I had posted my observations, albeit from a geographical/social/cultural/historical distance, about the recent incidence of a possible racist behavior by the police in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the home of Harvard University. That post started with a reference to “Barack Obama, an African-American” but made racial distinctions elsewhere in the post exclusively by color: white and black. No Caucasian, Italian-American, Irish-American, Indian American, American Indian, and African-American.
I may be tempted to mention that I did some research for this post, but that would be a false claim. But, I must say that I have read 8 articles and commentaries on and about the incident from the New York Times (which now owns Boston Globe, Cambridge’s local newspaper), one from The Guardian, and a fluff piece from The Economist, during the period, July 21—August 1, 2009.
I know there was a racially balanced foursome (Joseph Biden, the US vice president was the token white) tea party in the White House gardens but nothing came off it. The issue has started fading from public consciousness. And, that is precisely the reason for this post. To stir the pot a little bit more.
I wrote elsewhere how twenty years earlier I had taken exception to the then nascent shift to the collective noun African-American from black in the American lexis. But the shift had come to pass, for the most part. You saw the term African-American substituting blacks in public discourses. There is now a reversing trend, in the aftermath of what has come to be called the Gatesgate, the unsavory episode involving Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley.
I carried out a shallow, pseudo-statistical (I could not filter out the duplicate-entries in data compilation) frequency analysis of the occurrence of black vis-à-vis African-American in the ten articles I referred. The ratio stands at about 2-2.5, in favor of blacks. There are stray usages of Negroes also. I take this to prove that the trend has reversed.
There is more to this trend. Even given the infirmities in my effort, I noticed an indisputable sub-trend. African-American is used more in the positive settings: president, scholar, community, history, experience, research. Marchers (protesters) are relegated to blacks. Blacks are targeted (on suspicions of being criminals). People are black but the community is African-American!
What this could mean is that the accomplished blacks have been co-opted by the whites, as African-Americans, and not as blacks. The implicit statement is, “Blacks can never accomplish anything.” It is in this context one must read Prof. Gates’ “Why, because I’m a black [my emphasis] man in America?” comment. “If as a black you did accomplish something, it is because you were not a black to start with. You were an African-American and have been one, all through.” African-Americans are “hard working, morally upright” and blacks are “lazy, morally defective”. The African-American hoi polloi is a dead species.
Prof. Gates thought of himself as African-American, whereas Sgt. Crowley had a picture of the good professor as a black. Hence the incidence.
Well, that is one strike against Mahatma Gandhi. He thought that creating a group of God’s own people, Harijans, is a step towards eventual unification of the privileged and disadvantaged groups. Not to be. At best it turned out to be more of a free salve for the conscience of the disturbed amongst the privileged (no costs imposed) and less generously, an instrument of divide and rule, through co-option. There was also an element of condescension and Ambedkar was quick to rise in opposition to this. When an untouchable becomes a Harijan, he stops being an untouchable because of his proximity to God. Yet, this can happen only to individuals. No groups can be benefited though the dis-benefits came in a collective. The systemic faults are not even recognized.
The Indian polity is trying to co-opt the African-American equivalent of the disadvantaged, merely to exclude the blacks of that group. Quite sad.
This is a crude lesson I got from Gatesgate in the US and over time I expect myself to refine it. If you are interested in helping me, please do.
Raghuram Ekambaram
Bibliography
1. Police arrest prominent black history scholar for breaking into own home – Ed Pilkington, www.guardian.co.uk, July 21, 2009
2. Harvard Professor Jailed; Officer Is Accused of Bias – Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, July 21, 2009
3. Harvard Scholar Won’t Be Charged – Katie Zezima and Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, July 22, 2009
4. Henry Louis Gates: Déjà vu All Over Again – Stanley Fish, The New York Times, July 24, 2009
5. President Obama, Professor Gates and the Cambridge Police – Brent Staples, The New York Times, July 24, 2009
6. Case Recalls Tightrope Blacks Walk With Police – Susan Saulny and Robbie Brown, The New York Times, July 24, 2009
7. As Officers Face Heated Words, Their Tactics Vary – Michael Wilson and Solomon Moore, The New York Times, July 25, 2009
8. Why Henry Louis Gates Should Sue – Randy Cohen, The New York Times, July 27, 2009
9. 2 Cambridge Worlds Collide in an Unlikely Meeting – Don van Natta and Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, July 27, 2009
10. Trouble brewing – www.economist.com, Aug.1, 2009
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