Who Cracks the Code?
One often hears that this or that political statement traffics in ?coded? racist imagery.? McCain commercials showing white women or black men or even white men used coded racial imagery.? Libertarians complaining about ?government thugs? must be appealing to coded racist terminology.? Political cultural cliches are inevitably a racist code.? Fears about redistribution are really coded fears of racial redistribution.? As Matthew Yglesias puts it:
Well, obviously you could read just about anything as a coded racist appeal. And I think a case could be made that you?d be right to.
But what good is code?? Self-described racists like the Aryan Nation don?t bother to traffic in codes ? they rely on explicit appeals to racial solidarity.? If racists made up a vast majority, or even a large plurality, of the committed opposition to President Obama, couldn?t they more effectively communicate their complaints to each other without relying on obscure and hard to understand codes?? A code only increases the costs of political coordination.? Only those who take the time to deconstruct the racial meanings will get the message.? Or, you can only find the racism if you are looking for it.
Inevitably, this means that progressives will crack the code first.? As remarkable as it may seem, few conservative or libertarian Americans support candidates and movements merely for the strength of their rhetoric?s racist undertones.? If they did, they would have candidates and movements with worse actual tones ? much more relevant to the only vaguely political majority that they must win over.? The cost of good racist codes would be the opportunity cost paid in foregone good rhetoric.? Progressives, on the other hand, are generally disinterested in absorbing core conservative or libertarian beliefs.? Policing rhetoric for accidental racial double-entendres is much more politically fruitful.
Cryptologist-in-Chief Jimmy Carter recently determined that ?an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a Black man.?? He is not alone, judging from Politico?s Arena. Progressives, as usual, can see far more racism than conservatives.? James Zogby explains how they do it:
Look at the signs, read the slogans, listen to the speeches, look into the eyes of the marchers and taunters!
I was present at the 9-12 DC rally against President Obama, so perhaps I am a part of the ?intensely demonstrated animosity?.? I certainly didn?t feel like a violent, hate-filled, racist troglodyte.? More like a cheerful, hopeful, freedom-loving idealist.? And that?s how I interpreted the crowds around me.? Perhaps Zogby knows better than I do.? Or perhaps when our methodology consists in ?looking into the eyes? of our opponents, we see just what we want to.
How NOT to Conduct One?s Self with the Police
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. needs to look into the possibility of teaching a new course at Harvard.? Ideally, a Criminal Justice course which would bear the title on the 2009-2010 Catalogue: How NOT To Act With Authorities.? I would be curious to see how the good professor would act if one of his own students demonstrated the same antics he was guilty of demonstrating with several officers from the Cambridge Police Department.? How would he respond to a student yelling, ?do you know who I am?!? because his father owns a Fortune 500 company (it is Harvard).? Or imagine an exacerbated Professor Gates asking a student to come outside of the lecture hall and ?talk there? only to be assaulted with, ?ya, I?ll speak with your mama.?? Classy? no pun intended.
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The incident occurred at Dr. Gates? home on July 13, 2009 when his neighbor, Lucia Whalen, saw two men breaking into Dr. Gates? home.? Reportedly, the Professor had locked himself out of the door, or the door was jammed, and he was attempting to strong arm the barrier keeping him from his humble abode.? The meticulous details are at TheSmokingGun for your consumption, and I recommend reading the report and getting to know the situation in its entirety.? For the Cliff Notes version, the officers responded to the call as they were supposed to; Sgt. Crowley looked through the glass window and saw a man standing in the foyer; stood in plain view and asked if Dr. Gates would come outside for a moment, to which Dr. Gates hissed ?no I will not.?? Finally Dr. Gates approached the door, asked what he had done wrong, to which Sgt. Crowley notified the Professor that a break-in at the residence had been reported and Sgt. Crowley identified himself with the police department.? Dr. Gates started yelling, ?why?? Because I?m a black man in America!?? and the rest is history, as they say.?
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There is much more to the story, as you will read when you click the SmokingGun link (as I know you will because you seek to know the truth).? Either way, the report shows a disgruntled college professor who, instead of handling the situation tactfully without race-baiting, chose to make a scene and queue the theatrics.?
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Here?s the deal.? All Dr. Gates had to do was approach the officer at the door, say, ?yes officer I do live here, here?s my license.?? Hand him the license and offer to let him in.? The sergeant replies ?no thank you anyways, I appreciate it,? and hands him the license back after making sure that the address on the license matched where he was standing, turn and say, ?sorry for the confusion sir, we just had a call from one of your neighbors and had to check it out.?? Dr. Gates could have replied, ?oh well, I feel better knowing that my neighbors are looking out for my house!?? The men chuckle, Sgt. Crowley leaves and meets with his back-up officer (22 Unit back in the day, for MoCo) and shoots a little gossip for a bit while Sgt. Crowley updates his log, and this ENTIRE national hysteria is avoided.?
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That is not what happened, and it has gotten to the point where the President was asked his feelings on the situation.? His erudite remarks just astound me.? At first the President admits to not knowing all of the particulars, but that does not stop him from saying the police officers acted ?stupidly? and laying out has hand of cards for several minutes about ?profiling? and anything else.? Bill Cosby said in an earlier interview that he was ?shocked? that the President would make such remarks without knowing all of the facts of the case.?
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I believe that Sgt. Crowley?s stoic semi-interview speaks volumes about his temperament and helps us gauge which story hold the greater weight.? What makes the story even better: Sgt. Crowley was one of the Academy instructors on racial-profiling, described as:
The course, called Racial Profiling, teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community “and how you don’t want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from.”
Let?s be clear for those populating the Facebook?s and the DailyKos? and other dribble: Dr. Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct and the Nutty Professor being in or out of his house has nothing to do with it.? There is a way to conduct yourself, and a way not to.? Considering our youths? problems with authority, I assume Dr. Gate?s new class would fill up fairly quickly.?
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-rj
