rodney King video was first shown on news networks across America in 1991.
Does that make it off limits for Bush since it was a local issue? Or does it apply to Black Democrats only."

My best friend a Police Detective did not vote for GHWB only because of his interjection into a local problem. The Rodney King Fiasco. Nor did many of the other police he knows. I'm sure that was not limited to my city or state.

Therefore we got Clinton!

Any Presdent should stick to Federal problems and let the locals take care of their own.

Bernie

At lesst Rev. Jeremiah Wright was up front about what he thought about race. No dissebling on his part. Let's give him some credit for that.

Melinda S. Smith

I could not agree more! I simply could not understand how people did not recognize this Obama mindset from the beginning. I did. I am a white woman married to a black man with a mixed race child. We have been together for fifteen years, and we have a wonderful family. I say all this because I want to be clear that race did not cloud my judgment at all on "Gates-gate" or on my impression of what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright said. I would have been very public about walking out of the Trinity United Church. I would not stand idly by listening to that type of rhetoric, and I was distincly uncomfortable with the fact that Obama just sat there and listened to it for twenty years. I also asked my husband what he thought about the Gates affair, and he agreed with me. It was not about color; it was about "contempt of cop." Should Gates have been arrested for disorderly conduct? I was not there,so I would not be willing to render a judgment call. I will say, however, that if I had spoken to a police officer doing his job the way Gates did, I would have my wrists out for the handcuffs, fully prepared for the haul off to the clink. My husband said the same. He has been the victim of racial profiling several times by both white and black cops. He has been pulled over for simply being a black man, and while he did not feel it is right (neither did I, )it is simply the time in which we live. He and I are both hopeful that we will one day live in an America that is truly color blind, but these types of unjustified racism charges are not going to propel us to that future. They will only set us back.

kabookey

I think, when you have mass rioting in the streets of a major city then it might become of interest to the president. Fact is Saint O was not commenting on a video or even a picture but simply an arrest where he admitted he did not knwow the facts. Now tell us all what is matters whether the pres is white or black or are you implying this is all racist?
****
Bode Awo
July 27th, 2009 11:16pm
George Bush Snr criticized the LAPD when the Rodney King video was first shown on news networks across America in 1991.
Does that make it off limits for Bush since it was a local issue? Or does it apply to Black Democrats only.

Michael B

Claire,

The interview you link to is in fact "rather enlightening," though not in the way you seem to imagine. Firstly, it's an effusive and gushing interview, very much in the Oprah-esque style. Likewise, there's no cross-examination, no critical questioning whatsoever, it's all accepting, emotive and caring.

Secondly, not only are Gates and the interviewer close friends, they apparently share a "spiritual" affinity. Indeed, Gates outwardly suggests that spiritual dimension ("God" is what he appears to be suggesting) is blessing this moment, this "teachable moment," in a manner that comes out in favor of - mirabile dictu! - his own view of events and the general set of contexts.

Such a happy coincidence: Gates, Obama ... and God.

Normally this messianic sense or political vitalism, or whatever it is more specifically, serves as unspoken subtext, in MSM reports and elsewhere. In this case it's laid bare, that mask too is discarded.

(The other thing that comes across in your linked interview is Gates' egoism, in that he expresses surprise that his neighbors don't know him. He apparently hasn't taken the time to introduce himself to get to know his neighbors, but he expects them to recognize him - because he's famous. So, it's egoism mixed in with the presumption and grievance mongering, and that "spiritual" dimension.)

Reggie of Southside of Chicago

First of all To Mr. Bogdan of Australia,the mainstream press in the U.S. clearly and appropriately dogged Bush. He left the White House with the lowest approval rating for a U.S. President in history. I am a lifelong Democrat, worked for Dem. Candidates since the 70's.
voted for Mr. Obama for Congress (lost) and Senate(won). My adult children worked all over the U.S. on behalf of Mr. Obama for President. However, I live in the shadow of Rev. Wright;s "House of Hate". Mr. Obama lost this democrat when I realized that no one can sit in a church with their children for 20 years and pretend that they do not subscribe to the tenets of that church. I teach in the Chicago Public Schools and I am called a "racist" every time I discipline a black student or give a bad grade that a parent does not agree with - this from people who do not know anything about me or my beliefs. The Gates incident struck a chord with me -apparently our President believes that only white people in America can be racists. This is a reality I live with everyday. My husband was robbed at gun point by our home by a black man, I was a victim of identity theft twice by two different black women, my home was burglarized on three occasions by black teenagers, my son was told he would not be considered for a job with a City Law department because he was the wrong color, my teaching position was put on hold for three years because I was white - finally had to pull out some Hispanic blood from my ancestors to receive the position permanently and to which I have been employed for 13 years. However, I still choose to live and work in an integrated neighborhood; I still voted for Mr. Obama - good Democrat that I am. But now I am tired - tired of being called a racist, tired of being guilty of disparate treatment of the so-called minority population. I have now crossed over to the other side - call it conservative, republican or whatever. When they lose people like me and my family - I don't see much hope for new beginnings.

JohnR

Blacks turned out in record numbers to vote for Obama because he was black. Yeah, also because he was a Liberal, but primarily because he was black. It was race that drove the huge turnout. And I'm OK with it. I can understand their motivation.

Of more concern are white liberals who voted for him primarily because of race. It's the only explanation for them deserting Hillary in droves. And the pathetic part is they voted for him to prove to THEMSELVES that they aren't racist. Much the same way they drive a Prius to feel environmentally superior.

How are those white liberals feeling now? Why just fine. Their narrative on racial injustice has them firmly in Gates' corner. They forgave Obama for Pastor Wright, they'll certainly forgive him for race-baiting a bit on Gates.

Ron Victor

Great column, with great insight. This supposed post-racial president's real heart came out as a default position, simply because of his past feelings and associations, that the media tried to gloss over during the campaign. cooperscopy.blogspot.com

tom conten

White with 3 police officers in my immediate family: "Stupidly" is exactly how Officer Crowley acted. The only thing threatened was Crowley's ego. This would never, never happen to a white man.

Peter

Obama's supporters always claim he is cool, calm and collected, taking his time before wading in. Not only here, but in the case of Honduras, a case where it is clear and undisputed that the country's supreme court and legislators acted within the law to remove a president who was obviously trying to claim dictatorial powers, Obama has showed how his politics colors his reactions which are anything but calmly considered.

In the case of Honduras, of course, it is especially notable how much it contrasts with his view and spoken opinion that it would not be right for the POTUS to "meddle" in the affairs of "The Islamic Republic of Iran" to avoid offending the "Supreme Leader" by openly supporting Iran's citizens who were being murdered on the streets in pursuit of freedom.

Obama may turn out to be the worst POTUS we have ever electedto the office.

Bigfoot

If Obama fails to get his health care bill passed, it will be in no small part because of the fallout from this Gates affair. The mask has slipped and the spell is broken - legislators can now vote contrary to his wishes without losing the support of their constituencies. Sen. DeMint said that the health care bill may Obama's Waterloo. We might better say that in Cambridge, Obama met his Water-Gates.

Shrewsbury

Just wondering....

Was Prof. Gates angry about nothing...or panicked about something? Was there a particular reason for him to freak because a cop was at the door? For instance, something in the suitcases?

Also, while the country obsesses on Prof. Gates's duck fit - how many whites have been raped and/or murdered by blacks since the notorious Incident? Given the DOJ statistics, the number should be well over 500, yes.

So how come the entire nation is worrying itself sick over whether Officer Crowley should have pinched the blithering Gates, while 500 crackers are raped and killed, unreported, unlamented, unavenged?

Just wondering....

JC

I agree and so many of us here do as well. BO is and cannot overcome his insufferable arrogance. I remember he once said during that awful election year, that he hoped "God would help him overcome his proclivity towards arogance". I guess, God is not yet on his side.

JC, Brooklyn Heights, New York

Red in Denver

Bode Awo compares this incident with the criticism Bush Sr. made regarding the Rodney King beating by LAPD.

Surely a handcuffed, prone man being beaten by 5 or 6 police officers is different than a man placed under arrest by one officer???

valwayne

Well we now know why Obama sat in Rev Wright's church for 20 years listening to hate. He agreed with it! We also know why he called working people bitter, gun toting, bible thumping bigots! He believes that. We also now know that and other Harvard Elites automatically, without any facts, distrust and despise the police. We've learned a lot over the past to weeks!!!

Lois

Heaven knows, I'd warned people from
the outset about Obama an no one listened. Now, when they complain, I
ask for whom did you vote? Only those
who did should pay the price for health care, bailouts, etc.

Tiffany

Dear Melanie,

If one behaves as Gates did in public, the officer's arrest might then be completely justifiable. The last time that I checked, though, speaking harshly -- even angrily -- to the police, while in your own home, is protected by the First Amendment.

And before anyone starts suggesting that Gates presented a threat (and therefore, nullified his First Amendment protection), save it. The officer would have said so in his report if he believed that was true. The fact that he did not say as much speaks volumes.

Whether or not one believes race was involved in the arrest, I think that the only sensible conclusion here is that a physically slight 60 year old man who walks with a cane, and who was angry about the police questioning his right to be in his own home, should not have ended up in handcuffs. The fact that he did was absurd.

Since when are you conservatives on the side of intrusive state power? My God. Even if you don't think the cop was acting like a racist, the cop WAS acting like a bully. And the last time I checked on THAT, we call that kind of behavior an abuse of power.

peggy thompson

it is against the law to arrest someone on their own property for disorderly conduct. This was presented on Fox yesterday by a Judge who said the police in this case were in error. I believe it was on Shepeard Smiths show.
whatever else a person can comment on in this case the arrest was illegal.

R. L. Hails Sr. P. E.

Indeed the mask has slipped, it had to fall. Obama had just spent a hour pushing his remake of 1/6 th of the US economy to the media, and his one foolish statement destroyed everything. He is up to his eyeballs in a no-win conflict of his own making. He is way out of his league; his communicative style, unending articulate blathering, is failing him. He is a green horn, unskilled in basic conflict and political techniques. His sole, huge accomplishment, has been throwing more blame on G. Bush than Hillary did, particularly on the war. It worked, but no longer. He is now President, and reality did not change. He is pursuing war policies indistinguishable from Bush/
Cheney/Rumsfeld. Gitmo, the surge in Afghanistan, and CIA/NSA activities are examples. True, he ran around apologizing to every national leader for Bush, but that works only for a few weeks. Those who voted for change and hope, must be disappointed. Did they vote to give a trillion dollars to big business? They now own GM, and will be in debt for generations. Bush's war is peanuts to our current deficit.
Why do people believe in masks?

e

I was well aware of Mr. Obama and his views on race. As a Jewish person, I was also well aware of the company he kept. I did not vote for Obama. (I also never voted for Bush) Aside from having no experience in anything, other than campaigning, and being a Marxist, I knew what he was about. It is our media here that chose to misrepresent him, refused to expose him, to report on his background, etc. And yes, many Americans seemed taken by his great speeches. Why, I have no idea. But the media in this country played a huge role in covering up for Obama, which is very disturbing. Maybe now they will start to report the truth. Especially when Obama bites the hand that feeds him when he blamed the media for being obsessed with his comments and causing the whole uproar.

As for the arrest of Gates, the police officer did nothing wrong. He was investigating a reported break-in. Gates, from the very start, started yelling racism. He would not produce ID at first. He told the cop that he did not know who he was dealing with (presumably, friends of Obama can't be questioned by the police?). The police officer asked him to step outside, which would be standard as the cop did not know who was in the house, if Gates was the resident and perhaps did not know there were people in his home, or he was being held hostage. I don't know how it is there, but any person, black, white, hispanic, asian, indian, anyone, would have been arrested by the police in this situation for disorderly conduct. This had absolutley nothing to do with race. The police officer actually was chosen by his black captain to teach classes on racial profiling at the police academy. he has an exemplary record. Obama and Gates made this about race. Gates who makes his living on writing about and teaching about the trials of the black man in america, and Obama, who just assumed that a white cop arresting his black friend must mean that race was involved. The cop did nothing wrong, and the only people who should apologize are Gates and Obama for insinuating that Crowley was a racist.

Cincinnati Rick

I was once in a similar situation and reacted in a loud and uncooperative fashion when police came to my home to question me about an incident in the neighborhood (where I knew I was totally innocent). I ended up arrested and jailed overnight.

When the facts were known, I was freed. Needless to say, the cops did not apologize. Could they have handled it differently? Maybe, but hindsight is always 20/20. Standing in that courtroom the following morning, I knew I had overreacted and behaved like an idiot.

However learned, Professor Gates behaved in an asinine fashion challenging the police and their natural suspicion regarding ANYONE found in a home where a possible break in had been reported.

I learned from my mistake. Unfortunately his racial identity will shield both the Professor and others from the realization that his own behavior unwisely and unnecessarily escalated this incident.

And shame on Obama for failing to take a prudent pass on this incident and instead feeding the stereotype of black victimization. Eloquence is no substitute for common sense. Bush was simply not up to the job but, in rejecting him, we may have gone to the other extreme and bought something, however different, just as bad.

James

Unfortunately, the race issue will never die, because minorities don't want it to die. Most Americans have moved beyond the history of racial discrimination....but some keep pulling it back into the forefront to get some additional concessions. And Mr. Obama is promoting these tendencies.

Let the past be!!! The rest of us have moved on.......why don't you join us? It's nice living in a world where you're not always thinking in color.

PappyHappy

Fear that President Obama believed his press that he acquired during his campaign --- BUT, HE IS NOT THE SECOND COMING!!

Someone on his staff needs to remind him of a basic American promise: THAT AMERICANS ARE PROMISED LIFE, REPEAT LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS!

Some of the teachings Obama may have picked up from his left leaning profs need to be left in the classroom.

Why has he shied away from:
* TORT REFORM? (That would save billions)
* Selling health insurance across state borders? (That would cause increased competition and save billions of taxpayer dollars)
* Clean up fraud, waste, and abuse from MEDICARE & MEDICAID? (This would include ceasing the give aways of 'scooters from the SCOOTER STORE') Why in the world should we trust the government to administer nation wide health care when they cannot even clean up the current mess of fraud and waste??
*Why is there main cost savings centered on the elderly with their IMAC (deciding who lives and dies), and counseling on death? A growing number of Americans have living wills, but we do not need Obama and the Mrs. telling us what we should do and when we should 'check out'.
* Why can the president and members of Congress not have the decency to at least read the laws they are attempting to cram down the throats of the citizens (i.e., President Obama's comments on July 22, and John Conyer's comments on July 27)? They might just learn something.

President Obama has -- in my opinion -- grossly overestimated his sway over America. When one assumes they have the authority to make life and death calls on their citizens they are sworn to protect, then there is a BIG PROBLEM.

PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS A BIG PROBLEM!!

Rose

this is the most honest, straight forward and intelligent comment on the Gates affair that I have read

Brian O'Connor

Claire wrote: (July 28th, 2009 4:50pm)

You might be interested in listening to this rather enlightening radio interview between Gayle King, Oprah's friend, and Professor Gates.

Ahhhh . . . yeah . . . okay . . .

And . . . ahhhh . . . well . . . your . . . well . . . point?

Sally

Excellent and succinct and sadly so true.

Lightnin'

Bingo!

Jason Suggs

Alas, Melanie, someone gets it. Thank you for stating it all so clearly and eloquently.

Annoyed, Informed American

Willfully ignorant, idealist, irrational gullible fools voted this clown into office. But there is another hope... an emerging grass-roots movement based on individualism and personal accomplishment. The leader may yet be uncertain, but it's possible that she wears a red suit

Brian O'Connor

pete wrote (July 28th, 2009 6:04pm)

Say I completely buy Mel's take on the story here, that Gates had no reason to feel aggrieved for being treated like a criminal in his own home, that he shamelessly played the victim card and started yelling at the police, and they then arrested him for assault on a charge they subsequently dropped.

That would still make them "stupid", no?

Not necessarily.

Kent Clark

If racism in America is so rampant and such an impediment to black progress, how is Henry Louis Gates able to live in an exclusive neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

Jason Keuter

This all reminds me of Hitler: he too was a radical that people insisted on seeing as a moderate; he too had "written" books that no one paid much attention to; he too claimed the mantle of victimhood and promised to redeem a naton. And he too saw his own kind of racism in places where it didn't really exist.

logdon

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates3.html

Here's the Cambridge Police Crime Report of the'honest mistake'.

Equality is as it says on the label, equality, right?

So try to imagine a white professor returning home, being spotted by a neighbour, who doesn't know him from Adam, breaking into a house. The neighbour reports it to the police and up to now, all is as it should be.

Police arrive, said prof does the 'don't you know who I am' routine, creates a fuss, racially insults officer, in this case, black with, 'it's because I'm a white man living in affirmative action America' and get's carted off to chokey.

The question? Would a white President of the United States get involved?

Would he call a black officer 'stupid' without knowing the facts? Or for that matter in full command of the facts.

And would I be even commenting on this incident, because just like Descartes' falling tree, it would be a non event.

FeralCat

Bumpty Odumpty spoke as a racist in a unguarded judgment call
Bumpty Odumpty had a great fall
All the tyrants Axelrods and all the tyrants Rahm con men
Can't put Bumpty Odumpty's mask back on again

NIck

The way Melanie Phillips writes suggests that Obama has tried to convince everyone he has a perfect take on all racial issues, that he's never going to be mistaken on racial issues, or that he is immune to allowing his own prejudices to get involved.

It's totally the opposite. He's only ever tried to articulate his feelings in an honest and intelligent way -- and those who've read his books and heard that speech know that his intelligent appreciation of the complexities of the issues is greater than that of probably any politician, racial activist or writer before him.

To write about the matter as though Obama has allowed his 'mask' to fall off is completely contradictory: doesn't Melanie Phillips also say that it's not what was in Obama's speech that was worrying, but instead people's interpretation of it? Doesn't that mean Obama was telling it as he saw it in his speech, rather than creating a 'mask' for his views??

This is a shrill and conspiracy-theory-like accusation.

The race questions faced in America are open and unresolved ones and Obama has never hinted that he sees it any other way.

Tim Buck II

Obama stupidly engaged in racial-profiling while on nation-wide TV last week and concluded that the officer was guilty of "policing while white" = more than enough to earn one insults from our leader.

I'll tell you who acted stupidly: It was the American voter last November - who believed the near unanimous media hype about Obama and who chose to ignore his anti-white past - some of which Melanie mentions above.

As Obama now turns to health care "reform" the American voter will now find that it will be possible to be "sick while white" as they stand at the back of the queue while their children are ill and while they pay for the care of illegals at the front of the line.

I hate to say it but a voting public this dumb deserves just what it's going to get.

Bob Toano

Lady, on what planet have you been living. Our nation certainly hasn't overeacted to its past racism. We've come a long way but still have a ways to go. Obama has not been anti white, he has simply tried to teach, inform, or help others understand how different sides feel and relate to many different issues. Obama doesn't appear to these eyes to look at things in terms of color (you might try a little harder), he sees them in terms of what works and what doesn't work. He didn't call the officer or the Cambridge police stupid, he said the officer acted stupidly, which one could easily make the argument that Obamas response was also stupid, as well as Gates initial behavior might have been (though the tapes aren't clear on this ). I keep trying to get a grip on why there seems to be such a visceral hatred for Obama. I don't think it is primarily racism, Is it a combination of fear, the unknown, self contempt,ego,ideology, or other traits. Hannity, Levin, Limbaugh, Kristol, Coulter,the birthers, they all seem ready to explode. It's as if how could America like a president that is so different than us. Well lady he is not that different. He loves his kids, he loves his wife, he loves his country, he is trying to make it a better and safer country for all just like his predecessor. If I might make a suggestion. If you want to have any influence over moderate or left of center democrats, you might try writing with a little more civility such as conservatives like Noonan or Brooks. They make compelling
objective arguments to support their case. They try to understand both points of view. They make a lefty like me feel that they understand me even though they don't agree with me. Covey calls that empathy. You can learn that skill, you really can if you try.

elephant4life

"...A simple comparison of the treatment of poor (black) citizens in New Orleans and rich (white) citizens elsewhere when their property is damaged by storm illustrates a more complicated interplay between race, economics and political power that is not wholly in the past.....Wm Hazlitt"

Please remember in your comparisons that it was the Black mayor of New Orleans who skedaddled and saved his own hide and left his people to drown. (He did manage to ensure that no school buses were harmed in evacuation efforts, however; they stayed nice and dry in their yard).

Original Tony

Melanie, you have just made my day! I can now eat my lunch with a great deal of joy and happiness bubbling up in me.

The mask has indeed slipped!

Original Tony

Carlos and Bode Awo, you totally miss the point!

Bush criticized the police for doing wrong, Obama critized the police when they did right.

One had the facts at hand and the other didn't. I can't believe you can't see the difference. And what's more, Bush was critcizing his own race!

EL Skinner

Excellent commentary, Ms. Phillips, and I agree with all of your observations but one, that the arrest of Mr. Gates was a mistake. I don't think Mr. Gates' arrest by the Cambridge police was a mistake in the moment or in hindsight.

s. valenti

We baby boomers were derided by Obama and his media sycophants, notably Jonathan Alter who urged us to step aside for a new generation of leaders who wouldn't be stuck 're-litigating the 1960's'. Well, where's the evidence that this post-racial president has moved beyond race-based 'grievance' mongering?

Wm. Hazlitt

elephant4life, Your point is a good one, but does not address my point about the system as a whole. Afluent white property owners have received public funds to rebuild their extensive properties. Poor black property owners have seen property developers move in to buy up land, and have been left to live in shanty towns.

Joe Matthew

Weren't the police there to protect Gates' property? Shouldn't he have thanked them for coming out on his behalf, rather than swearing at them?

Daddy-O

The key to Obama's success has been a skewed media machine, and a willful blindness of the people.

I can only hope the people are beginning to see.

Jessica

Thank you for this article, you hit the nail on the head

Victoria

For those of us who were raised without racial predjudice (and I mean to the extent that the street vulgarities were never allowed to be used in or out of our home and family fiends of many cultures and ethnicity) it is dismaying to have the POTUS be one who champions Racial divide!! His earlier comment about his grandmother being a "typical white woman"(who was afraid of anyone not like her) has become the "prism" though which he views the world. What he is (an avowed racist) speaks so loudly, I cannot say what he says(I'm a uniter)!

Janis Prinkalns

British readers probably didn’t know who Gates is. As a Floridian, I can remember a local court case from Fort Lauderdale in the early ‘90’s where Gates testified as an expert witness in a case involving 2 Live Crew. He famously compared such songs as “Me be Horn*” to Shakespeare. Even more amusingly, this expert “scholar” quoted Burns when he thought he was quoting Shakespeare. I guess these old white dudes are hard to tell apart…So…I was hardly surprised to read that this arrogant (…You don’t know who you’re messin’ with!”) little loudmouth (…I’ll speak with your mama outside!) is taken in for disorderly conduct. The affirmative action Harvard “scholar” is defended by the affirmative action POTUS…What a sad day for Harvard…What a sad day for Western civilization…

marion

The tapes, photos and eyewitness reports are available for all to review.
So two men, from the same Irish ancestry got into an argument. Mankind and the media are characterized by confrontation and conflict.
The losers here are the ones that demonstrated there individual infantile prejudices and rash uninformed anger to the world. A valuable glimpse for all, thru the phony, fleeting pretense of title and station.
Officer Crowley is the mature, measured, professional CIVIL servant that deserves respect, if for no other, then the selfish reasons of avoiding possible injury, arrest or death had he reacted to the hurtful insults like so many stereotype police officers actions.
I would forgo the beers and let the losers sip and revel in their American misfortune.

kathy kobs

It was clear early on what made up Barak Obama--remember, you are known by the company you keep.

BenM

Blimey. US conservatives are really desperate aren't they?

Look, you lost the election last November. Big time.

In fact you were thrashed.

Stop blowing up minor incidents like this into a kind of major crisis that they clearly are not.

Nor do they point to any underlying motivation on Mr Obama's behalf.

Get a grip.

Milton

As for the mask slipping, let's not forget his nomination of an openly bigoted nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. If Obama has no problem with Sotomayor, he has no problem with discrimination, so long as it isn't directed at blacks.
But as your essay points out, this was entirely in the open to anyone who examined his record. The complicity of the press in the U.S. is astounding, considering that it isn't even state-controlled.

RockyRoad

Of course the Boston Globe doesn't want such an embarassing piece to tarnish the president they supported.

david z

lets flip the coin, what if the same happened to a white male, would the cop be called racist!!!! i beleive there are a lot of people who hide behind the " race card " to escape their guilt, and thats a shame.what ever happened to comon sense and personal responsebility for our actions.

Brian O'Connor

BenM wrote (July 29th, 2009 5:08pm)

Stop blowing up minor incidents like this into a kind of major crisis that they clearly are not.

I dunno, Ben.

You might think the incident to be minor, but it was important enough to capture the attention of our President: first he called the police stupid, then backtracked, and then invited the principals for beer!

I guess by definition he sees his little beer-bash as being important enough to postpone other pressing presidential business for an hour or two.

Nor do they point to any underlying motivation on Mr Obama's behalf.

What does motivation have to do with anything?

Are you suggesting that if Mr. Obama had acted out of the purest motives, his charge (for example) that the police acted stupidly would be more correct than if his motives had been bad?

Seems to me the event is what it is, irrespective of motivation.

Sue M

You nailed it Melanie. Thumbs up!

E.D.

Gates-gate aside (though it is a rather obvious clue as to Obama's real mindset), I am still dumbfounded at the realization that people actually voted this man into the office of U.S. president. It was clear to me during his campaign that Obama wasn't the person that the masses around the world thought him to be. A quick look at his background was enough evidence for me to piece together his future intent. Sadly, my expectations of him have been met and exceeded. Let this be a reminder to everyone that when a person's rhetoric and actions don't match, always go with the actions as the indicator of the real intent.

June F

Thank you for your clarity about the current POTUS. Recent polls show that his popularity is slipping...and high time, too. Re the event that tripped him up: Available information to date on the Gates incident indicates that Gates acted like an outraged British lord being busted by a London bobby ("Do you know who I am"? is always a demand for privileged treatment)...suggesting that class, not race, was the driving force of Gates' tirade. All the Gates incident proves is that affirmative action has become a way to change the racial composition of the American elite. Anyone who still believes that it is a way to help poor, disadvantaged kids get into the game is kidding himself.

Brian O'Connor

For perspective . . .

On tonight's O'Reilly show, Dennis Miller pointed out that the same President Obama who watched the brutal suppression of dissidents in Iran for a full week before he could pass flacid judgement on their treatment found it possible to call the Cambridge police stupid within hours of Gates' arrest, even though he admitted he didn't have all the facts.

I'm just saying . . .

Bode Awo

You guys need to get your facts rigt. The Rodney King video was first shown in the summer of 1991. That was when George Bush Snr criticized LAPD's heavy handling of the incident. The police officers then went on trial in 1992 and they were found "not guilty" which led to the riots.

The criticism of the ploice officers came way before the trial even began so Bush Snr was not reponding to the riots when he made the comments.

This silly story won't go away though which is a shame as there are more interesting things to talk about. Health Care, Job Losses etc.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/29/justin-barrett-boston-pol_n_247405.html

Madrid

I have to say-- this is the worst analysis of this situation by probably anyone I've read. The fact is that, regardless of race, gender, whatever, the police should not be able to arrest someone for yelling at a policeman, especially on his own property. Yelling at a police officer should not be an arrestable offence. Should it perhaps merit an obscenity ticket (if the person uses an obscenity)? Perhaps, but in no other country in the developed world would white, black, red, yellow skinned people be arrested for yelling at a Police officer on one's own property. Got it?

English people would be going apesh-t if a major academic was arrested simply for yelling at a police officer in his own home. Was Gates rude? Yes. Would I have done the same thing? No. But that does not make it a crime what he did.

Brian O'Connor

Madrid (July 30th, 2009 8:58pm) made the point that yelling at the police should not be an arrestable offense, regardless of the race of the yeller.

This is the "First Amendment" defense of Gates's behavior, and Madrid is in prestigious company.

Harvey Silverglate argues that Gates's First Amendment rights were violated by his arrest: Gates had committed no crime, and had merely exercised protected speech when he verbally abused and threatened officer Crowley. Christopher Hitchens makes much the same case.

That's generally true, and it's certainly a defensible position.

Still, I'd argue that Crowley and other policemen are faced with the practical problem of having to decide when to exercise their power of arrest and when not to.

If disturbing the peace (a public demonstration of boisterousness or "tumultuousness") is justification for making an arrest at any time, then the officer must be afforded the discretion of deciding in gray situations when the peace has been disturbed enough to warrant an arrest.

If disturbing the peace is not justification for an arrest, then let's make that a point of law and remove the element of "officer judgement" from the equation to protect both the officer and the citizen.

In this case, I'd defer to the officer and reject the First Amendment argument.

Just in passing, Michael Barone makes the point that Gates was really the one in the position of power: there was no way his arrest could have resulted in more than a few hours in jail; Gates's charges of racism could have destroyed Crowley's career, publicly disgraced him and permanently besmirched his reputation (think mayor, governor and president at his side); and Gates could have profited handsomely from his arrest by turning it into a TV "documentary."

Bill M

This thought from Rudy Giuliani:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0709/Rudy_Shut_Up.html

Brian O'Connor

It occurs to me that perhaps Gatesgate should not be viewed in isolation.

In an administration where the President rushed so quickly and without full possession of the facts to damn a white cop for doing his job, the President's Justice Department recently dropped the case against some armed Black Panthers for voter intimidation AFTER the defendants defaulted, and thereby lost.

What an odd, odd coincidence . . .

Brian O'Connor

The American Thinker has a picture and a commentary that I find to be stunningly revealing.

A second picture at the end of the piece makes for a contrast in style (style in the sense of class).

Mokum

To describe the spectrum from affirmative action to reverse racism as typified by Wright as wrong is one thing. To say it is a "monstrously unjust over-reaction" to hundreds of years of slavery, violence and discrimination is surely the gaffe of the year.

Please say you don't mean that.

I must say, your general reaction to Obama has greatly disappointed me. I agree with many of your stances and admire your incisiveness and combativeness.

But already your deconstruction of his Wright denounciation was poor political point-scoring without any understanding of the human dimension.

Brian O'Connor

Mokum wrote (August 1st, 2009 12:40pm)

To describe the spectrum from affirmative action to reverse racism as typified by Wright as wrong is one thing. To say it is a "monstrously unjust over-reaction" to hundreds of years of slavery, violence and discrimination is surely the gaffe of the year.

You have a right to your opinion, of course, but I respectfully disagree.

With affirmative action, we see in actual real-life operation a massive example of the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" logical fallacy:

If I discriminate, then there will be a disproportionate number of blacks working for me. There is a disproportionate number of blacks working for me, therefore I discriminate.

Consider the logic in this way: If Ford makes cars, I'll see a car on the street. I see a car, so I see a Ford.

Yet that is the logic that rules our culture, laws and thinking these days, where an accusation requires accused to prove her innocence. Even if that's possible, jobs are lost and reputations permanently and publicly besmirched on the basis of the accusation alone. (Remember the guy who was pilloried by the grievance industry for using the word "niggardly"?)

Not only is the logic faulty, but what started out as a small-scale program intended to prevent discrimination against blacks (a virtuous goal) has morphed into a way of life to accommodate any ethnic or belief group that can describe itself, however remotely, as being aggrieved — except innocent, living white males and Christians, who are almost always regarded a priori as guilty by the grievance industry and media in any dispute (think Duke LaCrosse team; the white officials involved in the Brawley case; etc.).

There is no end in sight: how could there be when the utopian goal is to hang on to affirmative action until ALL discrimination is eliminated?

I don't regard a society built around group grievances to be a healthy one, so do I regard affirmative action to be a "monstrously unjust overreaction"?

Yup — I sure do.

But feel free to disagree.

Augustus

Why didn't the fool just step outside (his own house) and say who he was, problem solved, instead of such uneducated and naive abuse to a policeman only doing his duty? As for Obama's response, if he felt the need to comment because his friend was involved, he should have condemned abuse, whomsoever it came from. I mean, I ask you!?
"Are you doing this because I'm a black man in America? Are you doing this because you're a white officer and I'm a black man?" It's out of a comic strip.
He must have had a bad beard day!

Mokum

Brian O'Connor, the funny thing is, I agree with you. My comment was not in favour of affirmative action etc (let alone the reverse racism of Wright which always was deplorable), rather that our dear Melanie seemed to see affirmative action etc as much, much more of an injustice than slavery etc. Which ofcourse is a nonsense.

I think there was a time for affirmative action, and probably that time is past now.

Interestingly, more and more non-whites, including Obama, recognize that it has unfortunate side-effects, such as people not taking their own responsibility.

Brian O'Connor

Mokum wrote (August 2nd, 2009 1:43pm)

Brian O'Connor, the funny thing is, I agree with you.

Good!

My comment was not in favour of affirmative action etc (let alone the reverse racism of Wright which always was deplorable), rather that our dear Melanie seemed to see affirmative action etc as much, much more of an injustice than slavery etc. Which ofcourse is a nonsense.

I didn't interpret "our dear Melanie's" words that way at all! Not even close!

Interestingly, more and more non-whites, including Obama, recognize that it has unfortunate side-effects, such as people not taking their own responsibility.

Indeed!

President Obama is totally in favor of people taking personal responsibility.

The proof of this is that "personal responsibility" is the centerpiece of his healthcare project!

Brian O'Connor

Mokum —

I'm still puzzled as to how you came to link slavery and affirmative action. The only thing I can come up with is that you believe that affirmative action was passed as a sort of reparation for slavery.

Is that what you think?

Because if so, you're wrong. At the time of its passing, its intent was to abolish race-based discrimination — to promote equal opportunity — to make sure that people were not denied opportunity on the basis of race, creed, color or national origin — nothing more. It was intended to level the playing field, so that all citizens, regardless of color, would have equal access to the benefits of American Society.

Slavery wasn't a factor, nor were the virtues of "diversity" a factor.