Sure, Bob Herbert Is Boring, But He Is Also Disingenuous

Boring Bob Herbert wanted to write an utterly predictable piece about tensions at Harvard between the local police and the black students and faculty, so he did.  Nothing he writes will be the least surprising - black members of the Harvard community sometimes feel slighted or subjected to special scrutiny and isn't it awful? 

But it is what Herbert omits that is a bit of a shock.  Somehow he never gets around to mentioning the very dramatic case of the two Harvard seniors who were denied their diplomas due to their still-mysterious role in a drug related robbery turned homicide in a Harvard dorm.  One of the women, Chaneqa Campbell, alleged racial and class bias, and the Times covered it - odd that Herbert managed to miss this.

And one might have thought that such a case merited a mention, or might even impact race relations at Harvard.  Let's cut back to Newsweek:

The shooters and their victim somehow had gained entry to Kirkland House, which requires an electronic identification card. One black senior, who declined to be identified discussing a sensitive subject, pointed out that young black men at Harvard have long complained that other students, fearful of intruders, won't open the door for them when they forget their IDs. "Now they never will," said this student.

Racial profiling just because two black women may or may not have aided and abetted three robbers?  Herbert should be decrying this.

Of course, he would be a bit lonely - apparently the normally vocal black student groups at Harvard are sitting this one out.  Let's cut to to NewsOne for Black America:

Her charge of racism has attracted national attention. Yet Black Harvard students — who normally spring to fight for racial justice — have said nary a word in support of Campbell, nor of her campaign to graduate. Most Black student group leaders have declined to comment on the situation, and several have instructed the members of their respective organizations to do the same. The reasons for students’ silence run the gamut, from doubts about Campbell’s guilt or innocence; to fear of antagonizing the university administration; and good old-fashioned self-interest.

"Doubts about her guilt"?  That is coy - this is from Newsweek:

In April of this year [prior to the shooting], the Black Students Association sent around "senior superlatives" on the organization's listserv. Campbell was named "Most Likely to Be America's Most Wanted."

Hmm.  I guess Herbert working this into his boring and predictable story would have been too surprising.  Can't have that.

Comments

[DSD]

I got Biden is a banker. He banks foreign aid. I'm not positive about all the crackies, but Obama knows how to screw Hollywood, so why isnt' he hearing them and having strokes?

[Mark O]

Racism. Everything is racism. Don't you know. That's what Obama meant. Even Bill Clinton, the real first black president, is a racist.

I'm starting to warm to the idea.

[matt]

we are now in a very dangerous age for the truth. Obama's spy/informant network, selective reporting by the media, misreporting by the media, misdirection by the media..these are now the facts on the ground, not fiction. Herbert is a gnat's rectum in the great scheme of things. We must fight the BS, but not let it be the center of discussion.

The Washington Post article by Farentholdt is a classic. Some lobbyists against Cap & Trade wrote letters that appeared to be from the constituents of several Congressmen, so now this is a "major scandal" aimed at the opponents of cap & trade. This apparently involves a total of 12 letters so far. The Post has gone into full partisan mode as the senior management goes to their places on the Bay or the Hamptons for the month of August. The children are in charge across the Blue Zone and they are spewing vitriol at an unprecedented rate.

Obama sends an e mail out to his followers asking them to report their friends, family, and neighbors for "misreporting" on health care, and the major media say nothing. The Republican leadership says nothing. The ACLU says nothing.

they came first for the communists, but I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up, because I was Protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

There is evil abroad in the land, and I keep on coming back to Yeats....

Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. the blood dimmed tide is loosed and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.

The times are growing darker if we let them. Forget about birth certificates and arcana. The issues are far more serious.Read the reports coming out of Afghanistan and Georgia or of Hezbollah's 40,000 rockets primed to fire at northern Israel as they work themselves into a rage of violence. Throw other variables like Honduras or Somalia or Yemen onto the bonfire. And all the while we bicker of the insignificant.

We must focus on first issues. After a mere 6 months, our president has laid claim to ownership of the entire mess. Vacillation, indecision, half measures, signs of weakness, graft and a bankrupt public policy are the order of the day.

What a cheery frickin thought.

[narciso]

It's a Popular Front regime, we have here, ans consequently their are no enemies to their left, or even to the right, if it's
a revanchist Russia, or Islamists on the march.

[jean]

Who paid for the plane that took Clinton to Korea?

[clarice]

It's obvious not all the black students at Harvard are as dumb as the president--or Herbert. It would be interesting to see Chaneqa Campbell's admission file.

[Captain Hate]

Who paid for the plane that took Clinton to Korea?

And what were the Gore-alists doing mucking around the scenic China/Nork border?

[boris]

"Forget about birth certificates ..."

Why ? because it distracts from the "real issues" ? because it discredits the opposition and turns moderates away ? because it's counterproductive ?

Well you are wrong about that.

There would be no BC issue without those "real issues". It is one of the few handles that attracts eyes and minds so YOU can bring up those other issues. I (me boris) am not going to be winning any moderate hearts and minds on the real issues but I can supply a little good humor and spunk to the BC issue.

Think of us as the magic and juggling acts to attract the rubes so the silver tongue sales pitch from you or JMH or whoever has an audience.

It draws attention. It selects for the people who have doubts. It gets the true believer Obamabots acting deranged, and suspiciously guilty like there's something to hide. It is a perfectly fair question to ask "why won't he just release his BC?" and that is something everybody can understand.

No matter what's on the BC it reveals Barak Hussein Obama as an arrogant phoney.

[Appalled]

TM:

Hebert is assuredly dull, but I don't think you can call his "one side of the argument" style of column disingenuous. The point of his article is that the black community of Harvard have reasons to suspect the police. I suppose, after waking ourselves up with a coffee, we are supposed to understand how all this would cause Gates to go off on a tirade, and Obama to prejudge facts. But Herbert chooses not to connect those dots here. What he does is attempt to explain a state of mind.

And, in this case, Herbert mentioning a case where the black person at issue might actually be guilty has nothing to do with what he's doing in his op-ed. The police's actions in THAT case is not making Gates paranoid. It's all the other stuff.

This is the brief of a defense attorney. he left something out that might explain the police's (and the 911 caller's) state of mind. But it's got nothing to do with Herbert.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Captain, they're TV reporters for Gore's network, Current TV.

Which is actually on some cable systems, including mine.

Who knew.

[Captain Hate]

ChaCo, any idea what they were covering there? I'm thinking they were someplace they weren't supposed to be and that Weird Al should have some 'splaining to do.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . black members of the Harvard community sometimes feel slighted or subjected to special scrutiny and isn't it awful?

Yeah, gee, I wonder why all those educated white folks are suspicious of African Americans when it comes to criminal activity. Maybe this has something to do with it:

But this is his main point:

Young, old, innocent as the day is long — it doesn’t matter. Your skin color can leave you perpetually vulnerable to a sudden and devastating criminal injustice.

And though being stopped by police is inconvenient, surely it's not as "sudden and devastating" as being murdered, a subject that's a bit more topical at Harvard right now. And one of Gates' fellow professors has a superb rejoinder in the Crimson, from which this bit can profitably be applied to Herbert as well:

Do you really think anyone in this country has reached adulthood without having undergone the humiliation of self-justification to police?

And do you really want police to ignore suspicious behavior, just because it happens to inconvenience African Americans disproportionately?

[Original MikeS]

Gates is a brilliant Harvard professor. He ought to be able to explain exactly what Sgt. Crowley did, very soon after he arrived at Gate's house, that Gates deemed racial profiling. I want to know what Sgt. Crowley did or said to Gates. I'm not asking about what some other police officer did or may have done, to some other black man at an other time and place. Judging Crowley on that basis would amount to profiling Crowley based on preconceived notions.