Skip Got Knocked

Henry Louis Gates

Like a lot of people this week, I heard about Henry Louis "Skip" Gates being arrested in his own home by police, who were mistakenly told that a man was trying to break in the home. Many of you are probably expecting me to write a scathing condemnation of racism and pontificate on the serious matter of driving while black, breaking into your own home while black or gee, living while black... any of which can get you arrested and/or killed. Ask Sean Bell, who was at his bachelor party while black and was gunned down in New York two years ago.

Yeah, I could pontificate on all of that but, I wont. Actually, if I can be me, if I can be for real here, I thought the whole thing with Henry Louis Gates was kind of funny when I heard about it. Don't get me wrong here... not funny because of what happened... I feel the man's pain and embarrassment, I do. I just thought it was funny because this is the type of thing that happens to poor desperate types like me... not a man of his education, class, and stature. I was naive enough to think that a man like Skip Gates, who probably lives in a much nicer neighborhood that I can even dream about, would not be subject to such. Well, I thought wrong and I really have to shake my head and laugh because in "Post-Racial America" nowadays, it seems like there are more and more reminders that (in the words of the Notorious B.I.G.) "Ain't nothin' changed."

When I was about 13 years old, my uncle and I got locked out of my grandparents' house and neither of them was home. I was thin, light, and could climb good so, he gave me a boost. I jumped and climbed the rest of the way to the top window (one story up), which I was just about to raise up, when Philly's finest appeared and had my poor uncle surrounded within minutes. We explained that we lived in the house but, of course, that wasn't good enough. What saved us was a neighbor who came by and explained to the police that we indeed did live there... and, with that said, the police quietly left. No harm, no foul.

This happened to me again many years later when I was in the Air Force and at Robbins Air Force Base, in Georgia. I left my keys back at the room I was staying in, walked back to my barracks, and was trying to use a debit card to open the door of my room. I admit..I had been out drinking and was slightly buzzed but, not drunk. I almost had the door opened when I heard...

"Son, what in the hell do you think you're doin'?" Smart aleck that I was, I replied... "I'm waitin' for a bus. What the hell does it look like I'm doing?" I didn't realize that I was talking to Air Force Security at the time because my back was turned. Well, two things saved me... (1) The guy I was talking to was the same rank as me (a Staff Sargeant at the time). (2) Once I turned around, we realized we knew each other. He allowed me to enter my room and promptly pass out on my bed. "You might want to get undressed Sargeant... you'll sleep a lot more comfortable that way." He said in parting. I thanked him and fell on the floor. He probably walked away thinking, "Silly Negro."

Henry Lewis Gates wasn't so lucky... he got arrested, got his mug shot taken, and probably had to do the perp walk, which is not as cool as doing the camel walk or the moonwalk. I'm sure this has caused him international embarassment as well. It was quite obvious that once inside the house, those cops realized that he lived there. An argument ensued, and face had to be saved, and Mr. Gates was "knocked", as we say in Philly.

No, I thought that black people of his education and stature was spared that kinda thing... but, I see that's not the case. In all the hue and cry, this might not have even been about race. It could have been a case of two men and pride and one man with handcuffs and a gun being a sore loser and having to exert his "authority" over another man. Nah... it was about race.