Sunday, July 26, 2009

Arrested in your own home.

I'm glad that the incident in Cambridge is taking up so much media space - we as a nation can always benefit from race discussion. Unfortunately, the fact that Professor Gates, a black man, was arrested in his own home by Officer Crowley, a white officer, is getting the same treatment as, says Amanda at Pandagon, a woman who is raped and told that she shouldn't have been out drinking or was wearing a skirt too short. Astute and dead on observation.

Blame the victim. Commenters may mean well but are only perpetuating blame-the-victim attitudes. Sure Gates really should have kept his mouth shut. Sure the woman really was drunk.

Bottom line, Gates was arrested in his own home because he was a black man. The perpetrators need to be held accountable, not the victims.

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