Richard Thompson Ford Articles

The Depressing Cycle of Racial Accusation

The arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. is about neither racial profiling nor playing the race card.

By Richard Thompson Ford

Slate.com, Thursday, July 23, 2009, at 3:31 PM ET

"... Last night even the president weighed in, saying police acted "stupidly" by arresting Gates. Strong words, but Obama in his typically diplomatic style was careful to say he couldn't tell what role race played in the incident. The president got it right: There's no plausible justification for the arrest. It was worse than stupid—it was abusive. And that raises the suspicion that it was racially motivated. But there's really no evidence that the police officer involved was a racist rather than a bully with a badge or a decent cop who made a bad call in the...

Show description from www.onpointradio.org :

Yesterday the Supreme Court handed down the most anticipated decision of its term, finding that white firefighters denied promotion in New Haven, Connecticut, were the victims of racial discrimination.

In doing so, the justices overturned a ruling joined by Federal appeals court judge, and high court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. That alone grabbed a lot of headlines.

But more profound are the questions raised about civil rights law and the future of affirmative action in the United States.

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