obama invites gates, cop, to dc, for a beer.

sadly, he can't do this with sean bell and the cops who shot him, and he can't do this with oscar grant and the cop who who shot him. there are many poor black and latino men who can't be invited to the white house to share a beer with the police who murdered them. i find it interesting that obama was silent in the aftermath of the bell murder, silent in the face of jena 6, and silent after the murder of grant, but actually had something to say about the arrest of gates. now, i don't make light of what happened to gates. nobody should be arrested for trying to "break into their own home." it is clear to me that race and racism played a part in how the situation unfolded. but, no one was killed or beaten, circumstances that all too often occur against poor and unknown blacks at the hands of the cops.

so, why the words from the big o? well, gates is a peer. a harvard man, a respected scholar, a man of import. he is also a personal friend, and a member of the upper middle class. like obama, he is in that rarified "talented 10th." obama identified with gates. gates, you see, is not the sort of man who should be getting fucked with by the police. which means, by inference, that there are people who should be getting fucked with by the police. such men obviously include bell, grant, and the jena 6, since obama had nothing to say about their deaths and imprisonment. for, these men were poor, black, and unknown. they were not the big o's peers. they did not go to harvard, and they never appeared on oprah.

thousands and thousands of blacks have been killed in this country because of racism. of this history, which sadly, includes the present, obama has had little to say. but a friend being inconvenienced as a part of this racist history? no fair!

how else to explain obama's remarks in this case, and silence in the others? and even now, he retreats. as does gates. gates tells us it is time for both sides to move on. perhaps that can happen in this case, but sean bell can not move on. oscar grant can not move on. amadou diallo can not move on. those who hung from trees and were drowned in rivers can not move on. of course, none of them were biracial harvard professors, nor friends of obama and oprah.

so, now obama wants to share a beer with gates and crowley. he fears that he said too much, that perhaps his mentioning of racism may have angered those "moderate" whites he will need in 2012. thinking it over, it hits him that both sides may have been at fault. perhaps, it was all just a misunderstanding. yeah, a cold one should clear things up.

but not for bell and grant and diallo.

nor mumia, george jackson, and fred hampton.

nor malcolm, martin, and medger.

nor for thousands of others, too poor and unknown to reference.

obama will not speak for them.

he will be too busy drinking.