WHAT A FEW BEERS WON'T SOLVE

Now that the men have drunk their beers and the media frenzy has
subsided regarding whether Officer James Crowley was a racist or a
good cop, and whether Professor Henry Louis Gates was out of line
with his fury or perfectly justified, and whether President Barack
Obama handled the whole ordeal well or stupidly, particularly when he
suggested Crowley behaved stupidly -- now that all of that seems to
be settled (or at least has quieted down), there are a few matters
that remain unresolved.

A little more than a decade ago, the same incident would not have
made national news. The media wasn't particularly interested in
stories of racial profiling, believing those who complained of unfair
treatment must have done something to deserve their fate. But if the
media had covered the Gates story back then, and if President Bill
Clinton had weighed in, what would have provoked shock and outrage
was the president of the United States saying, "What I think we know,
separate and apart from this incident, is that there's a long history
in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law
enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact."

That comment would have caused a national firestorm because it would
have occurred before civil rights organizations had managed to prove
with truckloads of data and thousands of personal stories that racial
profiling is a fact of life for countless black and brown people in
the United States. Advertisement

One might imagine that widespread acceptance of racial profiling as
"a fact" is progress. But imagine if Gates were young, black, and
poor and living in San Jose. Would he be better off today than he was
a decade ago? The San Jose Police Department arrests more African
Americans and Latinos per capita than any other city in California.
Many of those arrests are "drunk in public" first-time arrests, which
are ultimately dismissed. "Arrested and dismissed" sounds like no
harm, no foul, right? Wrong. A mere arrest can result in the denial
of employment for jobs like firefighter in some cities in Santa Clara
County. And arrests can -- and often do -- result in the denial of
public housing. An arrest (even if the charges are dropped) equals a
record -- a life-changing event for young black men in cities across America.

Because of his race, the young Gates would be more likely to be
stopped and searched in the months after his arrest. And if he is
like most teenagers today -- of any race -- there is a decent chance
that one day he'll have some marijuana, alcohol or other contraband.
Police, prosecutors and judges would likely view him as a "repeat
offender" -- a black kid with a record -- and in the blink of an eye,
he is a felon. Suddenly, he may be denied the right to vote in many
states and legally discriminated against in employment, housing,
education, public benefits and jury service. He would be relegated to
a permanent second-class citizenship.

The prison and jail population has quintupled during the past few
decades, and the majority of the increase is due to the mass
imprisonment of poor people of color for relatively minor, nonviolent
offenses. Racial profiling is not merely an interpersonal dispute to
be settled with a nice chat over some beers. It is the means by which
people of color are systematically targeted for mass incarceration.
That conversation will be a long one, and it has barely just begun.