The 'unfathomable' arrest of a black scholar

[tinpra]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Boris Kodjoe owns a mansion in Atlanta. But when he goes to answer his door, the black actor knows what it's like to be an outcast.

"When I'm opening the door of my own house, someone will ask me where the man of the house is, implying that I'm staff," said Kodjoe, best known for starring in Showtime's "Soul Food."

(Read the rest of the article, regarding reactions to Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest by, primarily, Black people of prominence on CNN.com)

The later section of this article struck me in particular: Last week, President Obama spoke at the 100th anniversary of the NAACP, saying that while minorities have made great strides "the pain of discrimination is still felt in America."

...Gates said he has a newfound understanding of exactly what that means. "There's been a very important symbolic change and that is the election of Barack Obama," he told The Root. "But the only black people who truly live in a post-racial world in America all live in a very nice house on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Last year about this time I went to see a Coldplay concert with a friend of mine. He was running late, so I stopped into a local store that I loved to pieces (I had been known to dance a jig when passing one) to browse around while I waited for him to show. And they followed me. I hadn't done anything suspicious. I wasn't wearing anything suspicious (it was the height of summer in the Northeast after all). I wasn't with anyone. I wasn't in either a shady or super-ritzy part of town. The store was mostly empty, so I was pretty easy to see. I look like someone's kid sister. And I got followed. It hurt. And I haven't been back in that store, or any of the others in the chain, since.

Comments

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

someone will ask me where the man of the house is D: Even if you thought that, why the hell would you say that? Keep your racism to yourself.

Interestingly enough, I disagree with Dr. Gates that the only people living in a post-racial world are in the White House. There were (and are) all the annoying white people (including our VP) who I want to punch who seriously believe that Obama is the first smart black person... like, ever. There was the cartoon that depicted Obama as an ape in a major paper. There's that GOP activist that just got in trouble for saying Michelle Obama was related to the gorilla.

[tinpra.livejournal.com]

I think those are all examples of how we're not living in a post-racial world, Katya (unless that's exactly what you meant). I don't think those kinds of examples are what Dr. Gates would have cited.

[lieueitak.livejournal.com]

No, I mean that we're not living in a post-racial world. I was disagreeing with Dr. Gates, who said (unless I'm reading him wrong) that the only people who were living in a post-racial world were the Obamas.