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When Harvard Professor Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr. can be arrested for just trying to get into his own Cambridge, Mass., home, it drives home how little has changed for the average black man in the six months of Obama.
Gates is arguably the nation’s pre-eminent African American scholar as director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at the country’s oldest and most prestigious university, yet on a recent evening he was just another profiled brother in an affluent neighborhood.
Obviously, it truly is a watershed moment in the country’s history to have elected a black president. That is undeniable. Obviously, we would much rather have a president named Barack Hussein Obama and all that means from a symbolic and psychological perspective. But when it comes to everyday life on the street and what impact President Obama’s election has had on brothers across the country, the answer is clearly, “not much.” –sly
For example:
1. We still fit the racial profile. Once we take off the suits and get casual, we become just another potential threat when we enter certain neighborhoods.
2. We still can’t enjoy all public accommodations without undue scrutiny. Ask those little kids in Philly about this point.
3. We still are more likely to take a bullet from those sworn to protect and serve us.
4. We still are more likely to take a bullet from someone who looks like us (that’s on us!).
5. We still have shorter life expectancies than women (black or white) and white men — even when numbers 3 and 4 aren’t factored in — because of limited access to adequate health care.
