From a reader:
Jonah,
I just read an AP article this morning about an older white man who was walking around a mostly minority, lower income NJ town. This made him suspicious enough for one resident to call the police. When the 24 year old officer arrived she asked the man’s name. “Bob Dylan,” he said. She didn’t know who he was. She asked what he was doing there. “I’m on tour,” he said. She asked if he had ID. He didn’t. Another officer arrived, this one 20 years old. He didn’t know who Bob Dylan was either. They took him in a squad car to the hotel where he “claimed” he was staying, at which point his people vouched for him. He reportedly “Couldn’t have been any nicer to them.”
Now compare this to to the professor Gates incident: A white man is reported to the police–because of the color of his skin. The two officers who happened to take the call didn’t recognize the man. Granted, he wasn’t a “famous” Harvard professor or anything–he was just an internationally renowned singer/songwriter who has been not just famous, but a household name for somewhere around five decades. And how does Dylan react? He cooperates fully and no big fuss is made. After all, the incident occurred on July 23 and the AP only just found out about it. I hope we don’t need to get a statement from the president again.
Oh, and there was no mention in the story of the race of the officers.
Update: From a reader:
Jonah, You should not be surprised to find out that racial mongers will see the Dyaln non-incident differently that you or I.
I already read a news aggregator were someone commented on the differences:
– Black professional with ID, in his own house, is arrested.
– Disheveled looking white man with no ID snoops around someone else’s house (Dylan got curious at a ‘for sale sign” and looked through the window, prompting the call to the police) gets a ride to his hotel.
Me: Sure, the differences are real, but they don’t all reflect well on Gates. But I think everyone either agrees with that or doesn’t by now. No need to rehash the Rashomon effect again.