Gatesgate

I don't know what happened at the professor's house.  Since the president admitted before rendering judgment on the police that he too did not know what happened, he would have been well-advised to refrain from rendering judgment.  He might have said, for example: "Professor Gates is a friend of mine, but I know from experience that sometimes friends of mine can rub you the wrong way.  And cops are subject to human failings, too.  Possibly black guys are more acutely aware of that than the general population.  Anyway I know as much about what happened as the next guy with a newspaper subscription, and I came here tonight to talk about health care for millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans, not about Professor Gates, who is a good friend and a wonderful scholar."

The thing about hindsight and acuity of vision.

Now, the president is not the only one with an opinion but not all the facts.  Can we say something about the others, too?  On this matter, the facts are known.  So well known that, when an event such as this one occurs, watching cable news shows is like being married to someone whose every speech act is known to you, in every detail, down to the prepositional phrases, as they inhale in preparation to speak.  The respective acts of the grievance mongers on both sides are wearing thin.  As a white guy, I guess I feel more qualified to speak of all the white guys I know.  Their grievance is not so weighty in comparison to what black guys have suffered.  But they feel like things have gotten away from them somewhat, and they do not like it.  Their boss is a woman and even the Boston Celtics are all black.  For whom are they to cheer, Roger Federer?  They feel like less of a man.  In a case like this one, the black Harvard professor and the white cop, it is impossible to imagine them not being with the cop.  What if the professor was famous and white and the cop black?  The cop would be out of line.  Depend upon it.  Probably they'd have less interest in the story but the cop would be out of line.  Arresting Dr. Bigshot Caucasion for disorderly conduct when he's in his own house?  Probably got his job on account of affirmative action and now he has an attitude, too.