President Obama's First Test Case on Race

Just as I thought it would be, race or race issues could and would become a thorn in the side of U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration. Just early into the White House, one such incident already threatens to blow over involving the inappropriate arrest of an African-American Harvard University professor on July 16, mistaken for breaking into his own house after being locked out upon arriving from a foreign trip.

It could have been just another simple and routine police miscalculation except that Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. had accused the arresting officers for mistreating him on the ground that he was black. Of course, Cambridge, Mass. Police authorities had seriously denied this and contended even that the professor was eventually arrested for disorderly conduct, being unruly and uncooperative in the ensuing police proceedings. (Incidentally, Professor Gates, Jr. is the author of a book on the American race issue "America Behind The Color Line", Warner Books, 2004)

And then President Obama made the sparkling remark about how “stupid” were the police officers in making the arrest and it should not have happened in the first place. Of course, he most recently backtracked and apologized for this rather pedantic remark—- It’s all over the news today.

What I think is that President Obama should not have said that remark and should have sounded diplomatic all throughout, considering that he is a black president about to comment on an issue concerning race and race profiling.

He should realize that he was elected not because he was black but because he was keen and articulate (that’s what all those who voted for him had said).

Race issues are potential firestorms that unkindly remarks could unnecessarily inflamed what could be patently controllable situation, like this Cambridge case of simple mistaken arrest. Or we should be reminded how the Rodney King issue had caught so much wind that it pervaded into the racial psyche of the American nation.

Remember, President Obama is not there just for the African-Americans merely, he is the president of all American people in the first place. He should be erudite on these matters and act highly unbiased in controversial issues involving race.

And it is not merely enough that he should feel and act so neutral, but he should look so strictly unbiased in the public eye.