The Truth on Racism in America

I agree with the author,Hard Truths and the Teachable Moment: The Gates-Crowley Saga, when she says, "The hard truth that Professor Gates needs to hear is that he is the one who handed over his power to Officer Crowley. Letting his agitation get the better of him, Gates lost the ability to shape the outcome of the encounter and set up his own victimization by a poorly trained police officer."

I also understand why Prof. Gates reacted the way he did which was unfortunate. As for Srgt Crowley, I can not understand why he had to handcuff and take the rofessor to the police station to charge him. What crime did Prof. Gates commit?

Even I find myself bias when I have an encounter with African-Americans male, especially if he has a dark complection. Whereas, I have a more favoreable opinion of the light skin male. For those white americans who refuses to understand the history the African-American males had when they were brought to america, only need to answer a couple of questions. Does an African-American need to pay more of a car then a white person with similar income and job status? Does an African-American need to pay a higher interest rate then a white person with similar income and job status?. The answer is no, but it happens on a regular basis. i think what happens was that Sgt. Crowley did not know how to react to the screaming black man and the threatening statement of the professor did not help the situation at all. It is a hard truth, truth that we all feel uncomfortable discussing; that racism in America still exists.

I believe the author's intended audience, was both African-American and white. She clearly points out her opinion where each man were in the wrong. As for the author's credibility, I reviewed her bio - Robin Wells earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Berkeley and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at MIT. She has taught economics at University of Michigan, Stanford Business School, and MIT, and published in scholarly journals. I was not positive if she herself was an African-American, I think that would have given her a more of an insight on how African-Americans think and feel with confronted with law enforcements.