About race or class?

Who wouldn't like to enjoy a beer with the leader of the free world?

Prominent scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department in Massachusetts got together the other night, with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to knock back a couple of cold ones and talk about the brouhaha (couldn't help it, sorry) that snowballed into a national stir. Crowley arrested Gates a couple of weeks ago following a well-publicized incident at the Harvard professor's Cambridge home. Gates was returning from an overseas trip and had some difficulty entering the residence, which prompted a neighbor to call police. Crowley was among those who responded and eventually arrested Gates for disorderly conduct.

When you're a friend of the president you should know better than to get into it with a police officer. I also think a police officer who is presented evidence that the person he encountered in a home and proves he lives there should go find something more important to do.

As a person who has been profiled for most of his life, while driving a car (recently), riding in a car and walking down a street (two years ago), I get why Gates was pissed. When I was younger and less responsible I would be upset but could tolerate those episodes. Now as a responsible adult, dedicated professional and committed community servant, I feel that I should be above profiling, but realize that as someone of color that expectation is unrealistic.

So I understand how someone of Gates' stature -- a Harvard professor and prominent intellectual -- would be more than a little disturbed at what he considered undue harassment because of the color of his skin. That is why I believe this to be as much, if not more, about class as it is race.

Some believe that people of color who achieve some level of success and affluence feel that they should be above the suspicion, beyond the stereotypes associated with lower income members of their race. As in, "How dare you?!" Or, "Do you know who I am?!"

I remember a scene from a 1980s film, a Spike Lee Joint, in which a character referred to Prince and Michael Jordan as "different," as not like black people. As dark as I am, Jordan is blacker than me. He is also richer than I will probably ever be. And that's the point.

If Gates wasn't so prominent, respected, and well-connected, this wouldn't be a story. He'd be another brother who got caught up.

I have a friend whose wife at the time would get mad at him and slip off his house key from his key ring so that when he returned home he would be unable to get in, and have to bang on the door until she decided to open it. Yes, she had issues, and they are now divorced. She did this multiple times until he got fed up one day and forced his way in. The police were called and when they got there, he was questioned about whether he belonged in the home. He produced identification and pointed to the photos of him in the home (I believe Gates also had photos of himself that the officer could see in his house as well), and respectfully explained what had occurred. In my friend's case, after seeing ample evidence the police apologized and excused themselves.

Had Gates handled it with similar tact we may not be talking about this today. I hesitate to say he should have swallowed his pride, because that is a tough thing to do to someone who has endured the legacy of racism as long as he has. Still, as I do, maybe he should have asked himself, "Is it worth it to go there on this one?"

Working on a new Detroit

I spent some time recently with a bunch of community development folks at a gathering to talk about reimagining Detroit. The focus was to come up with ideas for creating a new Detroit that was more appropriately appointed for its current population, given the fact that we have been bleeding residents for decades. We are down from well over 2 million people to about 800,000.

I have long held the view that we should close off parts of the city and allow them to return to a forest-like state. Not necessarily parks, because parks have to be maintained. I'm talking about moving residents out of, say neighborhoods off Gratiot on the east side, shutting down power and water, razing the homes and letting grass, trees and even weeds to take over -- complete wilderness, in our urban midst.

The forum was put together by Community Development Advocates of Detroit, and I appreciated the opportunity to participate, on behalf of the MorningSide Neighborhood Organization, because it gave me a chance to kick around ideas with a group of development professionals who are on a similar wave length.

Imagine a Detroit that is no longer overburdened with caring for an infrastructure designed for a population nearly three times its current size. It would be a city with forestland where blocks occupied by one or two houses once stood -- decaying. That Detroit would be much easier to manage, to protect and to serve. Of course some people would have to be dragged from their homes, kicking and screaming, but if progress were easy, we would have had it already.

The prospect, in my mind, isn't that far-fetched or over dramatic. I had a conversation not too long ago with a colleague about the topic, and she suggested we don't really even need two sides! Now getting rid of either the east side or west side is dramatic (and who chooses anyway?), but razing and foresting (I made that word up) parts of say Brightmoor or the Osborn area by comparison is a relatively sound strategy.

Organizers of the event are planning additional sessions with the goal of crafting a usable plan. I'll keep you all posted. Until then, imagine the possibilities.

No more sending children down blocks of vacant homes. Just tell them to stay away from the woods. No more police patrols of nearly vacant neighborhoods. Just let the forest ranger take care of it. Instead, we could allocate resources to the well-populated areas where residents who need services could finally get them.