Room With A View (of Erin Andrews)

As the story about ESPN's Erin Andrews continues to develop, I think it's becoming clearer every minute that it must have been an inside job. For one thing, apparently there were videos from two different hotel rooms. Too big a coincidence there to film the same person twice in two different locations. Secondly, how would anyone know who it was, and what her schedule would be -- again, twice. I don't know you, but it's awfully hard for me to believe that someone could be so incredibly unlucky to book a room to a peeping tom who just happens to a video camera ready to go. It's going to be interesting to see how this one turns out!

Henry Louis Gates and the Police

By now you've probably heard of the incident involving Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department. Apparently, Gates had just returned from China was having problems getting into his own house because of a jammed door. With the assistance of his driver, Gates was successful in getting into the residence. After they had been in the house for several minutes, the Cambridge police showed up and asked him to step outside of the house. This is where the story gets interesting. According to Gates, he showed the officer his driver's license and his Harvard University ID card. Gates went on to say that in spite of producing the proof of identification, the officer said that he received a call for a possible break-in and followed Gates into the house. That didn't sit too well with Gates, who asked for the officer's name and badge number.

Well, the police officer's account was very different. According to the officer, Gates refused to step outside to speak with him. Officer Crowley said that he told Gates that he was investigating a possible break-in. Gates reaction was to open the door and shout, "Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Crowley continued, "While I was led to believe that Gates was lawfully in the residence, I was quite surprised and confused with the behavior he exhibited toward me." Crowley's report said Gates initially refused to show the officer any identification, but eventually produced a Harvard ID card. Seeing that, Crowley radioed for Harvard University Police. Crowley said that Gates followed him outside and continued to accuse him of racial bias. Finally, after warning the professor twice that he was becoming disorderly, Crowley arrested Gates for "loud and tumultuous behavior in a public space."

Okay, two things here. First, you really don't know who to believe. On the one hand, it's easy to accuse Gates of playing the race card and overreacting. It's been done before, and will undoubtedly be done again. On the other hand, however, this reminds me of an old racist joke that I won't repeat here. But the gist of it is that no matter what a black person accomplishes in America, he or she is still just a black person in America. Secondly, I read a number of accounts of the incident in which the authors called Gates "the preeminent black scholar in America." Wait just a minute here! I think it's pretty condescending to imply that there are so few black scholars that the mainstream media can designate the one. So who's the preeminent Asian scholar, latino scholar, or white scholar? Give me a break!

In the end, it appears that all charges are going to be dropped; and now we can all pretend that it never happened!