Acting White: Polanski vs. The Long Arm Of The Rule Of Law

I was pleased to see this talented man, who would drug and rape a 13 year old girl, entrapped in Swiss irony. This is so juicy, I can hardly stand it. Talk about intrigue. Let’s see the linkage – France and its Jews during WWII, Poland’s Krakow ghetto, Auschwitz death camp, Hollywood, Sharon Tate et al murders, Charles Manson, Jack Nicholson, drugs, rape, judicial misconduct and flight from prison, and finally the Swiss. This man is his own movie, we just need an ending.

The lynch-pin in the deal is the Swiss. The cultural Swiss elite invite Polanski to pop over from France to pick up a lifetime-achievement award, only to unwittingly set him up to get nabbed by the Swiss authorities as a lifetime-scumbag. Freaking hilarious! I liken the predicament of the Swiss to that of spilling hot liquid onto your crotch in public, and then trying to hold in the screaming pain-dance, which only magnifies the attention and embarrassment.

If only the conveniently-neutral Swissies had done the same thing with the Nazi’s when they came to retrieve their WWII booty, looted from the Jews et al. There would have been less need to hunt down the low-life Hitler-bastards from all corners of the world. But, in Polanski’s case, why now? It can't be that he is an expendable Jew in some of their minds (at least), can it?

It would be interesting to know if Polanski had cash stowed in UBS, the Swiss banking giant that just coughed-up the names of rich American tax scofflaws. He does own a Swiss ski chalet. This would have popped him onto a freshly-Windexed cross-tab screen at DOJ (felon and tax cheat), under Obama. Letting Polanski walk when the DOJ/IRS is coming down hard on rich, law-abiding, tax-cheats is not good prosecutorial business - it looks selective. Add to all of this the fact that the O-man’s got two budding girls of his own, so no slack in the Obama House. VIOLA ROMAN, YOUR BUSTED!!!

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it plays out, and definitely get ready to see this one on the big screen (but don’t look for a Spike Lee Joint). I can already imagine the agents in H-wood lining up the guys to play Roman. The Rule of Law - gotta’ love it baby.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: What Is Your Race-IQ?

This post is not about the IQ of any particular race, but rather about race-IQ, or assessing how intelligent a person is about race. Judging from what I witness day-to-day, most people, white, black or other, have very low race-IQ’s. The greatest indicator of this is how often events show misplacement of the line distinguishing discretionary rights of association versus non-discretionary behavior pertaining to the freedoms and rights of others.

I describe Racial Intelligence (RI) as the ability, capacity, skill, to identify, analyze, and manage the intersection of one's discretionary rights and behaviors having to do with race, and those choices and behaviors, again, about race, that intrude on the rights of others.

Many minorities, and a lesser percentage of the majority, pretend that racism is always reprehensible. It is not. The conundrum of racism is not the ‘why’ of it, but rather that its existence is both reprehensible and natural, even desirable, in some cases. By example, black and white parents can each want their kids to marry within a given ethnicity, all the while unwilling to call this show of acceptable racism by name, compared to the obviously (to most) unacceptable racism such as detaining someone merely for the color of their skin.

In my experience, majority members, in the case of whites in America, tend to err on the side of over-extending the exercise of discretion into the actual rights of minorities, when asserting their majority influence. Minorities, on the other hand, tend to err on the side of over-extending the accusation of racism onto the discretionary exercise of rights by the majority, from their minority viewpoint. Call it a standoff. This makes each side guilty of displaying low racial intelligence, as we ‘game’ race interactions into a zero-sum result, and at the cost of not maximizing benefit for everyone.

These disparities of viewpoint and approach may be natural and expected, but does not mean that they should go unattended or unchecked. However, the crude labeling of all racial distinction/preference as bad, while shoving it into the closet labeled racist does little for progress. We see proof of this every day.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: All-White Swim Club Remains In Hot Water

The Pennsylvania Human Relation Commission has issued a finding of a reasonable probability of discrimination based on race, including a penalty not to exceed $50,000. This is follow-up to the private Philly-area swim club that contracted this past summer with an urban day care center (Creative Steps Day Camp) for access, but who then broke said contract, when the predominantly minority (black) kids showed up to swim.

Hmmm...Let's see. The swim director of the club stated to the TV media that the visiting kids changed the 'complexion' of the (all-white) club , with presumably a negative impact. (complexion? no shi_t Sherlock!) (story here) One member, who is a Philly public school teacher was reported to say, 'what are all these black kids doing here?'. Ouch!

Seems straightforward to me. Director signs contract to help tight budget, takes money, dark 'complexions' show up, all-white membership demands director's head-on-stick, director summarily cancels contract (w/o consulting a lawyer) and returns money to complexion-challenged, and states, 'my bad and adiós negritas', then booboo hits fan. Now get ready to pay for this stupidity.

No one made this club contract with outsiders, they did this of their own free capitalistic will. Until then, discretion says they were free to segregate all they want. However, they are not free to discriminate in enforcing or dishonoring legally binding contracts for public access. This is not discretion, but rather the law.

I just hope the day care center puts any monies they get into a scholarship trust fund for the actual kids who felt the sting of member-words that day. Then, perhaps, some lasting good will have come out of this mess.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Belleville (MO) Beat Down of White Student

My first and last thought, after watching this violence, is that the assailants should be prosecuted as adults and locked away, without hesitation. If race was a factor, they should be charged with hate crimes too.

In between, I am asking myself why did this happen? I can't fathom this kind of violence in my own fourteen-year old boy's life, but that's just because I haven't given it enough of my attention. I'm thinking the world is a different place than when I was a kid. Wrong.

All I had to do is put myself in that white kid's place and it all came rushing back to me. At fourteen I rode to school with an all-white bus load of boys, with seating priority going to upper-class-men. When the bus was full, the toughest of the 9th through 12th grade boys would take an entire seat leaving the late-comers to stand. Any boy who forced himself into a seat was risking a fight. I saw my share of white-on-white ass-whippings.

I decided early-on to make myself the "Rosa Parks" exception to this standing rule, by not flinching to fight the first kid who tried to block me from sitting. I wanted everyone to know that to block me was to fight me, win or lose, with no discussion or guesswork. After my first battle, I never stood and I never made anyone else stand either. However, I shudder to think of how I looked that day I punched out a kid who was just showing off for his friends.

In my case and thirty-five years ago, it wasn't so much a race thing as it was dumb-male ritual. For the tough guys, giving up 'your' seat was akin to saying you were a punk. Maybe this is what was happening on the Belleville High bus, but the level of violence seemed greater. The black boys were wrong and I hope they are punished no-less than the severity of their behavior. No excuses.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: America’s Final 'Race' Exam

You have just entered your last final exam on the last day of your graduate studies. The proctor hands you a blue booklet with but a single essay question on the cover. Answer correctly and you will graduate with honors, with a good job. Incorrectly, and you get to repeat the year at a cost of $50K, plus all the humiliation you can imagine.

Question: In no more than three regular sentences, describe why those who vehemently disagree with President Obama are not exhibiting racism in their characterization of him as a witch-doctor.

Bonus One: In one sentence, explain why Obama claims this depiction is not racist.

Bonus Two: In one sentence, explain why Jimmy Carter thinks this depiction is racist.

You may begin. Eyes straight ahead. Good luck.

WARNING: ALL FAILING RESPONSES WILL BE DELETED.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Obama Owes Male Donkeys Apology

While I understand, and share, President Obama’s reaction to rapper Kanye West’s interruption of Country singer Taylor Swift at the VMA, I think Barack owes male donkeys everywhere an apology. Kanye is much more than a jackass, as intimated by the president.

I have to think that this was a planned stunt, designed to hog air-time and self-promote. Someone told me this isn’t the first time West has pulled this B.S. Kudos to Jay Leno for asking guest-Kanye, the following evening, what the rapper’s mother, now deceased, would have had to say about her son’s antics. For the first time ever, West looked humbled. He should have that look tattooed on his forehead.

Anyway, less my loyal readers think I have gotten soft on self-responsibility, have no fear, tis not the case. But I will ask the location of all this vitriol when former president Bush was putting us into this economic hellhole. FTR, Jimmy Carter nailed it when he said the LEVEL (not the existence) of animosity towards O-man is influenced by race. JC wasn’t the best listener as prez, but I believe he knows white folks, especially southerners, better than most.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Straight Out Of Compton

You can take the Serena out of the Compton, but, after this weekend’s US Open semi-final melt-down, her old address is clearly still securely stored under favorites in the limo’s GPS, right in there with haughty addresses in S. Florida and S. California, for sure. I’m talking about her extremely liberal use of the f-word in a threatening manner to a lines woman, who foot-faulted her against Belgian Kim Clijsters, leading to a semi-final match-ending penalty.

Sure, she’s apologizing now and for real on the second go-round, but that’s probably only because of the e-word, endorsements. No company paying millions wants to be associated with a loose-cannon, ready to back up her physically threatening words, and forgetful of what it means to behave as a true champion.

In fairness, the lines woman should be exiled to Greenland. She compounded a wrong call, with a bad (bogus) call. Anyone who knows championship tennis knows that a foot-fault should never decide a game, a set, or a match. Everyone loses, both players, as well as the fans. It is unconscionable for a judge to insert themselves into the game this way. Nonetheless, it is even worse for any player, and certainly one of Serena’s caliber, to launch into such an expletive-laced tirade.

With all this said, let's step off the baseline for a minute for a point or two. The first is that Serena is known for comebacks, even at championship-point – she rarely gives up. So I believe her feelings of being ‘jacked’ (as they say in Compton) were real, even though most people watching thought it was past time to hoist a Belgian brew. No excuse, just the reality. Second, that lines woman posted the equivalent of Republican Joe Wilson’s “You Lie”, when she foot-faulted this future hall-of-famer, just when Serena’s got girlfriend Clijsters feeling over-confident.

So where did the lines woman get the ovaries to make that never-before-witnessed bad call, at the worse time. Perhaps, the same place that Wilson visited to rent the testicles to call President Obama a liar to his face, in front of Congress and the Senate, and the whole of America. Each was reflecting, whether they meant to or not, that in today’s Glenn Beck America, be you tennis champion or President, if you don’t look like my ideal, then prepare to get new, heretofore uncharted, mounds of disrespect broken over your 'uppity' ass. There, I said it. Deal with it.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Aggravated Insult - Part II

"Except as otherwise authorized by law, any person who willfully discharges a firearm in a grossly negligent manner which could result in injury or death to a person is guilty of a public offense and shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison."
California Penal Code 246.3

Well, it looks like Ms. Suzie Q and her attorney have their work cut out, thanks, in part, to the indignation I showed the other day when the DA/OPD asked if I wanted (still) to press charges. Today's OPD call was to inform me that the D.A. has decided to pursue a CPC 246.3 charge (above), and that I should expect a subpoena in the mail to appear and testify in court.

For those who are interested, I will dissect the charge, as each word has specific 'criminal' meaning. Consider "...any person who willfully discharges a firearm in a grossly negligent manner which could result in injury or death to a person...

- any person, this means all the usual suspects, but also including young fair-haired white girls, that you might believe incapable of hurting a flea.

- willfully, this means that with forethought "Suzie" held the firearm in her porcelain hand and pulled the trigger with purpose and intent of launching a projectile from its barrel.

- discharges, this means the firearm actually performed the action for which it was manufactured, and which "Suzie" initiated, at the time in question.

- firearm, this means that the object "Suzie" controlled was indeed an instrument distinct in its capability of launching, through an ignition sequence, a projectile at a potentially lethal velocity.

- grossly negligent, this means that not only could someone have been reasonably injured by this discharge (negligence), but that it is further reasonable that someone could have been killed, or suffer grave bodily injury (gross).

For the record, and for those who think I have no compassion, I told both the owner of the gun and "Suzie" that neither would get any measure of lenience from me, as neither of them, combined or individually, sought the resulting path of the fired bullet from the weapon, in order to render emergency aid, as possibly required. Eff me you say? Okay then, eff you!

Stay tuned...

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Aggravated Insult To Assault

Contrary to what some believe, I don’t see race in every issue. Sex, maybe, race, no. Race issues (like everything else) are often about sex, but I’ll save that for another post.

Back on topic - when a bullet came flying into my living space last week, fired by a young woman, there was no issue of race, except that she was not a young black male, the statistical odds-on favorite for such activity here in Oakland. The three responding police officers, Asian, White, and Latino, arrived, albeit delayed, and were professional all the way around, including the arrest of shooter. No race issue here. The OPD called the following day to say they wanted to send a technician by to look at the evidence, but this has yet to happen. It seems that the technicians are a pretty busy OP department. Still, no race issue.

Continuing on - one of my neighbors sent me an e-mail saying that the shooter had been charged with aggravated assault (negligent discharge of a firearm), which carries, even as a misdemeanor here in California, a minimum six-month jail sentence. So I’m thinking, wow, these people are serious – go Oakland. Fair is fair, still no issue.

So where’s the race issue, dude? Well, yesterday I got another call from the OPD, but this time they are saying that the D.A. is asking if I want to press charges against the shooter. What? Since when do I have to press charges to get people to do their jobs protecting the public? The caller said the D.A. would pursue at my request, and that I should bring the collected bullet fragments to court, once they got back to me with a date.

Now just for fun, I replayed the officer’s request to a friend (non-black) who lives in Oakland, and the first thing she said was, “I bet the D.A. wouldn’t be asking you that question if the shooter was black”. Yes world, we have a confirmed sighting of a race issue in Oakland. Let’s see, witnesses (5), bullet hole, smoking gun, spent bullet, but still a questionable prosecution, why? Two words – white female.

Now, it is only her fault that she is likely to go to jail – the law is the law and her actions risked GBI (great bodily injury). I’m betting that the D.A. would like to bend the charge to simple assault (minimum probation), but for that he needs to know that the victim, me, is not going to kick-up a shit storm. Don’t count on it. They don’t know how well I kick. For starters, I smell a class-action suit on behalf of all the black, Latino, and other non-white CPC 245’s prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to the full extent, while this D.A. is looking for a reason to let Snow White off with a wrist-slap. I’m not playing – this B.S. is not funny, and on this, as the owner of the bullet hole, I have some standing, whether certain people like it or not.

Stay tuned.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Acting Stupid In Oakland

This post is evidence that stupidity does not care about race, gender, age, or anything else. It takes up residence wherever, and in whomever it likes. An adult-age young person was arrested this morning just outside my humble abode. For context, while I live in an urban setting, my building happens to be the part-time residence of California’s current attorney general, Oakland's former Mayor, and likely re-run governor, one Jerry Brown. So one might think they are safe here - they would be wrong!

Earlier this morning I was abruptly awakened by what sounded like a gunshot. I looked outside and saw nothing. I returned to spy damage in my wall of what appeared to be the result of a discharged weapon. Further searching along an assumed trajectory showed a bullet lodged in an opposing concrete surface. Damn, somebody (namely me) could have been killed!

Regardless of the statistics, the culprit was not a young black male, with sagging pants, but rather a fair-haired white female who was visiting my next-door neighbor, a British-accented fellow who happened to have, on premise, a registered and loaded handgun. Despite explicit warnings (I'm told), the woman retrieved the weapon, and, minus any permission, fired it through the wall into my apartment. Yep, that's right, through the wall over the sofa. After questioning her, the OPD charged her with negligent discharge of a firearm, and provided a free back-seated, hand-cuffed, ride to downtown Oakland. I can only assume that her comments to them did not give them pause to option her a "oops, my bad, I'm just a harmless white girl' citation and cut her lose. BTW, the charge (CPC 246.3 is a 'wobbler', misdeameanor or felony) and carries a max of one year in jail.

So for those who like to believe that only blacks are violent, reckless and stupid, or that this blogger believes this because I write about such things, here is one piece of home-grown data to chew on when it comes to the agnostic character of stupidity. Said trigger-happy, authentic 'white chick' did not get a pass from the OPD, nor did I have to display any race cards to get proper action. Today undoubtedly goes down as a good day for me, since I did not actually catch the lead projectile so carelessly, and violently, launched in my direction.

James C. Collier

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Senator Ted Kennedy: 1932 - 2009

“It's better to send in the Peace Corps than the Marine Corps.”
Ted Kennedy

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard

So what’s the big deal with Martha’s Vineyard (MV) anyway? Sure, the first family deserves a vacation, but going to the up-scale Massachusetts island seems to have more significance than, say, Disneyworld, or Yosemite. As a former Bay State resident and serial MV visitor, it took me a few years to figure out why all the hoopla over the 57th largest island in the US, but here goes.

Some people will tell you MV is about the late Jackie O, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, et al, but this is just the show-people side. The island is really about a nice place where mostly rich men and fewer rich women, white and black, have historically sent their spouses/scions in the late summer, while they (themselves) continue to toil away at making goo-gobs of money in places like New York, DC, Philadelphia, and Boston, until they scoot in the last week of August. This is not what makes the island special.

On closer inspection, MV ‘islanders’ have a similar, albeit more staid, ‘hang loose’, attitude to that which pervades the way-west, native Hawaiians and how they look at things, especially people. Mainlanders are people with hang-ups about status, race, money, sex, age, you name it. Islanders, on the other hand, just go with the flow (or pretend to), even if it’s just for that short time between their arriving and departing boat.

At Disneyworld, rude Americans or Europeans, will cut lines, yell at the help, or complain about how miserable someone or something is making them. True islanders, everybody’s dream, have a relaxed attitude that is unflappable. Of course, the pretenders (and they are everywhere) do just that, pretend to go with the flow, feeling small swatches of what it is like to do the full-time Rodney King shuffle, called ‘getting along’.

There are two-tiers of Vineyarders, the first level is easy and includes anyone thoughtful enough to repeatedly show up to enjoy the place, in the first place. The second tier is the far more select group, not including the stinking rich, with the emotional and financial commitment to buy a home, or hang onto one given them, that they will likely use only a few weeks/months out of the year. I respect these true islanders because they like what they like and they are not afraid to sacrifice the piggy-bank to get it.

Finally, it is easiest to spot the truest Vineyarders on MV by when and whether you see them at all, as they arrive and depart the Woods Hole, Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven ferry docks with SUV's loaded from Costco and on schedules nearly opposite our favorite Gulf-Stream driving celebrities, especially politicians.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Obama, Calling Mr. Kotter

Interesting carrot the Obama team is dangling in front of school administrators and teachers across the country, a sort of a baseball bat made to look like a carrot, or vice-versa, depending on your perspective. And it’s not a small carrot at that, $4.3 billion dollars, to be exact. Only thing is that some folks are miffed because the president is trying to inject vitality into and education dynamic, long in need of over-haul.

Specifically, Obama is offering the funds, under his "Race To The Top" program, only to school systems that link teacher evaluations to the performance of their students. Huh? That socialist S.O.B! So if he wants to do this, I’m wondering what pay is tied to today? Turns out that teacher’s get evaluated based on longevity and their own schooling, not student results. So, if I’m a teacher today and I want a raise, I go to school at night and in the summers, and game the classroom to minimize its outside distraction (on me), unless I have true dedication and a sugar-daddy/momma taking up the bill-paying slack at home.

Some state legislatures are considering changing laws on the books, California being one, which make it illegal to link teacher evaluation and pay to student results. Wow! Illegal! Education - a profession where the law forbids your boss from considering how well you actually teach, when it comes to your pay. It’s no wonder that our schools are failing.

Now do I think that this fixes things? Not by a long shot. We are still stuck in a back-end quality control mindset, rather than one of front-end assurance. But this move sends a nice signal about where education priorities should reside - between the student brains and teacher wallets. Welcome Back Kotter.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Blue Eyes vs. Black-Skin

I gained an interesting peek a short while ago into a facet of white people. This was not my expressed purpose in helping my friend, but the character of the situation caught my attention nonetheless. Too often, when differences of race or ethnicity appear, we subscribe some nefarious motive to the cause/result and spin-off into our respective worlds of verbal jousting. But more often than not differences are just an illustrative story of the less presented pathways to the present.

The place was an eye specialists’ office, specifically an ophthalmologist/surgeon, with a waiting room stacked full of patients, white patients, each with some form of eye lesion (tumor). Most of the tumors are nearly invisible and benign, but some, unfortunately, are malignant (cancerous) and must be treated, via surgery. Now this room of people was not just white, but of people, curiously, who’s location of ethnic origin (LEO) was Northern Europe and Scandinavia.

If we review eye color in humans, we might recall that mutations beyond classic brown-eyes could and did occur in all people, but only ‘stuck’ in people of higher latitudes and lower sun intensity because, bluntly put, blue/grey/hazel/green eyes did not facilitate their premature death. Fast forward to the doctor’s office and what we see, in part, is what happens when fair-skinned/eyed people move from northern latitudes southward to such places as the US, where their bodies, and in this case eyes, are not well-adapted to a different sun intensity. Wham! Nevus, nevi! Cancer!

So just as blacks in North America experience internal cancers rates that exceed the mean of their brethren in West Africa, and the white population, whites experience ‘external’, or surface-level, rates that exceed the mean of blacks as well as their folks in the old country, and for really the same reason; displacement from the latitudes to which our bodies are best adapted. Blacks were moved north (and to South America) during the Atlantic slave trade and fair whites immigrated west and southward looking for opportunity.

If we continue, we see that the cures for these higher cancer rates, other than returning to our respective ancestral homes, are quite simple. To begin, everybody needs a D3 blood serum level that is adequate. Most of us are deficient in this cheap vitamin supplement, available over-the-counter at any pharmacy/health store, that allows our immune system to root out wayward cells. Following on, everybody, young and old, needs to protect their eyes and skin from the sun. Hats, sunglasses, proper clothing, and sunscreen are needed anytime we are in the sun, not just in summer at high-noon.

It is natural for us to use our differences to exaggerate our group strengths and to attempt to hide perceived weakness, but if we look at ourselves honestly, we will always see that there is much more that makes us similar, even through the lens of our differences.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Red-Hair vs. Black-Skin

African-Americans often present the Atlantic slave trade as the end-all-beat-all of human abuse in the last millennium, and this is the reason for the intractableness of black pathologies, violence, crime, etc. With only mixed results, some (including me) have tendered an alternate view of what besets the stolen peoples of the Americas and Africa. In this view, the pain and lasting effects of slavery are more relative to freedom opportunity and perspective lost, and less comparable to competing histories of who done who the more wrong (sic).

The article from the NYT last week (here) on the subject of red-haired people as genetically more resistant to pain-medication, and therefore subject to more pain than others, caught my attention, as a interesting illustration of apples-to-oranges comparisons. What matters is not the knee-jerk argument of who hurts the most among brunettes, blonde's, and red-heads, but rather that red-heads have comparably bad teeth because dentist under-anesthetize them, chasing them away, as a group, from essential dental care.

Many African-Americans make the case for special dispensation and compensation, because of how inhumane slavery in the Americas was to blacks, compared to some standard in history, rather than looking at the specific plight of blacks and saying, “what does this group need in order to prosper?” What blacks do not need is more pity, but this is what the often-heard mode of complaint suggests. There is nothing intractable about black pathologies, except the insidious re-application of so-called solutions, better designed to keep people down rather than help them up.

We are living an explosion of fatherless kids because the government rewards such behavior. Schools, as hideouts for bum-teachers and dead-ass parents, have been promoting kids for years who can barely read or add, only to now coach them directly to the tests. Trade jobs are gone to China, as Americans hunger like addicts for more and cheaper consumable goods, to numb themselves to the debt required to pay for them. Sorry folks, it ain’t about who’s slavery was worse, but rather from politicians on down, it is really about who is pitchin’ in to make things for themselves and others - better.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Life In The Crosswalk - Part III

Today I met with the Oakland HS teacher of the class in which I volunteered, this past spring. I wanted to re-enlist for the fall, if she is game (and she is). Discussing current events, blog topics, and teenager stuff with these kids was very enlightening to me. She said she thought they looked forward to the discussions and got a lot out of them.

We talked about the black young man who was the subject of Part II (here) of this serial posting saga. As she feared, he failed the year and will now attend (hopefully) a continuation school with a GED curriculum. When I mentioned that I recently saw him walking downtown she interrupted me (politely) by saying “I bet he was walking slow”. I shot back, ‘how did you know?’ wherein she replied that the behavior goes hand-in-hand with under performance and the fifty-five percent black male HS dropout rate.

We are both concerned that this kid is headed for a life of depression, self-medication, un/under-employment, continuing lost of self-esteem, and a bad ending. He has admitted to his teacher that he lacks motivation for doing the things he needs to get ahead. There is really very little to be done, within the current education framework. In earlier days, I would have suggested that a stint in the military might buck him up, but that option is not available, as the intellectual and social requirements of the military have risen greatly with the use of technology and the demands of the urban battle theaters, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The teacher went on to describe another HS-age black young man she is trying to mentor, who recently revealed that his girlfriend is now pregnant with their second child, even as he just barely graduated, through extraordinary intervention. As she described the problems facing this young unmarried couple, all I could do is shake my head with her in wonderment, while thinking that this is what dedicated teachers across the country deal with every teaching day. One thing is sure; we can’t just keep building more prisons.

We need to place a bounty on reaching these youngsters before they enter the revolving door of the vocational prison complex. And whatever this desperately needed approach to the young black male may be, the 'forgotten-fifty-five%', it is guaranteed to look very different than our current affirming programs for boosting the ranks of WEB Dubois’ talented-tenth.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Life In The Crosswalk - Part III, Black Males, Profiling, Disparity, Culture, Acting White

Acting White: The Invisible Hand Of Race

It dawns on me that while there is plenty of overlap in viewpoints of the treatment of blacks and whites in our society, there is also a very predictable, nearly invisible hand, guiding respective views of situations like that of Professor Gates and Officer Crowley. It is this invisible hand that directs blacks to see gross unfairness, while whites see the opposite misbehavior. So what is going on here?

What blacks seem to feel is that Gates’ color dictated Crowley’s approach, while whites feel that Gates’ behavior was the driving factor. The Gates, or black perspective, is rooted in assigning the non-randomness of Crowley’s approach, accompanied by arbitrary action, the arrest. Crowley, alternatively, uses Gates’ obstructionist behavior as precipitating evidence of the his justified and objective response. They both are right and wrong at the same time. Crowley is not as colorblind as he believes, and Gates discounts how his own behavior might incite the officer into a more aggressive posture, regardless of ethnicity.

In general, whites feel they too get mistreated everyday by authorities, so they ask ‘why should Gates get special treatment just because he’s black or a big shot?’. On the other hand, blacks, (me included) know that blacks are, at times, singled out unfairly, and are thus denied the rightful opportunity to move about as freely as whites. So how will blacks and whites ever reconcile on their respective plights with authority? Should we all go to a giant beer-bust on the Mall? Perhaps, but maybe not.

More practically, whites might consider how they would feel if police were, for illustrative purposes, more wary of over-weight, or red-haired whites, compared to brown/black-haired, or lean-body mass whites. Knowing that police are more suspicious of you for sub-attributes like weight or hair-color is akin to how blacks feel about being singled out for their ethnicity. Following on, blacks might consider the posture they would normally assume if being detained by a same-ethnicity officer, compared to the posture that they assume with a non-black officer, 'just doing his job'. What response would the professor expect if Crowley had been black?

When we deny others their sensitivities, agreed with or not, we draw a battle line in the sand. Crowley ignored how Gates, the black man, or the professor, might perceive his tone and demeanor, even after identification. Gates, for his part, ignored how Crowley would perceive his verbal rejection of authority, in a bona fide police action. So while it is clear that both men exhibited healthy egos, what they both might work on, as could all of America, is empathy – the propellant of understanding.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: The Invisible Hand Of Race, Harvard, Justin Barrett, Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley, Acting White

Acting White: White Cop Speaks Out On Gates

Note to Readers: I received the following comment yesterday and thought it was worthy of its own post. Many thanks to “White Cop”.

Honestly, can't believe I am going to post a comment here, but for the first time I feel I might have something to contribute. Before I comment, here's some background on me. I am a police officer in a major urban city in the South, and I am white. I was born in an all white family, raised in a pre-dominantly white neighborhood, and grew up with almost all white friends through high school and college. I am fairly well-educated, and considered pursuing post-graduate studies, but found myself drawn to police work, in particular, criminal investigation. Throughout my life, I never once considered I might have any underlying racial biases. However, it wasn't until I became a cop that I found my own cultural biases tested. It was then that I realized, like every other flawed human being on this earth, I, because of my cultural upbringing, have prejudices. I was always taught that racism is bad, but I also never had any real, meaningful exposure to cultures outside my own. Working alongside white, black, Hispanic, and Vietnamese cops, in a profoundly multi-cultural city, I quickly realized I knew next to nothing about the daily lives and struggles of other ethnic communities. Disturbed by this, I started seeking out forums where these topics are discussed. One day I heard a round-table discussion on National Public Radio featuring several African American bloggers, one of whom was Mr. Collier. I was intrigued by his perspective, since the mainstream media prefers to feature the rhetoric of screaming protesters instead of thoughtful, honest discussion. I began following this blog, "Acting White," to hear Mr. Collier's opinion on racial news topics. I have found Mr. Collier to be exceptionally even-handed and honest on topics of racial discrimination in America. I don't want to sound like a kiss-up here... it's simply true, that when the mainstream media is your only source for commentary on racial issues in America, one typically hears only extremist opinions.

That's enough about me though. I'm not perfect by any stretch, but I try to be honest and just in my life and law enforcement career.

I have read the on-line version of Crowley's arrest narrative of Gates; however, I wasn't there, so I know about as much as anyone else. Speaking as a cop, I can say that Crowley is completely justified in his actions, up until the moment he chose to make the arrest. When dispatched to a possible burglary at a habitation, the first thing you do is read the notes given to you by dispatch. You don't know who has called 9-1-1 and you don't have time to question the caller about the details. You have to move fast to try and catch a burglar, if in fact there is an actual burglary taking place. As soon as you arrive, you start looking for suspects as described by the caller who might be leaving the area already. If no one is located outside, you then go to the residence to look for signs of a burglary. It is my understanding that Crowley arrived and saw an open front door. If that is the case, you then approach and look to see if there is anyone inside. Upon seeing someone inside, you contact them, and, depending on the situation, detain them either verbally or physically. You then request identification to determine who the person is. You have no way of knowing if that person is the homeowner until you have somehow verified their identification. Once you verify that the person is the homeowner, and that there appears to be no offense, you explain the 9-1-1 call, leave, and clear out the call. It's a pretty simple formula, and I have conducted such cursory investigations numerous times. 99 times out of 100, the home owner is completely cooperative of the investigation, regardless of their race. Usually, on the way out the door, they thank you for doing your job and for trying to catch a possible burglar at their residence.

However, there is the odd case where the person you encounter, the homeowner, for whatever reason, is completely unreasonable. From the moment of first contact, the person simply flies off the handle. In cases of inter-racial contacts, it is not uncommon for the word "racist" to be thrown around. I can personally attest that for a white cop who is simply trying to do a good job, there is nothing more insulting and aggravating, than to be suddenly and publicly accused of racism where clearly none is present. In the past, I have been able to diffuse these situations by stopping and explaining the details of the 9-1-1 call (in cases where I believed this was an appropriate step). However, believe it or not, there are people out there who don't care what your reasons may be. Possibly because of some past mistreatment by someone else, or because of unexplained paranoia, they don't let you explain, they simply yell in anger.

Now, I don't know Mr. Gates personally, so I cannot speak for his character. But I can sympathize with Crowley's indignation at Mr. Gates' public humiliation of him. It is absolutely humiliating as a police officer to be openly disrespected in front of other citizens, especially when the accusations are of racism.
However, you can't make an arrest if you don't have a valid charge. And this is the crux of the whole incident. If Crowley had sucked it up and walked away, not only would the President not have commented on this, but it would be hard for Gates to make any sort of valid claim of mistreatment. In my state, the charge of disorderly conduct simply isn't applicable here. I have spoken with some of my lawyer friends about the Mass. version of the Disorderly Conduct law, and this arrest is very much on the fringe. Disorderly Conduct laws are open to wide interpretation, but in Mr. Gates' case, interpreting his conduct as "tumultuous" on his front porch is a pretty wide stretch of the law. I assume that this is why the charge was summarily dropped. Gates' behavior, no matter how inappropriate it may have appeared, does not qualify as Disorderly Conduct.

I don't mean to throw a fellow police officer under the bus, especially when I wasn't actually there to witness the incident, but I just can't see myself arresting an old man with a cane. As I have done before in the past, I would have just told him he was "out of his mind," driven away, and laughed about his outrageous behavior in the locker room later.

I have to agree with Mr. Collier's first post on this subject. This really seems to me to be about ego's, not racial profiling. This isn't about race at all, this is about "P.O.P." (Pissing Off Police). A person's demeanor goes a long way in swaying the outcome of an encounter with police. I myself have never made an unlawful arrest. But, in those cases where I do have a valid arrestable [sic] charge, I am more than happy to slap cuffs on anyone who shows blatant contempt for the law. But this just doesn't look like the case with Gates... and sometimes you just have to shrug off some undeserved disrespect.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: White Cop Speaks Out On Gates, Harvard, Justin Barrett, Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley, Acting White

Acting White: Gomer Pyle Award - Justin Barrett BostonPD

We should all be happy that this guy did not get the Gates call. (story here) Do not pass go. Do not have a beer. Go directly to unemployment office.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Gomer Pyle Award - Justin Barrett BostonPD, Harvard, Ego, Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley, Acting White

Acting White: Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don't

Many commenter’s on the Gates affair, here and elsewhere, have said that the professor was too quick to take offense at the tone and manner of Officer Crowley’s approach, and perhaps they are correct. They ask why didn’t he just ignore police gruffness and ‘turn the other cheek’, or just say no big deal? For the record, this benefit of the doubt approach definitely has its merits, but it is not without its own costs, as my memory recalls.

Many years ago, I had the six-month occasion of a weekly Boston to SFO commute. One Monday morning at the ticket counter, I entered the first class and ‘Premier’ flyer line, behind at least five others, and ahead of more. At some point an agent surveyed the line, came around the counter, and approached me. Speaking only to me, she asked if I was either first class or premier status, and I answered yes. She then asked to see my premier card, which I showed her, whereupon she returned to the counter. She questioned no one ahead or behind me in line.

Now I did not have to wonder why she had singled me out of the group, as this ‘special treatment’ was nearly-typical for me over the 100,000 miles I logged that particular year, but that morning I decided that I should turn the other cheek. Besides, I had been through this drill so many times; frankly I was just too tired to mount a ‘campaign’ to set things straight, that day.

After about a minute had passed, the older gentleman directly in front of me, turned and gave me a stern lecture that was much more painful than the profiling of the ticket agent. He began by saying the agent had not asked anyone ahead of me for proof they were in the correct line. He asked me if I had realized that the agent had singled me out because I’m black, wherein I answered yes I had, but he wasn't done. Why do you let someone treat you this way young man? Do you not have self-respect for you or your people? You must stand-up for yourself or others will never have respect for you, he declared. Wow, body-slammed by an old white guy at 7 am!

I calmly beckoned the ticket agent to return and told her to retrieve her supervisor, as we needed to have a ‘chat’. When the supervisor arrived I tongue-lashed him good for the treatment by the agent. He took it well and apologized profusely, repeating that it was not company policy to single anyone out in this manner. I hoped that the supervisor would not object, as I sensed my instigator was ready to pounce in that instant. I accepted the apology and sent the two on their way. I then looked at the old white man, whose arms were still folded, but now under a smug-grin, and I said, “satisfied?” He nodded agreement and we went our separate ways. But I went away thinking I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t – and just perhaps this is a little of the maddening feeling that came over the good professor that day in Cambridge.

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White:Damned If I Do, Damned If I Don't, Harvard, Ego, Henry Louis Gates, James Crowley, Acting White