When is it racisim?

On my break from New York city, in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota, I was on my bicycle going uphill on an empty sidewalk which doubled for a bike lane. The manicured green and the gray and beige of prefab houses surrounded me, as I enjoyed the fresh breeze against my chest giving me a work out.

A loud honk from a car behind me broke my mood violently. The next moment, I saw a young white boy with a boorish face sticking out of the front window of his car up to his waist glaringly showing me the finger. Before I could respond the car was out of sight over the hill leaving me to wonder what this unprovoked action was all about.

In the early 90's I had experienced my fair share of racism as a foreign graduate student at Bowling Green, Ohio. So my only conclusion, here I was again in the mid-west and here was another one to add to my list.

While this incident could have been a random biased prank by an ignorant teenager or a frat boy, being on the receiving end, I could not take it any other way. And there in lies the problem.

Racism is like pornography. You know it when you see it.

Racism in all its forms is a global phenomenon, a product of man's tribal nature. In America we have been trying to move beyond it since the civil rights movement brought about desegregation. The laws have brought us a long way forward, but as a people we still have miles to go.

Most people I passed by in Minneapolis smiled or said hello and were generally courteous. But this one incident left a deep scar. While many in this country put up a front of not being racist as that is what is expected of a law abiding civil society, what lies beneath and how it manifests itself is any ones guess.

Every now and then racism and ignorance surface in the form of patronizing behavior or as in this case just plain insensitive stupidity.

In this stolen nation of ours there is no singular creed or breed that owns anything. If power is to be measured by strength in numbers and economic prowess, so be it.

But what defines America's true nature is that anyone can lay claim to this land as long as you abide by the laws and respect your neighbor. That's what makes this place special and like no other on the planet. And so to feel superior by the color of ones skin or creed and have disdain for another, is nothing but folly.

With Obama's election there is at least a sense that we are living in a post racial America. And that is true for people who want to derive strength from it and celebrate the true essence of this land and its people. And for those who want to live in the past, there is no shortage of Limbaughs, Savages, O'Rileys and Hannity's to rally around.

When Obama used the word "stupid" in response to the policeman's action in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he found himself in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. The White House beer fest was effective damage control to calm the nerves of a nation that had been incessantly buzzing with debate over the incident.

But the true "teachable moment" coming out of all this I would hope would be that since the president had weighed in, the policemen around the country would respond in a more responsible way when dealing with people of "color" and hopefully the people on the receiving end would "cut the policemen some slack".

Given the way of the world and the people at the receiving end the latter would be harder to come by.

As for me, I am willing to accept ignorance but there is no place for intolerance, not here not anywhere.

It is what it is.

RACE/DISGRACE

In 2002 the much celebrated Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented a mini-series on PBS titled America Beyond the Color Line. The series explored the status of prominent and not so prominent African-Americans in America today. From the projects of south side Chicago to the upscale golf courses of New Jersey, Professor Gates gave the viewer a fascinating account of the African American experience.

On July 16, 2009 professor Gates, a black man, found himself on the wrong side of the color line when a white police officer arrested him for breaking into his own home. Professor Gates, who has taught at Harvard for nearly two decades, arrived home from a trip to China to find his front door jammed. With the help of his taxi driver he managed to pry it open and entered his house. Minutes later a policeman came knocking at his door asking suspecting questions. A white female neighbor had called in the police thinking her neighbor's house was being burglarized. What transpired between Professor Gates and the policeman materialized into the arrest and disgrace of a scholar and the Boston police department.

Whether this was a case of "racial profiling" is a question that has been debated to death in the frenzy of the relentless media. Even President Obama, who in the past has stealthily walked on water when responding to questions on race, could not escape the onslaught. His answer in defense of a personal friend came across as less than presidential, but understandable. But what we all can agree, is that there was no reason for this to be played out the way it did. While the police by their action disgraced an eminent scholar, the media did its fare share by plastering the professor's mug shot across the screen over and over again. Another photograph that was relentlessly zoomed and panned across was that of the professor being lead away in handcuffs. The indignity Professor Gates suffered has been sobering in every sense of the word.

Then came the explanations from the very characters who were involved in this circus, in the same media that had earlier maligned them. Even the president had to clarify his position in the most overt sense, so as not to come across as biased. That goes to show how sensitive an issue "race" is, more so because Obama is president.

Despite the truth behind the details of what happened that night, one cannot resist wondering how this would have played out if the person breaking in was a white person dressed in a mint suit. Would the neighbor still have felt unsafe? Would the police at the scene have behaved differently? And if it was not a celebrated Harvard Professor and a friend of the president, would the media have paid any attention at all? What makes the situation complicated is not what happened that night, but what may have happened if the parameters were different.

The color line in America is always charged by the nature of this nation's past. Obama's presidency in many ways may have softened that line, but in other instances has also hardened it. The overt polarization in the views expressed on television and in politics these days, is a telling sign of the times. The color line always remains present. It is its manifestation that is hidden. It is what it is.