The total obsession this country has with race often--it seems to me, at least--distracts from seeing events through a different perspective. As someone who works at a university and has to deal with sometimes arrogant, rude professors, this situation seems to have as much to do with class as race. This article starts right off with calling Gates "eminent". He has always been referred to as prominent, respected, and host of other things that seem to imply that he is somehow better than the blue-collar cop, and thus a more credible source.

Isn't pretty much every Harvard professor "eminent"? How else would they could get a job there? Are cops supposed to keep up on every Harvard (and M.I.T.) professor so that they can offer them the proper deference?

Everything I have read on Gates leads me to believe that he is an elitist, attention-seeking prick and this situation is no different. Being an eminent scholar does not entitle one to any more respect than any other person, regardless of your race.

Hmm so it was "class" distinctions that lead the neighbor to call.

And it was "class" distinctions that lead the cop to consider Gates a possible suspect even though the only match that Gates had with the suspects on the call was race and gender. Stature, dress, and the fact that he was on the phone do nothing to obviate that right?

and it was class that lead a cop

• without a warrant
• without visual evidence of a crime in progress
• on private property

To demand id from someone inside the house...

Uhuh.

No, it was the sound of a door broken in that led her to call.

emsworth:

No, it was the sound of a door broken in that led her to call.

Nope. It was the appearance of TWO BLACK MEN seeming to be forcing open a door. The latter is not illegal. It was clearly their "blackness" in that neighborhood that was the tipping point.

So you have perfect knowledge of what was in this woman's head... including the quite remarkable fact that if she had seen two white men beating down a door, she would have regarded their whiteness as evidence that they were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

What if they'd been going down the street with his TV set, leaving a trail of jewelry? Whiteness alone would have been enough to reassure her? Since you know what she was thinking, please enlighten us.