The dominant aspect of race discussion in America is now about the white male working-class being oppressed. This means farmers, Detroit manufacturers, fire fighters, policemen. All men of great noble standing!

This is now the face of it, as its being plastered at the top of Drudge:

myFox Boston, through a display of fealty to this great white policeman, managed to extract a dribble of an interview from the police officer who arrested a black scholar for breaking-and-entering his own house (even after presenting ID).

It's only ironic because you falsely believe that voting a black man into office counts as a favor in the scheme of affirmative action, and therefore that the President owes you a pass to be free from accusations of racism. Like, "Hey, brother, come on, I voted you into office, don't call me and my police force stupid."

How do you know we're done conquering institutionalized racism?? A black man in a majority white town going up against a white DA is screwed. That's the way things are.

My explanation for why I don't like racist jokes comes weirdly enough from Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Borat, Bruno):

Baron Cohen, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, says he also wishes in particular to expose the role of indifference in that genocide. "When I was in university, there was this major historian of the Third Reich, Ian Kershaw, who said, 'The path to Auschwitz was paved with indifference.' I know it's not very funny being a comedian talking about the Holocaust, but it's an interesting idea that not everyone in Germany had to be a raving anti-Semite. They just had to be apathetic." Regarding the enthusiastic response to his song, "Throw The Jew Down The Well", he says, "Did it reveal that they were anti-Semitic? Perhaps. But maybe it just revealed that they were indifferent to anti-Semitism."

I can't help but think that the insensitivity of racist jokes encourages indifference.

Here's the police report of the incident between black professor Gates and white policeman Crowely.

Prof. Gates was angry even before the police came because he had to break into his own house. If you've ever had to break into your own house, you know that you're anxious and want to hit someone at that point.

Sgt. Crowely was probably going to play nicely, but got angered by Gates's immediate and repeated accusations of racism. This really incensed Crowely because he teaches diversity classes and probably voted for Obama (79% of Boston went to Obama, 88% of Cambridge went to Obama).

What ensued was the typical escalation of two otherwise professional men who were really angry. What ensued was a series of what in their head were "them just doing the honest thing" but really were forms of provocation.

I don't think Crowely, had he not been provoked, would've taken Gates's ID with him and walk out. That certainly provoked Gates further. I'm always pissed when the cops walk away with anything that's mine. The thought in your head is, "how the fuck am I going to get that back!?"

At which point Crowely walks outside, Gates follows and says something about his mother, and Crowely, in view of a handful of police officers and neighbors arrests Gates.

Was Crowely racist?

If Gates was a white professor and accused Crowely of some other thing that would piss him off ("hey trainee, you know nothing about the law, don't you have other important crimes to pursue?"), Crowely would've "followed procedure" to give Gates a hard time as well.

So far so good.

But here's the key part, I'm imagining this in my head, the final blow, when Gates says something about Crowely's mother outside, in view of other police officers. If Gates was a white Harvard professor, I think Crowely would've just tried to don an expression of suffering patience, maybe shake his head, and try to laugh it off. Instead, Crowely responded to public ridicule by arresting the fellow. Crowely's response to the black Gates is "how dare you." Crowely's response to a white Gates would have be, "okay, I'm out of here, this guy is insane." So somehow, Crowely's pride is more affected by him being dressed down by a black professor in front of Crowely's mostly white police officers and Gates's (assumed mostly white) rich neighbors.

Was Gates racist?

To be fair, let's walk through the other race switch. What if Sgt. Crowley was black. Black Gates probably would've lowered his tone immediately at the door as a form of nobless oblige. Black Crowley would've then asked for ID, black Gates would've said, "hold on, lemme get it." Black Crowely would read it and say, "okay, sorry Mr. Gates, have a nice day." And that would be the end.