Author before arrest as a young and unwelcome hippy
** Last week I never would have believed I would have anything I wanted or needed to add about the Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley dust up and Obama’s unscripted characterization that the police acted stupidly.
BUT
I was extremely hacked off to read this morning that one of my “links” was arrested in similar circumstances in NYC recently. Ravi Shankar, poet, professor at Central Connecticut College and editor of Drunken Boat was arrested as police were on the look out for a 140 lb white male. Shankar, whom I met recently at the Wesleyan writers conference, happens to be a 6’ 2”, 200lb Indian man. The tale of his ordeal in police detention is worthy of clicking over for the brief read.
While charges were dropped in both cases no one should be surprised that racial profiling is alive and well in America. Shankar, while of Indian origin, appeared somewhat Middle Eastern and was referred to as a “sand nigger”. As I’ve read various accounts and opinions concerning the Gates/ Crowley incident I find that every black author has a similar police experience to relate. Not so with white commentators who seem to focus on whether Obama should have reigned in his thoughts until all the facts were in.
My own dust ups with the law concern mostly protest rally incidents although I did have a dubious but frightening arrest in North Carolina in the early 70’s. Pulled over for “crossing a (non-existent) double yellow line” I was held overnight in county jail until money could be wired to pay my fine. Although I was just an unwelcome long hair hippy to shake down, this did give me a vicarious taste of profiling and marginalization by authority.
I wonder if the White House Beer Summit really did any good. Gates may have been disrespectful, but Crowley used his authority to prove he could make you have a really bad day. Race or testosterone? I’m thinking a bit of both, but it’s foolish to believe we are in a post racial America.
5 comments:
Unbelievable, or rather sadly believable.
We are far from being out of the woods yet, for sure... I'll never forget being thrown down on the hood of car, my arms twisted behind me, at a Grateful Dead show, for selling photographs out of a shoulder bag... guess they thought they had a drug dealer... Or the time when the Philadelphia Police told me they were going to break my guitar into little toothpick size pieces if I did't get out of Suburban station where I'd been playing for tips...
Groan!!!!!!!! I mean what can I say! My husband is middle eastern, this attitude is all too familiar.
Thanks all! Somehow being in the arts lends itself to a fairly diverse cross section of friends (ethnicity as well as lgbt) many have similar tales of woe.
Police should be held accountable and face consequences for actions like these....really pisses me off!
And since we're sharing stories of being arrested, I think the cops profile everybody, which is ridiculous. I got pulled over when I was 18 in Nevada for looking too young. The cop said he just wanted to check and make sure I wasn't a runaway. Um, don't think that's right?!!
In America, we'd like to think that we are all free---but we still have to exist in this flawed system. It seems that it will take a lot longer than I would have previously hoped to enlighten the ignorant.
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