What black parents are still telling their children

Troy Daily News ^ | August 19, 2009 | Nat Hentoff

[IbJensen]

After the Obama-Gates-Crowley "beer summit" at the White House ended, Ronald Walter, a black longtime professor of politics at the University of Maryland, said: "Black parents are using this as a case in point of what they have been saying all along" to their children, "Racism hasn't gone away." Children, and especially black males, "are likely to confront it" from police. (Washington Post, July 30).

And on CNN, Colin Powell chimed in with his advice to black children: "When you're faced with an officer who is trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him. I was taught that as a child."

Moreover, when President Obama insisted that the situation surrounding the arrest of the Harvard professor was a "teachable moment," former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said: "He's actually right. It is teachable." And Giuliani, customarily brusque, told people, including professor Gates, across the land: "Here's the lesson ... shut up when a cop is asking you questions!" (Fox News, July 31).

Clearly, Mr. Giuliani remains unteachable on this subject. As I reported during his dramatic mayoral career, none of his predecessors since 1958 (when I began covering City Hall) had so alienated black New Yorkers by urging his police to engage in large-scale stop-and-frisks of predominately black residents without charging them with a crime. For a time, he also refused to meet with black leaders.

As for blacks' encounters with police nationally, in 1995, Henry Louis Gates Jr. (before he became a household name) wrote in the Oct. 23 New Yorker magazine: "It's a commonplace that white folks trust the police and black folks don't. Whites recognize this in the abstract, but they're continually surprised at the depth of black wariness. They shouldn't be."

Apparently, Cambridge, Mass., police sergeant James Crowley missed that issue of The New Yorker.

In the same article, Gates added that "blacks - in particular black men - swap their experiences of police encounters like war stories." Almost as soon I got to know and hang out with black jazz musicians decades ago, I heard a lot of those war stories.

I hope, but am skeptical, that a lasting result of Gates' manacling will be the gradual decline in the number of these war stories. In all the continued coverage across the nation of the Gates bust, the one story that gave some substance to my hope appeared in the July 26 issue of the Long Island newspaper, Newsday: "Nassau, Suffolk cite training against racial profiling."

Reporters Zachary Dowdy and Rocco Parascandola told of how the "Nassau and Suffolk police departments said they aggressively work to avoid racial profiling through a medley of training programs and updates for officers."

In Nassau, along with 30 hours of training on cultural diversity in the police academy, a much more enduring practice is "data collection program that requires officers to note the race and ethnicity of motorists they stop on the road."

Detective Lt. Kevin Smith adds that this data is periodically studied to determine if the police department engages in racial profiling.

Furthermore - and I hope other police departments will take notice - Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy told Newsday: "Last year, for the first time, we completed a pilot program where we collected statistics to help identify a baseline for traffic stops and to red-flag officers who differed significantly from peers when making these stops."

What then? "We shared," said Levy, "these data with individuals who were above the norm, sought an explanation, and then possibly referred those individuals for additional training."

This postgraduate education for police officers, if extended nationally and to police on the streets as well, could eventually lead to fewer war stories among black males about the humiliation, and worse, of "Driving While Black."

[IbJensen]

Same situation exists in airports. These ‘screeners’ are out of control!

[IbJensen]

You’re right. I usually don’t forget that. This one is a ‘Gag Me With A Fork’ category!

[IbJensen]

I have never treated a person of any color any different than any one else.

Same here for my entire life.

These African voters enjoy the Democrat plantation and their votes insure the continued success of the socialist, evil party of death.

[IbJensen]

He’s a leftie who I believe writes for the evil Hustler rag.

[Clemenza]

Anyone who thinks Rudy is pro-abortion, pro-homo and anti-guns is a fool.

Actually, the Deb, YOU have proven the fool by saying this. Rudy's pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-illegal, anti-gun stance has been well documented. It only takes a google search to find these, and was well know to ANYONE who lived under G's rule. The man even lived with two gay men after he divorced Donna.

There is an old Yiddish saying that it is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought an idiot, than to open one's mouth and prove it. You, my dear, have taken the latter option.

[BlueNgold]

Apparently, Cambridge, Mass., police sergeant James Crowley missed that issue of The New Yorker.

The author, in his snarky derision of the good Sgt, ignores (or missed) the fact that he was and is an instructor for other officers on how to deal with racially charged situations and how to avoid profiling. Of course, when the facts don't fit the agenda, why bother including them...

[Deb]

Your Yiddish saying has taken on the cloak of hackneyed cliche, it's so over-used. So you can retire it and try to be a little more creative.

Because he had friends who were gay or because he dressed in drag as a gag means nothing. Give it a rest. And it's not necessary to call your flying monkeys. I already know your group can't fight their battles alone. Coward.

[Clemenza]

Again, all it takes is a little research to see Rudy's long history of being pro-abortion, anti-gun, pro-gay, and pro-illegal immigrant (although he has changed his tune, slightly, on the last one).

Giussolini will be running for governor of my home state next year, most likely against Andrew Cuomo. We shall see if he has "changed," but I doubt it.

[latina4dubya]

Anyone who thinks Rudy is pro-abortion, pro-homo and anti-guns is a fool.

am i a fool to think he's just pro-abort? he really is... and he did admit to being anti- gun for New York City's purposes... so i would say he is at least selective anti-gun... perhaps he is merely a selective pro-abort... i like Rudy, btw, and would have voted for him over McCain, Huckabee and Romney...

[Clemenza]

Latina, don’t let Deb’s fetish for Greasy Rudy fool you (her LYING about Rudy’s positions should give you a clue). He has a LONG history of being bad on key issues. Rudy would be a DISASTER for the conservative movement. Sorry, but a statist, pseudoCatholic control freak from Lawn Guyland would be a mistake.

[Deb]

I've heard him explain it 1000 times. I even asked him myself and understand his thinking. All your protestations and arguments are swept away by his declaration of his choice for Supreme Court which is "strict constructionist" with examples of Scalia and Thomas as his models.

But my comment was in response to the remark about Rudy's crime record, which no matter what you say about him, you have to admit he turned New York into a livable city and drove the Marxist media to convulsions of hate.

[Deb]

If you’re going to call me a liar, at least, have enough hair on your chest to do it directly to me. Again... COWARD.

[Deb]

He is not "pro-abort". You can't rely on statements from 1999 to make your point. He never did a single thing during his time as mayor to promote or condone abortions. Abortion clinics closed and adoption agencies thrived under him. He was constantly encouraging teen mothers to consider adoption. Also something you can google.

That said, he wasn't my candidate, but I would have been hugely happy and confident to vote for him, even though I'm fanatically anti-abortion. I'm also fanatically anti-terrorist and anti-Democrat. He would have done us proud.

[Clemenza]

A few vague statements about "strict constructionists" does nothing to change Rudy's record and continual reiteration of liberal social policies. He is a Euro-style statist who is culturally impervious it seems to AMERICAN-style libertarianism/conservatism. Nixon made similar statements, but remained a "moderate" during his period in the white house.

I don't care for Sarah Palin, but she is way beyond Rudy's learning curve about constitutional issues. Keep Greasy Rudy in New York where he belongs (I can always request another table when he sits near me in a restaurant).

[wintertime]

Very cute!

[SoldierDad]

Indeed. Too bad liberals can’t take the advice of people like Bill Cosby or Chris Rock (even though his was “tongue-in-cheek). Despite their popular belief, most cacausians are not even thinking “race” when it comes to day-to-day activities.

[Liz]

Among Rudy's huge liabilities is his personal life. Rudy's love life reads like a sordid tale from an X-rated paperback romance novel. Mayor Rudy, while a married man and father of two, got involved with his third and present wife, escorting her publicly, and insisted his lover move into Gracie Mansion while he was still married.

As for party loyalty, forget it. Rudy endorsed a radical liberal Democrat--Mario Cuomo--over Cuomo's Repub opponent--who won.

Most egregiously, Rudy looked the other way when his patronage appointee Russell Harding --Liberal Party's Ray Harding's son, now in jail for government fraud----was stealing from the city's Housing Development Corp. and enjoying kiddie porn and gay vacations with his gay pals on the taxpayers dime.

Rudy would hunt down every gun, of every type, in every household in the USA and melt them down into scrap metal. Rudy doesn't need a gun. Like all rich liberals, he's got armed guards to protect him.

Rudy's vulnerability is his close relationship with Bernard Kerik. Perhaps Rudy ought to tell voters how he plans to use his failed HomeLandSec appointee Bernie Kerik's personal, business and political expertise to help him win public office--Kerik was indicted and prosecuted for lying to the White House---wonder who helped him do that? ---poster laughs uproariously).

Rudy's undisguised worship of liberals surfaced when Rudy appointed two of Liberal Party head Ray Harding's sons to top jobs in his administration.

Disgustingly, Rudy looked the other way when perverted psycho child molester Russell Harding was looting and stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars (that we know of) as the NYC Housing Development Corp head. Greedy lowlife perv Harding even gave himself raises and benefits that were not in his pay package.

Harding was caught online enjoying kiddie porn web sites and he took gay vacations on the taxpayers dime, paying for his "buff buddies" trips with tax funds.

When the issue became public, Rudy was still pandering to and fellating liberals, saying " I feel bad for the Harding family." Rudy, as usual, gave conservative Republicans the shaft.Watching Giuliani navigate politics is like watching a horror film festival.....he's got more sequels than Bela Lugosi. Drive a stake into his political aspirations and he rises from the dead, and climbs out of his coffin to wreak havoc on our political process. 2008 Giuliani spent $64M and got one delegate (that he shared).

Rooty's got the resilience of Count Dracula and the resume of a calculating conman. He porked his mistress on the taxpayers' dime then hid the theft in obscure city agencies.

His secrecy about his multiple global businesses also served to sink his candidacy.

Even more alarming, Giuliani is the lapdog of the Endless War Hopefuls---the (gag) pukeneos w/ multiple trillion-dollar US war budgets dancing in their fool heads. The Kristol/Podhoretz Crime Family should be deported NOW. They are sucking up to Obama as we type----since the Jan 2008 power shift.

The neotermites scatter to wherever the Beltway winds are blowing. The neocon traffic under Obama's desk is getting fierce---OTOH, Obama's sex life is improving (/snic). Keep in mind----Obama's closest advisors-----COS Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton----reflect an ironclad, single issue neocon orientation (even though none of these individuals are actually card-carrying neocons).

Rudy's only hope.

" P-l-e-a-s-e make me sound conservative."

"My stupid 2008 advisors told me I didn't need those redneck gun nuts and
those dumb pro-life Christian conservatives to make a primary showing."

" They're killing me on FR just b/c I dumped my wife for my mistress, don't talk
to my kids, was honored by NARAL, donated to Planned Parenthood, marched
for gay rights under the NAMBLA banner, appointed gays and pedophiles
to top city jobs, and provided a sanctuary city for illegals."

[RipSawyer]

If the percentage of crimes committed by white males were only EQUAL to their percentage of the population Jesse and Al and all the rest would be calling for the total extermination of the white devils.

[RipSawyer]

If he is black I am purple. He is ninety plus percent caucasian at minimum.

[GladesGuru]

That video should be required in schools.